From Tutti Frutti to James Bond via Cracker,
Robbie Coltrane has been casting spells on film
and TV audiences for some time. Now in a hairier
role as Hagrid, he's on course for Hollywood
big time.
From Hell, a film about Jack
The Ripper in which he co-stars with Johnny
Depp, is currently No.1 at the American box
office, and the Harry Potter movie
-- in which he appears as the huge and hairy
Hagrid -- opens on an unprecedented number of
screens. That goes for Britain too, where the
film will be released in 1000 prints, nearly
300 more than previous record holder Toy
Story 2.
Coltrane is taking giant steps.
Coltrane, who is 51, he has made 59 films and
won three best actor Baftas, but all the recognition
he has had so far is nothing compared to the
attention that being in Harry Potter
will bring
The truth is that Coltrane is already highly
thought of in America.
His route to acting success has been unorthodox.
At school he had wanted to be a lorry (not a
lorry driver, just a lorry). Later he thought
about joining the police but wasn't comfortable
with the idea of being an authority figure.
He considered going to drama school but ended
up at Glasgow School of Art in 1968, which must
have been a pretty good year to go schlepping
up and down Sauchiehall Street with paint on
your flares.
He comes from Rutherglen, he's the son of a
pianist and a GP and went to the exclusive Perthshire
school Glenalmond.
Filming has already begun on the second Harry
Potter film, Chamber Of Secrets,
and he co-stars with Dan Aykroyd in the forthcoming
On The Nose, 'an old fashioned
Ealing comedy type thing that we made for thruppence'.
He is working with Scottish production company
Ideal World on a two-part ITV drama, The
Plan Man, in which he will play a corrupt
lawyer. Further off is a film which Coltrane
has written and plans to direct, a thriller
set in the west coast of Scotland. He's scouring
books about Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock
for ideas, but funding is a problem. He is holding
out for more than the million pounds he has
been offered to make the film. 'I don't want
to make a one million pound movie,' he says.
'I've got ambitious and pretentious things to
do.'
From Hell is out next year.
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