Lenny
Henry
Recently our boss Andre, met up with Lenny Henry. Below is the interview.
A: You’ve carved a very nice niche for yourself in TV, and you’re obviously the most famous British comic/entertainer around. I saw you in Birmingham on tour and I was impressed how your comedy has matured. How do you see yourself 30 years on? Do you see yourself mainly as a comic?
L: I’m trying to get a message across to people because there are a lot of people out there who think I’m one thing but I’ve actually moved on from that. When I was 20 I was trying to please everyone. I was slightly immature so I had to develop on from the old characters like Algenon. When you’re around your family and friends, people you’ve met and people you know, you try to figure out what it is about that person that makes them unique so that you can see if it’s possible to mimic them to create new characters. Talking and learning from Tracy about what she was doing, made it easy for me to go my family and friends homes, and I started to pick up things and imitate people I knew from the community. It’s taken a long time for me to get to a technical point where I can express 4 or 5 different characters on stage –you have to go through a lot. It’s an acting thing as well.
A: I was reflecting while I was with you, and my impression that as a successful person you have to juggle so many things at once. The power of the artist is in his writing – his art is mirroring his life and at the same time the different characters and people you’ve met in your life, you bring them with you and share them with the audience, and through that there is something for all of us.
L: The characters in the show are people you meet in the street, and so the key is that through them it helps us to see how similar we are. I’m famous for doing big characters but in the last few years I’ve created slightly subtler characters – they’re like a transition for me. Acting is about letting go and the new characters are totally made up, they’re not real life like some of the characters I did a few years ago. I wanted to create new characters and new situations and so that’s what we did. I think this is one of the strongest shows I’ve ever done. I didn’t want it to be just a standard comedy show, with standard comedy in it.
A: You’re a family man with a daughter, and you’re a famous entertainer. How do you manage to balance all these things?
L: The balance comes from discussion really. My wife works as well and she’s very famous and very successful, so we’ve got help at home. Our daughter goes to a good school and Dawn and I take turns picking her up in the evening, from school. It’s difficult when you’re on tour because you can’t do that every day but on this tour I tried to go home every night even though it was a three or four hour drive home!
A: You have to force yourself to stop and do the other things.
L: I’ve got myself a road manager who drives me everywhere. This is a big change for me now and I don’t want to be staying away from home all the time. There were 6 nights that we couldn’t get home but the rest of the tour we went back every night. It’s hard work – you listen to music, I watch DVD’s on the computer, I’m doing my Open University degree, so I’ll listen to study material whilst I travel. I’m at Oxford tomorrow night and it’s my turn to take our daughter to school, so I’ll take her then crash out! It’s hard, but it can be done.
A: When I was at your show Lenny I saw that the audience were actually "laughing with you!"
L: Well you know, I had a FANTASTIC 80’s, I had a very difficult 90’s and now I feel like I’ve got to a point where – professionally – I can do what I want and I’ve got this blend of work intensity going on. I’m 46, and I’m looking forward to expressing it.
There are a lot of new black comics around that aren’t getting any exposure on TV, but they will and it’s time for me to do other things now. I’m still going to do telly for as long as I’m needed but for a long time I’ve wanted to do more acting and less of the other stuff – just because acting is a quantifiable thing. By expressing yourself as someone else and telling someone else’s story you feel a huge amount of dignity.
A: It’s very respectful the way you convey the characters to the audience. You don’t get a feeling that you’re mocking or mimicking them.
L: Well look at "The Godfathers" Don Corleone – we have a huge respect for those characters, but also we see their sensitivity and I think that’s what it’s all about. It’s about not being afraid of the character, and being willing to show their sensitivity and their vulnerability too, because characters aren’t just one thing.
Look at "Raging Bull's" Jake Lemotto – he was a jealous horrible bad ass guy, but he was a human being with a sense of humour.
A: Regarding your continuous campaign for Africa, how do you see the change coming? Is it from people like yourself just being aware and putting pressure on the politicians?
L: The sums of money we generate are a drop in the ocean compared to what would happen if the Governments released certain funds that they have.
A: Releasing Africa from debt mainly – how are you going to achieve that?
L: That’s what it’s about. It’s great having Bono as a big spokesman, Bob Geldoff and Richard Curtis and lots of celebrities, but it’s going to take the public – and not just the public here but from all over the world – to put pressure on our leaders to get this thing dropped. It’s the world working as one, and you know what? It’s the whole idea of global nobleness. Our neighbours are suffering, let’s release them from this thing so that they can get up from their knees and then when the whole world does that for Africa then they see something, because Africa is HUGE and BIG and potentially genius. It’s a genius place! We flew over Table Top Mountain with a helicopter and listen, there is so much potential in Africa that given the chance they could do anything. I know there’s corrupt people and I know there’s corrupt politicians but the ‘people’ want a chance.
