Hello and. Welcome to the Brentwood Buzz, a
podcast celebrating all that's good about the people and places
of Brentwood, Essex. I'm Kay Bellwood.
A couple of weeks ago we heard from the local community actor
Bill Wells, about a Brentwood Theatre fundraiser with
international actor and director Stephen Moyer, who grew up in
Brentwood, and we talked to Stephen's mum Jean as well.
Last night was the night and Stephen kept her packed theatre
enthralled for two hours and then even had enough voice left
to talk to the Brentwood buzz. We're in Brentwood Theatre and
the star of the night is Stephen Moyer, who is a Brentwood boy.
And you're back for the for the evening, or for good.
Back for the evening, don't live in Brentwood.
We've moved in, we've moved back to Suffolk.
I've been in America for 20 years and I'm the patron of this
theatre and I have been for nearly 20 years.
And so it was really lovely to be asked to come back and I had
a window in my, in my schedule. So I was able to sort of give
Bill the heads up about a couple of months ago and just say this
is the day I can do. And so we, we managed to make it
work. And it's interesting because
there's so many faces in the crowd that I, that I know so
many, but also like that lovely gentleman who'd flown over from
Korea, I mean, extraordinary. And and a couple of other people
who have come quite a long way just to see me, which is very
nice and always unexpected. And it's nice that you learnt
your craft here. I'm going to say from being a a
boy starting at Saint Martin's actually, and and in a church
choir. There must be so many people
here that you just get that remember you and are so fond of
you. That's what came across from the
audience. Yeah, it's always amazing that
and and I was not sure who was going to be here.
It's, it's interesting because a lot of those people are quite
influential. There was, there's a gentleman
here who I saw play Billy Bigelow when I was like 12 or 13
who was a massive influence. We did pantomimes together.
His name's Patrick Tucker. We did pantomimes together and,
and it's really incredible. I looked up a couple of times
and I saw some faces. That was that I recognized and
that I couldn't put names to necessarily, but I knew who they
were. I was saying to Anna, Anna's my
wife and I was saying to Anna, just I went to see Chelmsford
young generation do West Side Story at the weekend and there
were all these old faces and, and, and I don't mean old in a
pejorative way, but but old faces.
I'm not saying that I'm a spring chicken, but it reminded me of
that scene in Cinema Paradiso where the director goes back to
the town that he's from and he sees the people who are the, all
of the, the, you know, that were the characters of his childhood.
And they're now white haired and, you know, maybe have a
walking stick and, and stuff. And it was a bit like that on
Saturday. It was so lovely to see all of
those people still volunteering, still going out there for the
young Gen. just as people do for the Brentwood Operatic Society,
for the Brentwood Theatre. You know lots of people doing
this because it's their love and it's great to see.
You've done films, you've done television, you've done theatre.
Would you come back and do anything?
Very, very small. At Brentwood at all at any
point? Never say never.
I, I, I, I honestly, you know, I've been waiting for the right
thing to come along. I do get off of the odd play
here and there and, and it's really about fitting it in.
And I've got young kids as well. So, you know, sometimes it's,
it's quite difficult to, to be away for a long time.
So who knows? Like once they get to the point
where they're self-sufficient and they don't want me around
anymore, which may be coming up sooner than I thought, then
yeah, who knows? And I suppose you could be the
old white haired person with a stick who people go, oh, do you
know when I saw him play Billy Bigelow or when I did something
that was the thing that made me want to be in the theatre.
And, and you could inspire people here now, but.
That's interesting, you know, because somebody came up to me
who was a first year or second year, who had remembered me
playing Lysander in Midsummer Night's Dream at school.
And it had been a very important part of his sort of childhood
and, and which was extraordinary to me that, that, that, that
would make a difference. But it does.
And, and, and I've got people like that.
And so it's not a, a weight that I carry lightly.
I, I, I, it's a responsibility and it, and it can be a lovely
one too. And.
I think a lot of people here today have said isn't he normal?
Isn't it lovely? You know and and you are.
I, I, I really, again, I'll, you know, I, I said this this
evening, but I, I, I'm so lucky to do what I get to do and I'm
so happy to be able to do it and to get paid for what I love
doing. And why would that make me any
different? I I'm so grateful, you know, and
so there are, I've worked with people who don't wear it like
that. A lot of people do.
And I wanna be one of those. I wanna be one of the doers.
Bill, you've interviewed Steven tonight.
You both went to the same school, perhaps slightly
different times, but you were at the same school.
St. Martin's obviously turns out
good actors 'cause you're not bad yourself.
Well, yeah, obviously it was a great school and we had a superb
drama teacher. Stuart Rose, who was a
professional, couldn't get work, came to Saint Martin's as our
drama teacher and he pushed us, pushed us, pushed us, pushed
into very look back in anger, arms on the man points, being
earnest. We did tough plays and we were
15 to 17 or whatever we were so and that was a good grounding
but unfortunately I didn't go any further.
I just went into local theatre. You're in everything locally.
Yeah, basically I shouldn't really.
Whenever, whenever anybody asks me about whether their kids
should become an actor or not, I always say, are they good at
anything else? And I don't mean that because I
don't believe that they can't do it.
But people like Bill, my friend Kevin who was here tonight,
Patrick who I was talking about earlier, have had very
successful working, business careers, life outside this.
And they do this as a community thing and they do it because
they love it. Not many actors get to go skiing
at in in you know in the winter or then also have a summer
holiday, also get to see their grandchildren or also play 3
different leads in a musical or in a play every single year.
Actors would bite your arm off for that if.
The thing I was going to say was somebody said to me about no, I
said what if I joined a queue of 50 actors for a Butler part and
I didn't get it, income, money to live on.
So I went into the bank, I got a regular income and now a good
pension and I still did acting in my own time.
So I got and got lead parts which I would never have got if
I if I'd gone. So I got the best of worlds in a
way and. And that is a bloody good life.
I could admire people like Steven.
I I sometimes see my mates who do it and I and I think, oh,
they're, they're just home. Haven't, you know, seeing,
seeing all the, there's a bunch of them here tonight.
It's, it's, it's lovely that they get to all have, they're
all friends with the people that I was friends with when I was
12, you know, still and it's lovely.
I think it's fantastic. And I just chose to do this, and
I've been lucky enough to be able to continue doing it.
What a fabulous evening at Brentwood Theatre last night
with Stephen Moyer. Huge congratulations to Bill
Wells and the Theatre Trustees for giving so many of Stephen's
fans, friends and family the chance to hear him tell some of
his hilarious and scandalous tales of being an actor.
Keep supporting Brentwood Theatre, it's a friendly place
and it's one of the town's gems. Oh, and do like and share the
Brentwood buzz.