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IAN SPELLING
NYT Syndicate
According to Peter Serafinowicz, his name is a noun that's pronounced sair-uh-FIN-no-itch, and he considers himself a British actor/writer/director/comedian/musician/voice artist/Twitterer.
"I suppose they're all things I enjoy doing, and I like to keep my life interesting," the multihyphenate said."Part of doing so much has to do with being an actor, because I love it, but to make a living just from acting is really hard to do. And it can be frustrating, because you're waiting for the phone to ring.
"There's very little that you can do if your agent hasn't called you for a year, you know?" he said."So I've always wanted to generate my own stuff. I'm creative and I'm a writer, and I try to create what I can.
"I was also diagnosed as having ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder now known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD) about five years ago, pretty late in life, really," Serafinowicz added."That, I think, explained a lot about that particular aspect of my personality, my wanting and needing to do so much."
Serafinowicz who probably is best known for acting in Shaun of the Dead (2004), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Spy (2015), voicing Darth Maul for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) and creating the 'Sassy Trump' YouTube videos ” stopped in his tracks when asked which of his many hats he wears most comfortably. He seemed surprised by his own reply.
"The one I feel I'm most proficient at is doing voicework, sitting behind a microphone and coming up with voices," Serafinowicz said."I feel like, 'That's my expertise, right? I can do that.' Not by any means am I saying that I'm incredible or the best ever, or whatever, but just that that's the one I feel most confident doing.
"I know my abilities," he said."I know my limits and the things I can and can't do, but I'm pretty good. And I don't know if you know my 'Sassy Trump' videos, but I'm also pretty great at lip syncing. I've got a knack for it, a skill.
"And I know you didn't ask me," the actor added,"but the one that scares me the most is writing, because I just find it so hard, and I think that's linked to my ADD as well, though I've found it a little easier since I've recognised this thing in me. But that's not unusual, really, because, even though it's a generalisation, I think all writers hate writing and will do anything they can to avoid actually sitting down and writing."
For all that, oddly enough, the 45-year-old Serafinowicz was on the telephone one July day to talk about his latest acting project, 'The Tick'.
The story follows Arthur (Griffin Newman), a mild-mannered, somewhat-obsessive accountant who believes that the supposedly long-dead villain dubbed the Terror (Jackie Earle Haley) is alive and out to do more harm in his beloved hometown, the City, where superheroes are a dime a dozen. Into Arthur's life much to his dismay ” comes the Tick (Serafinowicz), a big, strong, apparently unkillable, verbally dexterous superhero in a bright-blue tick costume.
Now, talk to some people and they consider the source material Ben Edlund's comic-book series, which debuted in 1988 a beloved treasure that they can't get enough of. Chat with other folks, and they think it's the stupidest concept ... ever. Talk to a few more people, and, well, they've never even heard of it.
It was, truth be told, barely on Serafinowicz's radar.
"I'd maybe owned one issue of this thing," the actor admitted."So I was not, like, a real fan of The Tick. Once I realised what it was, after getting some of the scripts, speaking to Ben, reading the comics and finding out a bit about it, I realised, 'Wow, this is a very different thing than the thing I thought it was, with my very vague knowledge.'
"I had bought the one comic, right? I bought it for some reason, but I thought it was a silly, very superficial superhero-parody comic," he recalled,"and I hadn't thought it was this piece of unique, literary genius and this imaginative colossus. But the more I learned and the more I read, Ben, this guy who's almost from another planet, uses language and imagery that I've never known anybody else to use.
"So I was like, 'Wow, this is truly sophisticated and also incredibly funny,' and it's my sense of humour," Serafinowicz continued."So it's very odd that it didn't cross my path sooner, and very odd that I'd never seen the earlier show (2001-2002) with Patrick Warburton or the cartoon (1994).
"But when this came together and I truly understood what it was, I said, 'Yes, I'd love to play this character and thank you, Ben, for entrusting me with your life's work.'"
Fans know that, while the Tick is huge, sweet, blue and well-meaning, he's also a bit daft and rudderless. In a way, he needs Arthur as much as Arthur needs him. And for every golden bit of wisdom he shares for example,"I'm the you you always wanted to be" he'll mangle clich`s, a la"You're as alive as a daisy," when he means to say,"You're fresh as a daisy."
"I love that line," Serafinowicz said."It's such a funny thing to say, 'as alive as a daisy.' He's got it wrong, but it's actually kind of a cool thing to say. So on the one hand he's very sophisticated and, on the other hand, he's got these old-fashioned superhero values and is a little outside the sphere of the normal human world, because he knows as much about a lot of things as a little 5-year-old would.
"And that's part of what tied it all together for me," he said. The Tick doesn't know why he wants to be with Arthur, but he knows that he's got to be with this guy and that they've got to get together and stop the Terror.
"It reminds me of being a kid and desperately wanting somebody to be your friend in school and them not being into it," Serafinowicz added."That yearning, I found it so touching. This character who's nigh invulnerable, who's this tank and unstoppable, is lonely and needs this friend and this friendship. He's got these twin driving forces: Be a superhero and protect people, and do it alongside this guy, Arthur, though he doesn't know why."
That"doesn't know why" part of the equation, Serafinowicz promised, will factor into the storytelling as 'The Tick' moves beyond the pilot. The character, much to the actor's relief and satisfaction, will grow and evolve.
"He can't be this idiot savant who is unchanging," Serafinowicz said."His character has to develop in some way for people to want to watch, and they thought of a really elegant way of doing it, which is that he realises he doesn't know where he came from and doesn't know why he's doing what he's doing. Once he makes that realisation, that self-realisation, he has his own journey, his introspective journey of, 'Who am I? Why am I here?'
"I think we can all relate to that," Serafinowicz said,"and I think that's why many people will really appreciate this show. It's funny, very funny, I think, but there's more than just that going on."
