Nick Frost: The Adventures of Tintin
Tags: movie, Nick Frost, actor, The Adventures of Tintin, Tintin, Steven Spielberg
Whenever Nick Frost and Simon Pegg get together, funny stuff happens. Some of their best work has been under the direction of Edgar Wright, as seen in Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Still on their own they make the magic happen, like in Paul, which they also co-wrote.
In The Adventures of Tintin, Frost and Pegg work under the tutelage of Steven Spielberg, so that’s not bad. The film is based on the Belgian comic books by Herge. They’re a big deal in Europe, but they’re perhaps best known in the US thanks to references in Spielberg’s own movies. The sprawling adventure of Raiders of the Lost Ark was compared to Tintin in reviews, sparking Spielberg’s interest in the original source from 30 years ago.
Normally it’s easy to tell Pegg and Frost apart. Pegg is blonde and Frost has dark hair – what did you think I was going to say? In Tintin they are virtually identical. They each play the Thompsons, a duo of inspectors who bumble their way through life, attempting to help Tintin (Jamie Bell). Since the film is shot with performance capture, Frost and Pegg look nothing like themselves.
Frost was in New York for the U.S. premiere of The Adventures of Tintin, which has already opened to huge box office success abroad. He got on the phone to talk about his work on the film, the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman, and his future collaborations with Pegg and Wright.
Suicide Girls: This interview is for Suicide Girls.
Nick Frost: Oh yeah, I know your work.
SG:
Are they your type of girls?
NF:
Yes, they are my type of girls. I love a glossy black fringe. Sorry, I should’ve said glossy black bangs.
SG:
Do you have a favorite Suicide Girl?
NF:
I don’t, I’m so sorry. Pale skin, black bangs, tattoos, it’s all good.
SG:
Can you tell the Thompsons apart?
NF:
Yes, it’s all in the moustache. My moustache flicks up at the bottom and Simon’s doesn’t.
SG:
What is your favorite Thompson Twins song?
NF:
I think “Doctor Doctor.”
SG:
Have you gotten that question a lot since you’ve played characters named Thompson?
NF:
No, that’s the first time.
SG:
Does the tone of Tintin suit your sense of humor?
NF:
Yeah, absolutely. I think Simon and I and Edgar, let’s use Paul as an example. I don’t think that’s a very slapsticky film but I love slapstick. I think it’s probably the basis certainly of most cinematic comedy. The starting point of comedy in the cinema was slapstick so I love it. I love the physical comedy. It makes a nice change from all the wordy clever shit.
SG:
Do you have any physical slapstick training?
NF:
I don’t know. I fall over a lot. I played a lot of rugby and I love falling over for comic effect. I try not to think about it and just get on with it.
SG:
Is there a little bit of immaturity in the comedy you like that has a place in Tintin?
NF:
Yeah, absolutely there is. I don’t think comedy necessarily has to be pages and pages of dialogue. I think a single look can often be just as funny or a burb.
SG:
Since you’ve done performance capture now, are you ready to be in Avatar 2?
NF:
Yeah, absolutely. I’m waiting for Mr. Cameron to call me. I’ve got my own motion capture suit so I’m ready to travel.
SG:
Is it nice to have a technology that allows you to not be you in a movie?
NF:
I think that technology exists anyway. I’ve been working on Snow White and we have some fantastic prosthetics on that film so I think that allows me to not be me either. There’s more than one way to do this but the technology is now something that we’re doing more and more of. This style of it anyway.
SG:
You’ve become a new dad in time for being in a kids movie.
NF:
Yeah, I have. He’s five and a half months old. I think this will be the first film, this and I’ve just done Ice Age as well, I think those two films will be the only ones that I’ll let him watch at this point from everything I’ve ever done. I don’t think Shaun of the Dead is really suitable for a young boy.
SG:
How are you making him laugh at five months old?
NF:
There’s lots of this noise “Goo goo!” There’s lots of sticking your head out from the side, making him laugh from jumping out behind the door and going “Goo goo!” He’s pretty cool. He’s finding his laugh and he’s mega cute.
SG:
When you were a kid, would you get in trouble for being a funny guy?
NF:
Yeah, it has got me in trouble, never being able to be serious. I’ve changed a lot now but when I was a younger man, certainly in school I was more interested in making people laugh than learning my times table.
SG:
Is there still a place for that or is there too much discipline and treatment for those tendencies in kids?
NF:
I think there’ll always be a place for that kind of hijinks and tomfoolery. I think it will be a sad world if it was sterilized out of us. I always think the best teachers are ones that promote that kind of learning through comedy. I think kids want to learn more if they’re entertained. It’s difficult for kids to sit still and take in a large amount of information if it’s not put in a way that they can understand it and comprehend it.
SG:
Have you started writing A World’s End yet?
NF:
Edgar and Simon, there’s kind of a little draft out there at the moment and we’re all planning on putting time aside hopefully next year to do it. Watch this space.
SG:
The draft you’ve seen, is it a good fit with Shaun and Fuzz?
NF:
Absolutely. It’s written by Edgar and Simon so it definitely has their stamp on it and I won’t say more than that, but it’s very exciting.
SG:
We’re just excited to see another one.
NF:
Yeah, we’re excited to make it as well. I can’t wait to get going and film it.
SG:
Are you going to jump in with a pass on the script?
NF:
I don’t know. I don’t know how we’re going to do it. We’re having meetings and stuff like that but I just want to get involved at any level. Whatever they want me to do I’m happy to do it.
SG:
Do you know what kind of character you’ll play?
NF:
I’m not saying anymore. Stop prodding.
SG:
Will you be writing anything else with just Simon?
NF:
Yeah, we have two ideas that are in the pipeline. Again I’m not going to say anything about them but these are things that we want to work together. We like working together but we also like doing other stuff. We have an idea. I think we’re going to try and sit down next year and write that again but that will be something very different. That won’t be me and Simon playing mates. I think we can try and completely change it up. That’s what we’ll try and do.
SG:
Speaking of other things, what kind of roles do you get to play in Snow White and the Huntsman?
NF:
I am a dwarf. I am a kind of grumpy, grumpy dwarf. It’s great. We wrapped the film Friday. We had a real, real good time just hanging out, listening to Ray [Winstone] and Ian McShane tell stories of the old country. It was a good time.
SG:
Were you a fairy tale fan growing up, and getting deeper into it as an adult?
NF:
I was interested in a child. I always had a vivid imagination so these kinds of fantasy worlds and these realms that didn’t exist were a nice outlet for that kind of imagination.
SG:
What do you think it is about this time right now that Snow White keeps popping up in different movies and TV shows?
NF:
I think it’s probably the 75th anniversary. It’s 75 years, isn’t it, since Snow White? I think that’s why.
SG:
Will that movie be appropriate to show your son?
NF:
Yes, I think it is. We’ve seen about 20 minutes of it on set and stuff. It has a very kind of Lord of the Rings [feel.] It’s dark, it’s gothic, there’s great battle scenes. Kristen Stewart’s performance so far that I’ve seen is fantastic too. On top of that you’ve got lovely big Chris Hemsworth. Let’s wait and see. I think there’s a lot of expectation on this film. Rupert Sanders who’s directing it, it’s his first feature that he’s directed. I think he’s done a cracking job.
SG:
How much did you and Simon geek out on the set of a movie with Steven Spielberg?
NF:
A lot. Well, you know what, we geeked out inside or once we got back to the hotel for the evening. Then we’d geek out and we’d break it down and say, “God, that was amazing when Steven was talking about Close Encounters.” But I think if you were just to kind of geek out as a fanboy on set, you’d probably never get any work done. Also it changes the dynamic on set. I’ve been brought in as a performer and as an actor to interpret the script and to characterize Herge’s drawings so that’s what I’m there for primarily to do. But if in doing that I hear a wonderful story from Steven about Close Encounters then that is all the better.
SG:
Did he have any great stories about 1941?
NF:
Yeah, he did tell a few stories. I can’t really remember them all now.
SG:
But all films, not just the most famous ones.
NF:
Yeah, look. He is a storyteller first and foremost so it’s great just to sit and listen to him talk. It’s a real treat.
The Adventures of Tintin opens in the US on December 21.
The Adventures of Tintin opens in the US on December 21.
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