Rob Brydon says he 'doesn't get the respect' in rare career insight
Gavin and Stacey star Rob Brydon has spoken frankly about his career in recent years, talking about the sorts of roles he'd hope he'd land compared with those he did
Rob Brydon has commented on how he thinks he is viewed
Gavin and Stacey star Rob Brydon has said that he sometimes doesn't get the respect other actors get due to his crossover between presenting and acting work. Speaking about his career just a few months after turning 60, Rob reflected on how fortunate he feels to still be getting roles in his sixth decade.
He told the Telegraph: 'I'm very lucky, I'm 60 and people are still asking me to do things. I like doing lots of different things.
'The downside of that is you don't get the respect that somebody who focuses on one thing [gets], because one minute I'm hosting, the next I'm acting.'
Rob's reflections on his career come ahead of filming about to commence on the next series of The Trip, one which sees him and Steve Coogan travel go on road trips in different countries, visiting restaurants along the way.
Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the programme has developed an avid following over the years, and it was the director who was the one who convinced Rob to do a fifth series.
Rob Brydon has often been described as a national treasure
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When asked why he was doing another now, Rob replied: "Because Michael Winterbottom 'Let's do another one,'. We just turn up.'
This isn't the first time Rob has touched on his career in recent years. Last year, he talked to the Guardian about the Gavin and Stacey finale and his relationship with other long-running cast members including Ruth Jones.
However, he also touched on rumours that he had ambitions for serious roles such as Succession-type dramas.
Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan
In response, he said: 'I mean, who wouldn't want to have been in Succession? Watching it, I thought, my God, the wit of it.
'I'd love to be in something like this. But all actors would love to do something different to what they're known for, I think, which for me is a kind of warm-hearted naivety.
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'My problem is that I am not driven enough or hungry enough to make the effort. And, yes, maybe part of that is, oh, then I won't fail if I don't try.'
While Rob may not have appeared in Succession, he will appear in the latest series of The Trip. Due to be six episodes long, it will see Rob and Steve, 59, explore Northern Europe.
Speaking about the return of the series, Steve said: 'I'm delighted that Michael Winterbottom has managed to persuade me at the age of 59 to join Rob, aged 60, to squeeze the last few drops of comedy from a bottle that we both thought was pretty much empty.'
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While that might sound like a rather odd and disgusting approach, Knuth has been praised for pushing the boundaries of nature, beauty and process with his abstract pointillist paintings, which have been described as 'vibrant and seemingly luminescent' and 'incandescent [and] shimmering'. As well as being sticky work, it occasionally leads to run-ins with the law. After inviting the investigating Denver police officers inside the gallery, the effortlessly effervescent and excitable Knuth charmingly explained that rather than concealing a corpse, the flies were busy at work. 'I told them, 'I'm an artist. Hundreds of thousands of flies are making paintings for me. Some are escaping.' The cops quickly echoed the usual response Knuth gets for his work from critics and gallery visitors alike. 'They were so intrigued. They were like, 'This is amazing.' 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He would mix rattlesnake venom with paint, he painted coyote penis bones gold, and created gold leaf horseshoe crabs. Even he recognizes that he's chosen quite an unusual path. 'I remember thinking at one point, 'What the fuck am I doing? Why didn't I start painting nudes or get a muse?'' While struggling in high school, Knuth found his salvation in several art books at the library. Intrigued by the work of Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns in particular, Knuth started to regularly visit the variety of art museums across Minneapolis. 'There's a tremendous art community there that fed my curiosity. That's really where I discovered art.' Knuth then attended the University Of Minnesota, where he got a BFA in art, and worked under Mark Dion – a conceptual artist renowned for mixing art and science. 'He was my mentor. He showed me you can be really smart and an intellectual troublemaker, plus go out and drink beer and make a living as an international artist.' Knuth was first struck by the idea to work with flies in the buildup to the 2003 Iraq war. After reading that flies had been responsible for more human suffering than all wars, because of how they have spread malaria and numerous other diseases, Knuth initially wanted to create an anti-war piece by tying paper airplanes on to house flies to make his 'own little biological warfare air force'. As he explored this option, he noticed that flyspeck looked like little spots of paint. In 2005, Knuth continued his experimentation by feeding flies McDonald's and Taco Bell. But the results were just brown paintings. 'They were cool conceptual objects. But not beautiful artworks.' He also didn't have enough money to buy the number of flies he required to fulfill his vision. Then in 2013, Knuth was approached by the Museum Of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles to do a 'big production' of his fly paintings. The resulting video went viral. 'That moment made my career. 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The Hot Garden is on show at Hollis Taggart at 109 Norfolk Street in New York, New York until 16 August
