Entertainment
Harry Potter star Jim Broadbent’s favourite hobby is wonderfully wholesome-Larushka Ivan-Zadeh-Entertainment – Metro
We’d go to that exhibition.
Jim Broadbent discusses new projects, walking as alone time and being reintroduced to a new generation of viewers (Picture: REX/Getty)
You may know him as Professor Slughorn or Paddington’s Mr Gruber but now Jim Broadbent has brought Rachel Joyce’s charming bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry to the bigscreen. He talks about why he always walks alone and reveals his passion for sculpture and a certain kind of pie…
Tell us about your new movie.
A man called Harold hears that his friend is dying and feels impelled to walk more than 600 miles towards her. It’s just an instinctive emotional need to keep walking. The reason why reveals itself as he goes and there’s far more to it than just going to visit his former colleague who’s dying. That complexity is what keeps it interesting.
The book is a bestselling phenomenon. Why is this story so popular?
It’s really interesting, isn’t it? I don’t know. I think a journey is always intriguing. I love walking for that reason – you don’t quite know what’s around the corner.
You like a walk yourself?
Jim Broadbent stars as Harold in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Picture: Film 4/BFI)
I love it. I’ve always loved it. And I love walking on my own. I see great groups of people marching across a moor in their walking clothes and red socks and think ‘Oh, no!’ That’s not how I do it. I want to get away from people when I walk. It’s a sort of meditation, isn’t it?
What other hobbies do you enjoy?
I spend quite a lot of time in the country, in Lincolnshire, doing my share of the gardening. And I make bread – sort of. But my particular sort of artistic creativity is wood-carving and sculpting, which I love. It excites me. They’re not gargoyles, more caricatured figures about three-feet high. I’ve got to build up towards some sort of exhibition at some point.
Weren’t both your parents sculptors?
Yeah. My father did sort of abstract welded pieces. My mother was traditional, modelling clay portraits. Neither of them made a living out of it. They would have loved to, but it wasn’t possible. But it preoccupied them. And my brother, in his retirement, sculpts away as well. It’s interesting how we’ve both been drawn back to it in our later years. Something innate. And neither of us are doing anything like our parents did.
All male members of my family – apart from me – both sides of the family, are engineers or architects or something very practical. I’m probably the least practical, but I’ve learned a bit by osmosis, so I can put things together.
Do you have a junior fanbase from playing Slughorn in Harry Potter?
Jim says every generation rediscovers Harry Potter despite the series end in 2011 (Picture:
Oh yes, and that’s a regenerating junior fanbase – because Harry Potter was years ago but every generation rediscovers it. It’s great. And The Borrowers and Get Santa. And I’ll be coming back as Mr Gruber in Paddington 3.
It hasn’t started shooting yet but I think it’s going to happen. Those children’s films have much more of a life than other films, really. Because most films are as ephemeral as theatre now. They come and go and an awful lot never, ever, see the light – or rather the dark – of a cinema again.
More: Trending
What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?
The first movie Jim remembers seeing is The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye (Picture: LMPC via Getty)
I’m not entirely sure. I think it might have been Swiss Family Robinson. And the Danny Kaye film, The Court Jester, I remember that.
Do you collect anything?
Growing up I was completely hooked on Mad magazine. I had a huge pile of them but I don’t know where they’ve all gone.
Also, I’ve got a few little Bavarian or Austrian sort of touristy woodcarvings of people.
And I’ve got a lot of John Deere tractors, going back years now. Vintage ones.
A John Deere is an American tractor recognisable by its green body and yellow wheels. I don’t collect the actual tractors, by the way, I collect the models.
Not this kind of John Deere tractor… Models! (Picture: NCJ/Mirrorpix/Getty)
Do you watch the stuff you act in?
Oh yes, I always want to see what I’ve done. Not over and over again, though.
So, how much Game Of Thrones have you watched?
Let’s say I watched enough to know the genre. When I was offered the part in Game Of Thrones, they sent me the box set of everything previous, which is about 70 hours of screening. But fortunately my wife doesn’t like fantasy stuff, so I thought, ‘Well, I can’t give up 70 hours of shared viewing’. So that was that.
What are you working on next?
I’m doing a guest role in this Apple TV+ series called Trying, which is in its fourth season. So I’ve been catching up with that, because I didn’t know it. But it’s wonderful – really clever. It’s about a young couple played by Rafe Spall and Esther Smith who are trying to adopt, and it’s just brilliant. The writing is so, so clever. So funny.
What would your last supper be?
Last supper? A pork pie and a tomato, I think.
Jim Broadbent’s last supper (Picture: Getty)
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry is in cinemas now.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE : Paddington 3 to finally start filming this summer and honestly we’ve waited too long
Entertainment – MetroRead More
