claytoncast

So in an ideal world, this blog would tell you everything that I’m up to. Except that in a professional sense, I can’t tell you anything about what I’m doing, as I’m bound by the terms of an NDA. For the uninitiated, that’s an acronym for non disclosure agreement, an increasingly popular device that actors have to sign in the world of self taping so that nobody knows what they’re doing, sometimes not even the actors themselves.  I can throw all the preparations given at drama school about having to read the whole play in order to get a grip on character out of the window as they send us 6 to 8 pages to turn into a rounded performance.  We have to make our decisions on the character and on portrayal from the information available to us, which can be sparse in the extreme.  If it’s a self tape for a decent part with a couple of scenes, then it’s quite possible to build up a head of steam and characterisation. It can be more difficult when it’s two lines as “Drunken Lawyer”....

One of the greatest piazzas in the world is St Mark’s Square. I remember arriving there in a windswept motor launch from Venice airport on a cold March evening. The next morning we walked into a snow-covered square in bright sunshine, weather which revealed its full beauty. Last I have took refuge in St Mark’s Square. Alas, not the one in Venice, but the new St Mark’s Square complex which is  home to Bromley’s Premier Inn. With a busy week including read throughs of the television series and a hospital appointment, the last thing I needed on Sunday morning was Richard testing positive for Covid. Come to think of it, I think it was the last thing he needed as well. Having tested negative on the Friday and Saturday, I took another test which was also negative and decided that the only course of action to be taken was to seek refuge in the Premier. A few items flung into a suitcase and iPad and phone clutched in my bag, I set off for the delights of what many might consider to be...

 As far as my birthday is concerned, I have never been one for hiding my light under a bushel. "Oh I don't celebrate birthdays" one hears some people cry. I do. I most certainly do, and for anybody who wants to get involved, my 65th birthday will be celebrated next week on March 8.  Yes I will be becoming an OAP, but it won't lessen the fact that the birthday will be celebrated. There have been some great ones over the years.  An evening out with all my fellow members of the RSC on a nightclub boat called the Tuxedo Princess in Newcastle.  A quiz night in the Polish club in Balham.  Taking over half of Joe Allen's for a particularly recent milestone. All of them highly enjoyable occasions. And there have been holidays. Birthday holidays. A fabulous spa week in Saint Lucia, trips to New York, Venice, Bath, Istanbul, Dubai, and Rotherham  have all added a particular gloss to March 8. That's March 8, in case you hadn't managed to make a note of it yet. With R...

  So we’ve made it into February, which I always see as completing the first great hurdle of the year. My January has been hard. Much harder than I ever thought possible. A lot of personal introspection and hopefully reformation, and some fundamental changes to how I live my life. All on a very personal level, so not something to divulge here, but so many friends have come into their own as I have worked my way through the month Sometimes it’s easy to forget how long one has known someone, and there is nothing like a crisis to throw a long friendship into perspective. Their love for me, and their words of guidance have been an enormous wall of support for which I am immensely grateful. I accomplished the transition into February at a health spa. While I’m a big fan of a spa day, I’ve never done a full week’s detox course. So it was that last Sunday afternoon, Richard dropped me off in the wilds of Northamptonshire for just that very thing. We had lunch at the village pub just befor...

     Twenty five years ago this Christmas and I was giving my Alderman Fitz-Warren for the reopening of the Arts Theatre Cambridge. During this time, I met a young man who was part of the Stage crew team. Twenty five years later, he is still part of my life. He’s older, wiser, more successful, and is the person who has given me the best twenty five years of my life. We are planning a rather special celebration for the 23rd of December this year and we were planning to have it in a faraway location. Recent events over the last couple of days may have snatched that from us.  As an actor, loss of possibility and missed opportunity should be something I am well prepared for. It's not included in any drama school training. A few sessions in resilience might be of much more use than the afternoons spent trying to be a zoo animal. I'd prefer to be on a beach to celebrate such a special event, but if circumstances are to take that from us, then the way forward is gratitude f...

So, there have been several enigmatic blog posts during the year about a project that has kept me occupied since January and which only recently came to fruition.   Well now, I can tell you all.   Last week in Birmingham at the NEC, I was privileged to lead a team who staged the event "Together 2021” for McDonald's Uk and Ireland. An integral part of the event was the showing of a feature film “As Good As All Of Us” which we shot during the summer. My first foray behind the camera and a project which has brought me a great deal of joy throughout the year.   To see a film one has created in glowing colour on a screen the size of an Imax in front of an audience of nearly three thousand people is a wondrous thing. A little frightening and yet awe-inspiring. Mercifully, as director my face wasn’t raised to such great heights, but I had the pleasure of sitting with some actors in the piece who had never seen their features in such gigantic proportions.   And as well as th...

 So exactly 4 months to the day after the cameras rolled on the feature film project I've been working on this year, I sat in a rather wonderful cinema in a West End hotel with 40 or more of the cast and crew to watch the end results.  The film has already been approved by those who need to approve it, but sharing it with the people who made it is a special night. The role of director gave me a heightened insight to the contribution of everybody on a film set and I was as delighted to see boom operators, and make up artists as I was to see the wonderful guest stars and main cast who came along to share the evening. So often  cast and crew screenings are at 10 AM on a Sunday morning when one just has time for a quick coffee and a bacon roll after getting off the tube. The luxury of a screening at 7 PM on a Friday night in the centre of town after glasses of Prosecco and canapés was a real treat. And then to press the button and set the film rolling in front of those people...