How did you come to be involved with Mr Bean’s Holiday in the first place?
Willem Dafoe: You’d have to ask them! [Laughs] I never really know the truth about those sorts of things. I know Simon McBurney [co-writer]. I knew him from the theatre, I’d worked with him on a couple of movies and we were friends. He was involved at an early stage working with Richard Curtis, Rowan Atkinson and Steve Bendelack. I remember I was in London for something and I met him for a drink at his club and Steve just came by and they started talking about the movie. I said it sounded cool and I think that stuck in Steve’s head. He saw I responded to it and maybe they started thinking about incorporating me somehow. Q. What did you know about Bean? Willem Dafoe: Very little actually. I had great respect for Rowan when I saw Blackadder. I remember specifically I was shooting Tom & Viv and Miranda Richardson was turning me on to some good British comedy on TV. She was Queenie in the series, so I think she thought it was a good role for her. So she introduced me to it and I thought th
