Ben Batt Interview - Streetcar named Desire

Ben Batt has never been off our screens in recent years with high profile roles in Shameless, Scott and Bailey and The Village. Originally from Wigan, the northern star is now preparing to take on the role of Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire at Manchester’s Royal Exchange opposite Maxine Peake.

Canal St Online caught up with Batt to see how things are going.

1.How are rehearsals going?
I always say that I don’t really know how rehearsals are going until they are closer in but I’d say they’re going really well. Sarah Frankcom is a brilliant director and we’ve been rehearsing for about two weeks. We should know more in two more weeks.

2. How is playing opposite Maxine Peake?
Maxine is a mate, we’ve worked together in The Village and there’s obviously the Shameless connection. She lives near to me and we drink in the same pub so it’s good to see the professional side of someone, it’s nice to explore that. With us already being mates we’ve got past that first getting to know each other phase that you have when you’re rehearsing something like this and got straight into it, along with the other cast.

3. Stanley was obviously made iconic by Marlon Brando, what are you bringing to it?
I’ve obviously watched the film but I’m trying not to reproduce what he did. Stanley is a complex character, he’s is in love with Stella and is constantly being put under pressure by Blanche and that makes him frustrated and it comes out in extreme things. I wanted to get away from playing him as some sort of matinee idol and look at the character and what drives him to do what he does.

4. Who are your acting heroes?
As you grow up your acting heroes change. When I was little I loved watching films with my Dad, actors like De Niro and Pacino and Brando and I thought they were real actors. But since leaving drama school, I’ve found working with people, that I’m inspired by their work and I want to learn as much as I can so people like Christopher Eccleston, I was lucky enough to meet him at a read through, we were both in The Accused, he was in episode one and I was in episode two and I met him at the read through and he’s a real acting hero of mine. I’m going to completely contradict myself because I’ve never worked with these people but I love anything by Sam Rockwell and I was really sad when Philip Seymour Hoffman died because I loved his work.

5. When you’re exploring a character like this, do you find it hard to leave it behind?
I do sometimes. It’s hard when we’re doing a scene and there is a lot of crying and emotion and then you leave. I find that when I’m doing a scene when he is being cocky that I’m swaggering down the street and I have to think to myself “Who do you think you are?”. It is different when you’re rehearsing for theatre, when you’re doing a TV shoot, you get the make up off and it’s such a long day that you find it easy to let it go on the drive home. With this role I’m cycling home so I’m managing to work it out on the way. I also make sure I go to the gym every morning and work it out.

6. What role would you absolutely love to play?
Definitely not Hamlet, I’ve been speaking to Maxine about that one and she made such a success of that and told me about all the work that went into it and I think I’d definitely avoid that.
One role I’d love to do is Astrov in Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. I’ve never done any Chekov, I always thought it was boring but I’ve been lucky enough to see some Chekov productions and that is a character I’d love to play
I’d also love to play Iago in Othello. I see a lot of similarities between him and Stanley so that would be good to play and explore after doing this.

7. What else have you been working on?
I played Spartacus in Barbarians Rising, that was brilliant fun getting to run around with swords and doing things like that.
I’ve also just finished a Mark Billingham adaptation with MyAnna Buring, who is a brilliant actress. It’s called In The Dark. We spent four months filming in the area like New Mills and all over the north before finishing off in Manchester city centre.

8. What is next for you?
Without sounding like Brad Pitt or anything I do have something that I might be doing but I’d prefer not to talk about it at the moment. It all comes down to dates and whether I can do it but it would mean two months filming in Prague. This play takes me up to the 15th October and if I do that, then it will be Christmas which is mad when you think that’s the year finished. I always go by holidays and I can’t believe summer is nearly over. I’m still sat here hoping for two more weeks of decent weather but I might be being optimistic there.

A Streetcar Named Desire opens on 8th September, for ticket information please visit www.royalexchange.co.uk
By Chris Park for Canal St Online

Published: 1-Sep-2016: (3875)