Stephen Fry
dukey: OK, here we go. Good evening (or good day) everybody, and welcome to the Douglas Adams Continuum VIP chat. We're very pleased to have actor, author and Douglas' friend, Stephen Fry with us tonight. Well, actually, "thrilled" more describes it. Stephen, a warm welcome, it's so nice of you to lend us an hour of your time.
Stephen Fry: No, no -- my pleasure, je vous assure ...
gonzoid: You've hosted documentaries for not only DNA but also Vivian Stanshall. Having done your part to bring "Stinkfoot" to fruition, would you ever try to bring it or any other of Stanshall's works to a wider audience via TV or a movie? Also, what's your favorite part of Rawlinson End?
Stephen Fry: Well, funnily enough I've been asked to tour with the Bonzos, but I'm not sure I can make the dates. Anything that propagates Sir Viv is good ny me ...(That picture of me appears to have been taken in the 1970s ..)
DarthBastard: I hear you have written an episode for the new Doctor Who. How did that come about and what can you tell us about the episode?
Stephen Fry: My favourite part in R. End is Old Scrotum the Wrinkled Retainer, btw
Stephen Fry: Ah, now, unfortunately, I've had to pull out of the Dr Who gig. Lack of time. I just couldn't find three minutes to string together. Barely enough time to go to the lavatory these days, let alone take on new projects. Sorry about that...
Stephen Fry: Russell T Davies has been most understanding...
Kevin Davies: Could you (would you) ever consider writing some new Hitchhiker adventures? Dirk Maggs doubts he ever would, but I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing one of you guys would have a go... one day? Pretty please?
Stephen Fry: Hmmm -- think it would be an act of lese majeste (forgive lack of accents) -- DNA was The Man and I'd feel odd about doing that. There has been talk of a Dirk Gently film, though...
Salom: Hello Stephen, I hope you're doing well. My question is about the hallowed institution known as Footlights. I know Douglas once said that the main reason he wanted to go to Cambridge was Footlights, so I was just curious about your thoughts on the subject. Do you think it's worth it?
Stephen Fry: Shalom, Salom -- Well, I have to admit I thought the prospect of my ever joining the F'lights very remote. I did "straight" plays, ie drama, for my first two years and only thru Emma Thompson's introducing me to Hugh did I think about Footlights at the end. Worth it? Definitely, would never have met Hugh otherwise, or gone into the business we call show.
anotherchancetosee: Has there been any talk with Hugh about getting you into an episode of "House" with some particularly virulent pox?
Stephen Fry: (Every generation believes that they've missed the boat Footlights wise)
Stephen Fry: Yes, anotherchancetosee, Hugh and I talk about it. couldn't make it last season, but maybe the upcoming season will see me in it. I like the idea of playing either an even nastier doctor than Hugh, or possibly a cleverer one who's nicer and really pisses him off. Won't try the accent though. Can't match Hugh there ... :-)
stejacorca: My question to the formidable Mr. Fry: I very much enjoyed "The Hippopotamus", is there any chance to encounter the lovely Ted Wallace in the future?
Stephen Fry: Gosh, how nice to hear that, stejacorca (what kind of handle is _that_?) -- Ted Wallace one of my favourite characters, I have to say. Have thought about reintroducing him to the world, but haven't quite worked out how ... feel that the world needs his kind of sensibility. Sceptical, rational, but poetic ....
james__: Do you miss working with Hugh Laurie? I know there are a lot of fans who'd love to see you two together again.
Stephen Fry: Miss it very much. Saw him over the weekend, for his birthday (he's back off to the USa in a couple of weeks) and we talk constantly of trying to do something when our several particular projects allow us time. Still best friends, still deeply suspicious of anyone who isn't us, if you know what I mean. My general view is that Hugh is the only person I know who doesn't talk bollocks.
Emilita: First I'd like to say I love everything you do. I wanted to thank you for being an amazing rep for the gay community and so on. It's nice to have celebrities comfortable with their sexuality. Do you have any advice for teenagers dealing with depression?
Stephen Fry: Well, I've just done a major documentary for the BBC on bipolar disorder, (which is Manic Depression by another name) -- it's a growing problem especially amongst the young: advice? See a doctor. See a doctor. Don't be fobbed off. There are drugs, there are courses of therapoy (espesh Cognitive Behavioural) and there are other things, diet and so on which can help. But don't be told that it's something you can walk off or work through on your own. I've seen enough (and experienced enough) to know that it's real and that it's a dangerous and dreadful condition. But it CAN be helped ...
Iain: Hello Stephen Who is the most interesting person you ever had in your Taxi? and who would you like to pick up one day?
Stephen Fry: I tend not to pick people up off the street, if you know what I mean, but I occasionally can't stop people jumping in if I've forgotten to engage central locking. Once had an enormously fat man who wanted to go to Pimlico and wouldn't take no for an answer. So I took him. He insisted on trying to pay me, so I told him to give it to charity. To this day he prolly thinks I'm mad. Otherwise, I take my friends if necessary. Once had Rowan Atkinson sitting in the front on a bean bag (taxis don't have front passenger seats) ...
SEP: How and when did you first meet Douglas? And what were your first impressions of him? Apart from 'tall' of course!
Stephen Fry: First met him when he asked Richard Curtis to invite me on his behalf to dinner. We became instant friends. We were the only 2 people we knew who had Macs. D bought the first in Europe, I bought the 2nd, or so I've always believed. in 1984. I instantly thought him someone I'd love to know more -- so cuiropus about everything, and so delighted by the acts of thinking and talking. "Playing gracefull with ideas" as Oscar Wilde put it ...
Stephen Fry: That word should have been "curious" btw...
anotherchancetosee: Hello Stephen. I really enjoyed your "Rescuing the Spectacled Bear" book, but being in the USA, I never got to see the TV special. Any chance that might be released on DVD someday, and do you have any more plans for similar trips?
Stephen Fry: Golly anotherchance -- not too sure. I am in discussions with Mark Carwardine about doing a TV series with your handle as its title. Using Douglas's audiobook version of ACTS as a guide for us as we investigate how the various species are doing nearly 20 years on. The Yangste River Dolphin now officially extinct, for example....
General Colon: Tell us more about the Dirk G project (or talk, as you called it)
SkymanDr: Holy Bananas! A Dirk Gently film? That would be truly awsome! Any rumours to tell us? Will you be involved?
Stephen Fry: Well Robbie Stamp, an old mucker of DNA's who ran Digital Village with him and exec prodded HHGG wants to make it as a movie and has tentatively asked if I would be interested in either playing Dirk or writing-directing or all three, or both or any permutation thereof.... Am currently rereading DG with this in mind....
gonzoid: Any chance of a "Peter's Friends" sequel? I always envisioned Carol having gone through so much plastic surgery, a la Roseanne, as to be completely unrecognizable. Perhaps she could be played by Scarlett Johansen. Also, did I blink and miss Richard Briers in that movie?
Stephen Fry: Why have you changed your handle, vicodindealer?
Stephen Fry: Ah Peter's Friends. I always get asked about that in France and Italy where it seemed to play especially well. Yes Dickie Briers was in it -- in the first scene as my father (whose death gives me the hosue in the later opening scenes). As for a sequel -- who knows? Just done a film with Kenneth Branagh though. V different. Mozart's Magic Flute (I translated it from German for him).
Tony: Hi Stephen. Is it true that you too are a Norwich City supporter (Up the Canaries!), and are you taking any interest in the World Cup?
Stephen Fry: Why do I always type house as "hosue"?
Stephen Fry: Yes, Tony, I am a Canaries fan. Delia lets me sit with her whenever I go, which is quite a treat, though I wasn't there for the infamous Mac City match where she went loopy. Just come from watching Tunisia/Saudi Arabia which had a terrible first half and a brilliant second. Just shows. Never give up. Ended in a two all draw.,.
gonzoid: What is your philosophy on life? Are we insignificant accidents on an insignificant accident? Or are we pre-planned humanoids with a universal empire just waiting for our complete gestation? Or none of the above?
Stephen Fry: Should be Man City not Mac City, btw
Stephen Fry: Gonzoid, I'm not a great one for predestination. I cannot but observe that those who believe in it always look twice before crossing the road. We're not more pre-planned, or if we are (as DNA often observed) the planners are themselves so stupid, capricious, willfull and mean that it comes to the same thing as chance and the malice of time and contingency....
oscarwilde: Hello Stephen, Im a big fan of yours. I was wondering if you would be writing another volume of your autobiography. Moab was brilliant, but we want more than the first 20 years!
Stephen Fry: Busy _living_ the next 20 years, OW. But I suppose I might one day. Trouble is, as soon as I pick up from where I left off it becomes showbiz biography, how nice and lovely and gorgeous everyone is and all that greasy stuff. Or it becomes a bitter act of betrayal and vituperative bitchiness, neither of which is very pleasing....
Stephen Fry: Glad you liked Moab, though. Thanks...
Choccster: As a member of this forum, I should really be asking you something Hitchhiker's related but oh well; Some years back there were talks of making a fifth Blackadder series. Were those just rumours or was it ever considered? Do you know if anything is planned for the future?
Stephen Fry: We sometimes talk of future B'Adder plotlines, the 60s, WWII, that sort of thing. But it never comes to much. A lot of feeling that we left it (discounting the milennium special) on such a high note that it would be a bad idea to go back. Chatted to Rowan at the w/end, he's doing a Bean movie in France and confided that he missed the joys of B'adder rehearsals and all that. But there's nothing worse than an overweight boxer past his prime lumbering into the ring past his sell by date. Best not risk it, eh?
svetlana: Hello Stephen and warmest greetings from Russia where your admirers are a legion. My question is this: being a writer yourself, have you ever read any book and went 'oh, I wish I wrote that!'?
Stephen Fry: Ben Elton wanted to do a B'Adder movie set in the Russian Revolution, with a Russian branch of the family ... he had some BRILLIANT ideas .. maybe that'll happen one day ...
Stephen Fry: There are lots of books, Svetlana, that I wish I'd written, Hitchhiker amongst them. Too many to mention really. How good to chat with someone from Russia. I get SUCH nice mail from Russian fans. I really must go there one day...xxx
AlohaJoe: Did you do any kind of preperation for doing the voice of the Guide? Or was it pretty much a walk in the park?
Stephen Fry: Well, I wouldn't say a walk in the park, AlohaJoe. I spent a fair time doing a "guide"track (confusing and ambiguous under the circumstances, but that's the generic name) which then we worked on again and again. It was hard not to imitate Peter Jones, whose fabulous tones were deep in my being. The director Garth was very encouraging though and I really enjoyed coming back and adding new bits as the editing and screenings demanded...
Appoggiatura: What was your favorite guide entry? Were there any that were not in the film that you would've enjoyed doing?
Stephen Fry: Well, I loved all the philosophy stuff -- the reason that the Babel Fish is proof of the nonexistence of God and so on. Also the planet where the biros go ... I can't remember which bits didn't make the final cut, cos we did so many versions. Often the wit of the guide had to be sacrificed to story, as is often the way with movies, curse them .,. :-(
Thrithwaite: Is QI the most fun you can have with your clothes on?
Stephen Fry: I do enjoy QI very much. It's quite tense beforehand as you never if the particular mix of guests is going to work. Half my concern is to calm down newcomers who are too convinced that it's all about being funny, whereas actually being interesting truly is the point. We record about two hours for each half hour show, so it's quite exhausting. We just finished a new series (Series D) which'll come out in Sept-Dec. You must all come along next year to Series E, your nice moderator can arrange it with my PA .... that's a serious invitation.... also, don't forget to visit the QI CLub, if you're near Oxford. It's in The Turl. A bookshop, restaurant, bar and club.
Sarah: Greetings from Florida, Stephen! Both you and Douglas Adams were early fans of the Macintosh computer. I've finally heard your formidable voice of reason, and a beautiful new MacBook should appear on my step any day now. I wonder, what kind of Mac are you currently using?
Stephen Fry: I'm writing my answers on one of three iMac Intel Core Duos I have. I also have two minis, two MacBookPros and a dual processor G5. And a G4 Powerbook. Oh, and a G5 iMac. And god knows what else. I love them all dearly. Just been playing with Parallels for the Intel based Macs. Seriously cool.... if I can use such a phrase. Good luck with your MacBookPro, you'll never regret it...
kimmy: It's completely overwhelming for me to type knowing that you, Stephen, might be reading it...Nonetheless, I'm trying. Jeeves and Wooster is one of my favorite things that you've done, and I read everything I got ahold of by Wodehouse after watching it. Did you ever think that too many liberties were taken with the adapting of the stories for TV?
Stephen Fry: Read EVERYTHING by the Master, kimmy! Especially the Psmith and the Blandings Castle stories if you haven't already. And the Mulliner books. There's no greater way of staying cheery than dipping into the great man. We did take liberties by making them for TV. There are three aspects: language, character and plot. Thre greatest of these is language with PGW, but that's the hardest to get across on screen, so we were more likely to achieve some accuracy with plot and character, with a suggestion of the language there too. But nothing can replace reading them...
Jitesh: Why do you hate The Da Vinci so much Stephen? You once called it arse gravy of the worst kind.
Stephen Fry: Well it's so badly written! Do you remember the first word of the damned thing? "Renowned" !!!! I mean how can you begin a book with that word? I just loathe all those book about the Holy Grail and Masons and Catholic conspiracies and all that botty-dribble. I mean, there's so much more that's interesting and exciting in art and in history. it plays to the worst and laziest in humanity, the desire to think the worst of the past and the desire to feel superior to it in some fatuous way. i could go on for ever. Grrrrr. Don't get me started. Oh, you have .... (sorry of you liked it, btw)
Kevin Davies: I saw you on stage in The Common Pursuit way, way back when... I remember that when another character punched your lights out I wanted to give you a great big hug. What (or who) could ever tempt you back to the West End - or perhaps Broadway?
Stephen Fry: Well, never say never, as they say. Glad you have happy memories of that play. I do too. At the moment I'm happy not being trapped in the repetitive cycle of plays -- 8 perfs a week. But you never know. Kevin Spacey has persuaded me to write the Old Vic panto for 2007 and I might JUST write a part for myself in it ... you never know ...
Cagliostro: My first exposure to you was as Lord Snot in the Young Ones. Other than Hugh, do you ever see any of them anymore, or have plans in the future to do anything else with them? I also want to state that it was a joy to see you in V for Vendetta.
Stephen Fry: I see a lot of Ben Elton, and I had a good chat with Ade Edmondson the other night, but I havent talked about any plans for working with them on comedies. Ben is one of my best friends, as it happens and I get very upset when people are nasty about him,l but I don't have any ideas about working with him. Again, I spose I should say, "you never know"
acetegan: I don't know if this sounds like a silly question, but as a writer, do you ever get writer's block, and if so, what do you do about it?
Stephen Fry: Oh do I ever! I don't know a writer that doesn't. I never had it as bad as Douglas, for whom writing was AGONY, but I do get it. My solution is to keep a diary and to write in it all my frustrations at not being able to write: "Dear Diary, Couldn't write a word today, I tried to do a scene in which ..." etc -- the act of writing about not being able to write sometimes helps. I've often sorted out problems by this kind of echo-chamber therapy...
dukey: Right, superb, that's it. Thanks for dropping in, folks! Stephen, many thanks for letting us invade your time. We're very honoured indeed, love and hugs! The final words are yours, if you like.
Stephen Fry: A real pleasure. Thanks so muchy for such charming and intelligent questions. Love to you all. And don't forget (those of you int he UK anyway) to come to QI recordings next year .... lots of love Stephen
Stephen Fry: Now I've coalesced and gone into a corner myself .... as a green message will shortly confirm.
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