The Happy Coupling
Coupling‘s Richard Coyle had an interesting first day on set with The Best Man — almost naked in a bath of milk and water, gasping for breath and surrounded by real-life paramedics.
“It was a pretty hardcore way to start the shoot. In the scene my character had slashed his wrists and was slipping in and out of consciousness.
“I felt really vulnerable, in a pair of skimpy trunks with real medics lifting me out of the bath and dealing with the situation exactly as they would if it were real,” explains Richard.
Richard’s character, Michael, is bound up in a obsessive friendship with old school friend Peter, played by Toby Stephens.
And it’s not the first time Richard has had a television wedding. “I got married in Lorna Doone too, but more interestingly in my first job after drama school I had to propose to Keeley Hawes, who plays my wife Kate in The Best Man. It was in a BBC drama called Wives and Daughters, I played a tragic, flaming red-haired geek called Mr. Cox but sadly Keeley turned me down.”
Spooks star Keeley says it was great to work with Richard again. “They’re not a sickly couple but you have to believe they would be completely happy together if it wasn’t for Michael’s crazy friend Peter.
“In fact, both Richard and Toby were so funny and brilliant to work with, I felt thoroughly spoilt. They are both exceptional and hilarious.”
“Some of the scenes in The Best Man are very melodramatic so we did try to have a few laughs to lighten things up. They say three’s a crowd but certainly not in this case.”
For The Coventry Evening Telegraph.
(Source: highbeam.com)