That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Ben Hardy talks Eastenders and the Marvel Universe

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

Marvel actor Ben Hardy chats to Gaby about all things joy. They discuss his incredibly varied career, how he got into acting and why he loves it so much. They also chat about Eastenders (Gaby has never missed an episode!) and the 'Dum Dum' moments! (Ben's first scene was a Dum Dum!) And there's a lot nattering about the things that bring happiness - which are often the simple things in life. You can see Gaby and Ben being a little silly over on her instagram(and you can follow Ben there too) We hope you enjoy the chat! If you do - please like, follow and subscribe (and if you feel like it, leave us a review) Plus - don't forget we have a YouTube channel now - where you can watch each episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Hardy, congratulations on unicorns. Thank you. Congratulations on love at first sight. I can't actually sit here and not talk about Pete Beale. Fair enough, fair enough. We have to doof, dof, dof, dof, dof. I've never missed an episode of EastEnders, and you were in EastEnders. So if we may, can we just a little bit of EastEnders?

Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. I've got a lot of love for that show. Do you know what? I have such respect for any actors or anyone who works on that show. because the amount of work that you have to put in, how on earth do you remember the lines? How do you hit your marks?

It's a vast machine, isn't it? I mean, yeah, when you think about how, you know, a film like normal feature films, two hours long, and maybe you'll spend like four months doing that, and then your standers, you've got two weeks to do the equivalent, probably more like one week, because they film them, they overlap. You probably already know this, but they overlap sort of the episodes.

So you're usually filming eight episodes at a time over the course of two weeks. How do you know where you are? How do you know who you are? It's confusing. Yeah, I like to think I'm fairly on it. But they do have a script supervisor to help with that. But, you know, most people know where they are, where they're coming from, what they're doing. But it's a lot.

But you learn a lot doing it. So you went up to drama school. And then suddenly you're in, I mean, I know you've done other things. You did other things as well when you were younger as well. But you're in the biggest show on television. And when you were in EastEnders, it was still doing many, many, many, many millions. You're thrust into the limelight with that show, aren't you? Yeah, it's funny because I remember being quite hopped up about it.

When I was saying to everyone there, I was like, I think I'm really going to like it. You know, people coming up to me out and I'm going to really like it. When you're in a soap or, I mean, someone like yourself, who's, you know, a face that's seen all the time, I think that's the most I've ever experienced that sort of fame, quote-unquote fame. I mean, they would talk about how Gary Oldman, his sister is in his standards, she's a big mo, right? You already know this as a super fan. Lovely. You know, how he ends up, you know, taking pictures of her for people, you know, all the time.

And I think it's because you're in someone's living room most nights, you know, there is a sense of sort of, I know this person, you know. And look, sometimes it's, it's so lovely when someone comes up to you. And you can tell they're just like a real big fan of the work and what you've done or the storyline or the character or the show. and they just want to show appreciation, that's amazing. I'm like, yeah, of course, you know, that's what you sign up for. And sometimes it's, you know, a bit more invasive. But it is, it is what it is. It's a, like I said, a massive machine.

Congratulations on it. But then leaving EastEnders and going into X-Men, I mean, hello. I mean, going from Albert Square to Hollywood. That's quite a leap. A mighty fine leap, but the leap. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was like, it was so, surreal. It was so surreal. Yeah, and I was so nervous. I was incredibly nervous. That's good. Nerves good, aren't they? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

But it was a lot. It was like, because even before you start filming, you know, you're getting fitted for a man-made superhero costume or super villain costume, all this stuff. I'm like, man, I really can't fuck this up, you know. And in fact, day one, I had the worst start to film in, because I was in this superhero costume, you know, that's all made to measure, a little zips. if you need to go to the toilet. But other than that, once you're in, you're in for like 12 hours or however long. And I was there and I just kind of like bent down and I managed to like tear the back of it around my bum.

But I was wearing like a jock strap. It's where a jock strap in those. And I was about to go on set and meet all these, you know, big Hollywood names that Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fasbender and James McAvoy, all these people. And I was just like, I cannot go on there with my bum showing. But then the first AD, you know, the guy that sort of, uh, make sure everyone is where they need to be, amongst other things, was kind of screaming for me over the radio, like,

where is this guy? Where is this guy? And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to look like a massive divo on day one. But I was like, I can't, I can't. And I had this wonderful costume woman who was sewing up my bum essentially, you know. She was sewing it up. Sowing it up frantically. She was like, you know, don't worry, don't worry. I make sure, you know, that was not French at all.

Anyway, don't judge my accents. Yeah, she was like, don't worry, don't worry. I'm, you know, I'm not going to let you go until we've got this sorted. you know, and then I just rocked up and I was very shy anyway and I was just like, they must think I'm the biggest diva. I've just turned up first film, first scene and I'm like 15 minutes late. Oh my God, I love that story. How was it though? After that, did you explain or did you just say, did you say anything? I don't think I even did. I think I was just too nervous and they were all so lovely and so welcoming and so friendly, but I was just a bit tongue-tied. I did

start to become more, you know, over the course of filming. I managed to open up, get up, come up Michelle a bit but I was just yeah I was very starstruck to be honest yeah well that's quite I like that you would just I'm an actor I'm going in and look at these people it's quite a line everyone's just a person isn't it but you know it's hard to really get your head around that you're a super you were a super villain you know that you were in a superhero film that's massive franchise that must play with your head in all the nicest possible ways that you go to bed and think my ass just fell out of my costume and I'm a super villain. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. It's so long ago now. I don't, you know, I'd love to do something

like that again. Would you? Yeah, I would. It's such good fun. And I'm actually a big fan of of the comic book movies myself. Okay, well, let's talk, let's talk about unicorns. I'm going to go back and talk about other stuff as well. It's a beautiful love story. It's not an everyday boy meets girl love story. There's nothing, it's not a rom-com. This is, it's very deep. it's very warm it's complicated as well isn't it it is but I also think it's it's a lot of fun you know

oh it is yes yes no no no no but it is I agree with everything you say like it is complex it is a cross-cultural romance it's almost a sort of modern day Romeo and Juliet dare I say but um you dare you can say that can I dare to say that yeah but it's also it's really fun and uplifting and my character Luke is

as a single dad he's car mechanic in working class Essex and he stumbles into a sort of party going on in the basement of an Indian restaurant and sees this beautiful woman, Aisha, Jason Patel's character, has a cheeky little snog with her. This is the first 10 minutes, so it's not massive spoilers. Yeah. As a cheeky little snog with her and then realizes that she's not a woman. She's, you know, whatever she wants to be, male by birth, I suppose. And then it's sort of, You know, that just completely throws him because for him in his community, in his world, to be gay or to be bisexual would be an absolute nightmare. And from then they sort of build a friendship and it kind of goes from there.

The friendship is really precious and it's lovely. Oh, I don't. Yeah. I mean, and Jason, I mean, you've met Jason. Oh, what a lovely guy. He's so lovely. He's so lovely. He's so funny.

And we just had a very natural chemistry early on. So it was easy that. You can't really force that. I've tried playing best friends with people before or lovers with people. And it doesn't, sometimes it's either going to work or it's not going to work. When it doesn't work, what do you do? Do you have to go into full acting mode? You just do your best, you know, but it is a bit like...

Oh, that's horrible. Yeah, it's just hard. It's hard to manufacture. Imagine someone else. I've done that before. Oh, really? Have you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I won't ask you what film or what show?

No, I won't. I wouldn't tell me out there. I wouldn't dare say. But you and Jason, the chemistry works. so fantastically well. And the script is really lovely. It's very relaxed. Does that make sense?

That's a funny thing to say about a script, but it just feels like it's you two. It's as if there's no script there. Yeah, yeah. That sounds really insulting to the script writer. No, no. And to be fair, and James Floyd, who, the writer, he would admit this as well.

But he very much says, like, he was very free about say whatever you want as long as it's, you know, within the context of the scene, basically. So he was very, free about that. It wasn't like, you know, say my lines exactly as they are. That being said, obviously a lot of it is his words that are in there, but there are some moments that might be improvisational or ad libs. But I think we managed to tread the line quite. I hate it when things get too improv-y. I always think with improv as long as it's geared towards, you know, what does my character

want in this scene? Or where is this scene going? What do I want? Where do I want to be? Then it works. But sometimes I think actors can get a little bit like so happy to be saying words that come out. their own mouth that they'll just talk about anything and they get obsessed with how natural it is because it's like, oh, this is so natural because I'm talking about like, I want a packet of crisps. Oh my God, I say that in real life. You know, I don't know. It's just a stupid example, but it's like it's got nothing to do with this thing. Or even in comedy sometimes, it's hilarious improv comedy, but sometimes it's not serving the purpose of the scene.

And it's just like going off on a tangent. So is this stuff that you learned? Because I know you went off to, you were at Central training to be an actor at Central. Was this stuff you learned or is this stuff that you've learned? since being in the profession? I'd say the latter. I learned things at drama school, but it was more focused on,

I don't know, acting. You went to drama school, you know. I don't know, those things I was just talking about was more like story, you know, what makes a film work. I don't know, and I think, yeah, I've learned more on the job. I mean, look, also I was at drama school for three years.

I've been working as an actor for 12, how old am I? 12 years, 13 years, something like that, you know, so obviously I'm going to have learned more. period of time but I do think you learn more by actually working. Everybody that I said I was talking to you, honestly, they all do this. They go, oh, love at first sight. Oh, love at first sight. Oh, love at first sight.

It's really, it's a lovely reaction. Yeah, it's so sweet. Two films out at the same time. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, I love how much people love that film. And I love that film, Love at First Sight. I think it's just such a sweet, charming, funny, heartwarming rom-com.

you know, and I love rom-coms. I absolutely love rom-coms. So do I. So do I. They're my go-to. Yeah. Notting Hills is probably in my top five. But yeah, so it's really sweet to get that reaction.

I get a lot of people saying they're like, oh, you made me cry and, you know, things like that. I'm like, I hope that they were happy tears or cathartic tears at least. But yeah, it's funny. Like, we never know how a film's going to turn out. And we shot that during, this was a long time ago. We shot it during, like, COVID, you know. Oh, did you do that then?

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it was funny enough time anyway. So I had no idea. end up, but it was received really well. No, it's really lovely. So for you as an actor, it's a weird old world. I chat to so many actors and actresses that I just find you never know when something is coming out.

You work on something like you say a few years ago. They're all coming out at the same time. You have to ride this really weird wave of you have the best job in the world when you're working. And when you're not working, it's the toughest. gig, but it's what you love. I mean, I can tell by the way you're talking about it, you love being an actor. You love your job. Yeah, I do. And yeah, I mean, there are negatives to it 100%. There are loads of positives. But yeah, I mean, I try and find a structure for myself

outside of work. So if I'm not working, I still feel like I'm, I have some productivity or some sort of like functionality to my day, you know. Oh, that's interesting. In what way? Well, the problem is I get too obsessed with things though so it's not necessarily that healthy sometimes I'll be like I'll start playing tennis and I'll be like now I need to play tennis four hours a day like train like a professional and I'm like what am I doing I'm 33 like and even if I'm rubbish anyway and I'm never going to go to Wimbledon but I like to see like progression or things you know so I like to like to play music like to piano and so I like to improve in some kind of way every single day which I don't know if that's healthy or not but it gives me a sense of satisfaction so you're learning something new and I think it's It's all about learning. Yes, that's a good word for a minute. So your music, how far do you want to go with the music? This is just for me. So you're not going to release anything?

No, no, no. Though he's saying that, me and a few friends are talking about starting a band, but that's for fun. Do it. I'm not trying to invade the music space. But yeah, I'd love the idea of doing live gigs. That'd be fun, even if it was in the pub. And singing? I'm trying to convince my mate, James Dryden, shout out here.

He's got an incredible voice. and he's incredibly charismatic. He'd be the perfect frontman, but he's a bit shy about it. So I'm trying to convince him to do it. Otherwise, I will do it. So you do sing? I can sing.

I'm not a singer. I'm not going to ask you to. I say, yeah. I'd say I'm not a singer, but I can sing. If that makes sense, like I did musicals in drama school. I was the lead in the musical at drama school. Which musical?

City of Angels, if you know that one. I love it. I love musicals. I obsessed with musicals. Okay. Yes, I was Stein in that. And I love singing. I love him to sing in the shower.

But I'm not a, bona fide singer. You do realize, though, some people will hear this now, oh, you know what? How about this musical? Would you do a musical in town? I always say, I would love to,

when I'm older, love to play Javert, but for like a few months, Max, which I know is impossible, but I would love to. You can't? You do it three months? Can you?

Bonnie Langford has gone in to be Madame Tanadi, and she's doing it, I think it's two months or three months. Oh, okay. Yeah? You know your musicals. Oh, I do.

How often do you go? As often as I possibly can. Okay. Now, I'm off to see a musical on Friday night. I don't, but I've got two daughters. I don't know where they get the love of acting a musical theatre from. Do they both sing? They love musicals.

They love them. They love them. Absolutely love them. Do you want to, you can do a bit of Les Mises. Come on. Absolutely not. Would you want to do... We see each other plane.

I'm too nervous now. You're blushing. I am actually blushing. I know. It's so funny. I've done musical. But yeah, I don't know. Well, hopefully we'll get to see you in Le Miers.

And I haven't done my vocal warm-ups, Gabby. Oh, that's what it is. So what's so interesting is, for any actor who's listening to this, there is a, if we're just going to briefly go back to EastEnders about the weird snobbing. You and I've spoken about this before and it really annoys me that there's this snobbery about soaps. I think that that, hopefully that myth can be busted because people shouldn't be like that. It's a huge gig that you're doing. And then you're going off, you know, you trained, you did a soap, you've learnt your craft,

you then went off to Hollywood, you do massive movies. It is there for the taking, but you have to put in the work. Yeah, 100%. And I think that, like I mentioned before, you have to make two hours of material a week, two hours of video a week. And what they do a fucking brilliant job. I think the hardest job is probably actually for the writers. because to keep those storylines going and to make quality writing and come up with two hours of material a week,

I think that's relentless. That's so hard. So I think it would be unfair to judge, I'm trying to think of an analogy for this, but I don't know, it's like if an artist was given a week to do a painting as opposed to an artist that's given six months to do a painting across all boards, you know, there's going to be perhaps a quality differential, you know. But that being said, doesn't mean that the creative is involved. If Picasso did a sketch for a couple of hours, it might not be as good as his, I don't even, I'm rubbish with art, it might not be as good as his most famous painting, do you know what I mean?

Yeah. But it doesn't mean that he's not a fantastic painter. That's a great analogy. Yeah. That is. Yeah. So Unicorns is available in cinemas and it's now available to stream as well, isn't it? It is.

Yeah, it's coming out on Netflix, which is very exciting. Yeah, it's very exciting. You know, hopefully we can reach a big audience, you know. I mean, everyone watches Netflix, don't they? You watch Netflix? Yes, I do, but I still love going to the cinema. So do I. I would prefer to always watch everything at the cinema.

Yeah, I mean, I thought I'm, I would, if I miss something, then I'll go to Netflix and watch it. But I think that your film will definitely work on Netflix as well. And it will get a different audience. It will get a, you know, a wider audience. But it's everybody should watch it. It's beautiful. And it's an absolute pleasure to spend time with you, Ben. Thank you, Gabby.

And you would Pete Beal. Oh, my. My goodness. Go on, tell me. Tell me, who's your favorite Peter Beal? No, no, no. You can be deadly honest. Be deadly honest.

Okay, I'll be completely honest. You could say like number one, number two. You could say, you know. But he's gone back. He's gone back. Oh, they have ever, no. He's back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Pete Beale is now Pete Beale again. Yes. No, my favorite Pete Bill ever. Ben Hardy. Oh, you're just saying that. It looks like I just dug for a compliment there. It's so embarrassing. Anyway, yeah, yeah.

Thank you. I'll take it. I'll take it. My first scene was adopted. Was it? Yeah. You're very first scene? Very first scene.

Is this a private party or can anyone join? Something like that. I say that line. So let's do again. Okay. Okay, you're now Pete Beale. Who can I be? You can be Lucy.

Lucy Beale. No, I can't be Lucy. Oh, because she's dead. She's dead. We're making up a scene. Okay, a new scene. I'm going to be the new landlady of the Queen Vic. Okay.

And you're walking in. You're now Pete Beale again. Okay. All these years later. Are we doing a whole new improvised scene, though? No, no, no. It's just you're walking in. And we're going to do do dof-diff.

Okay. Okay. Is this a private party or can anyone join? What are you doing back here? Duff, doff, doff. No, it's my, I'm the doff. You just had to steal a lie. No, I'm going to do the dof-do.

Fair enough. Fair enough. I'm never going to get a duff-diff. That's your dof-dof now. That's your duff-do. Why don't you go on the show? I bet they'd have you. No, thank you.

I like just interviewing them, that's fine.