was just a joy, an absolute joy - and to be
in London in 1967 to ‘70 seeing London
in that era - all that long hair and flares! I
was also quite fortunate because I got a
girlfriend in the second year and her dad
was a film producer - she had her own
flat in Bayswater so I moved in pretty
sharpish there and stayed there for two
years. It was like the transformation of
Brian Capron.
What was your first significant role?
Everything that happened stemmed from
drama school - and it’s the best way for
young actors these days, to go to a top
London drama school to get on, because
that is where the top agents go and
agents are so crucial I mean you can’t get
a good agent unless you get a good job
and you can’t get a good job unless you
get a good agent so that is the hardest
thing in the world.
Catch 22
It’s a horrendous profession, absolutely
horrendous, because so many people
want to do it. I think something like
12,000 people apply to drama school
each year and some schools accept less
12
than one per cent which is just ridiculous
and you need an enormous amount of
luck. Only about ten per cent of actors
earn more than £20,000 a year.
My best break came through a very close
friend of mine who I was at drama school
with. I did him a bit of a favour - he had
a baby with a girl at 19 and it was all a bit
of a nightmare but I let him move into the
flat that I was in at Bayswater. We worked
in the all-night Wimpy together which was
the only 24-hour place in those days in
Oxford Street. All the druggies used to
get in there and all the clubbers - it was a
crazy situation.
We were good friends and he did very
well first of all - his name’s Leon Vitali
and he did very well as an actor. He did a
film with Stanley Kubrick eventually and
became his right-hand man and then he
went to the other side of it and now he’s
a world authority on Stanley Kubrick. He
lives in LA and did a documentary on him
last year.
Anyway in 1970 I didn’t get a good agent
from drama school but I did get a job
Only about ten per cent
of actors earn more than
£20,000 a year.