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Peter Serafinowicz: ‘Having ADHD is like being a genius and a total idiot'
Peter Serafinowicz: ‘Having ADHD is like being a genius and a total idiot'

Telegraph

time28-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Telegraph

Peter Serafinowicz: ‘Having ADHD is like being a genius and a total idiot'

Peter Serafinowicz grew up in Liverpool, the eldest of three children. Starting off as an impressionist more than 30 years ago, he's had a varied career including voice-overs, video games, online shows, music videos, television, films and theatre. He starred in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Tick, South Park, John Wick: Chapter 2 and Parks and Recreation. Earlier this year, he was in the BBC series Amandaland and recently voiced one of the dragons, Spitelout, in How to Train Your Dragon. He lives in London and has two teenage children. Best childhood memory? I grew up in a comedy household, with lots of laughter, watching re-runs of Monty Python and Whose Line Is It Anyway? I remember sitting round the dining table reading from one of John Lennon's nonsensical books, In His Own Write, and A Spaniard in the Works, and just being unable to continue because we were laughing so hard. We three kids all work in comedy now – my sister, Helen, created Motherland and my brother, James, produced my sketch show, the comedy series Sick Note, and does Jack Whitehall's podcast. I think Helen's definitely the funniest out of us three. My biggest career hope is to get all three of us working together on the same project – that'd be really cool. We credit Mum for showing us the importance of a sense of humour in life. Best experience of your career? I'm lucky that I really love what I do and there's a lot of variety. I've been flat out for the past couple of years. I filmed The Gentlemen for Netflix, I've done two Brian Butterfield tours, toured around Europe with musician Brian Eno, and then I spent four months in Belfast filming the How to Train Your Dragon action remake, directed by the wonderful Dean DeBlois. That was one of the best experiences I've ever had. They built this entire Viking town, with a massive dragon arena, and we all had our houses in this Viking village. Both my kids came and visited me on set, and they absolutely loved it. Best (and worst) thing about having ADHD? Having ADHD is like being a genius and a total idiot. With the type of brain I have, it helps me be versatile and creative. I was diagnosed only in my early 40s and it's only more recently that I've realised just how severely it's affected my life. Some things I can do super well, and there are some really basic things that I find almost impossible, basic adulting tasks such as keeping track of bills, doing chores and keeping things organised and tidy around my place. Best inspiration? My mum. She's just incredible, so talented and creative. She taught machine knitting at night school, after giving us our dinner; 40 years later, she's still doing costume design, and now she designs the fat suits for my character Brian Butterfield. She's an amazing oil painter and she's a world-class forger. She's still curious and learning new things. Mum has always believed in me. Best funny moment? Wearing my fat suit to become Brian Butterfield. It's essentially like a very thick duvet, so after five minutes of running around on stage, I was drenched in sweat, I looked like I was melting, and bits of me were falling off, and I had to keep one finger on my fake moustache to keep it from falling off. The audience was roaring with laughter – but it was comically annoying for me because they were laughing at the wrong thing! Best thing about AI? The implications of artificial intelligence are staggering, and also terrifying. This is like the second-biggest revolution in human existence, I think. I started out as an impressionist and for me, the idea of having a technology which gives me the most realistic mask of somebody is just amazing. AI helped me do my live deepfake Elvis tribute show. I chose him because he's such a timeless icon even though he's been dead for almost 50 years. Best band? Boards of Canada, a Scottish electronic duo, composed of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin. I'm absolutely obsessed with them. They haven't released anything for quite a few years now, but apparently, they might be putting something out soon. Worst habits? Procrastination and overthinking. I'm aware of it a lot more now than I have been in my whole life. I get bored easily – I need that variety in my work. I don't think I could do a long run of a play in the West End, it would drive me crazy. However, liking variety is a double-edged sword – if you spread yourself too thinly, then you can't master one particular area. Worst childhood memory? When I was a kid, I remember being told by a teacher that I would go to hell if I were naughty. They described hell as this infinity of flames and torture and pain and horror. That's not a nice thing to say to a five-year-old. Worst costume you've ever worn? While I loved the quirky vulnerable nature of my character, by far the most difficult was the mechanical blue sarcophagus I had to wear in The Tick. It was amazingly expressive and operated by a talented puppeteer from the Henson workshop, Lara MacLean. But there were no earholes, there were steel rods down my back, and my whole body could feel the vibrations from the internal motors. I could barely hear anything in the costume because it was seamless. I passed out a few times while in it because it got so hot, only my eyes and mouth were exposed. I felt like it was an elaborate Japanese torture-based game show that I wasn't aware of, in a Truman Show kind of way. Any costume since then has been a breeze in comparison! Worst political figure? Donald Trump, he's an idiot. I created my character 'Sassy Trump' during the 2016 presidential campaign. For most of my life prior to that, I'd had no interest in politics. I overdubbed him and repeated what Trump says in a campy whine to show his ridiculousness and to stop what he's saying becoming normal. But because he continually says these ridiculous things, you become desensitised. He is the bitchiest person you've ever seen – he's so offended, so vain and so vicious. Worst interaction with a member of the public? Being punched in the stomach by a kid while filming The Tick. He was angry because we were filming on his block and the film crew was being a bit too disruptive for his liking. I tried to pacify the kid by letting him sit in one of the chairs and gave him some headphones so he could listen to the scene. At the end of the shoot, I went up to him in character and said, 'Well, sir, thank you for letting us film in your neighbourhood and can we shake on it.' I then held up my hand, and then he held up his hand and just punched me in the stomach. He was only little. Worst skill (or lack thereof)? Cooking, in that I can't. I'd love to be a good cook. There's nothing stopping me from learning. But I'm rubbish. And I'm f---ing terrible at minigolf.

The Legend of Rooney's Ring: Wayne and Coleen get their very own summer panto
The Legend of Rooney's Ring: Wayne and Coleen get their very own summer panto

The Guardian

time23-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • The Guardian

The Legend of Rooney's Ring: Wayne and Coleen get their very own summer panto

The benefits of hosting Eurovision are contested. But Liverpool has that song contest to thank, improbably enough, for wooing an exiled writer back to her native city. Helen Serafinowicz is the co-writer of BBC sitcoms Motherland and, more recently, Amandaland. The world of TV, you might think, is at her feet – but instead she's returning to Merseyside with a debut theatre show, a swords-and-sorcery pastiche about the relationship between Wayne and Coleen Rooney, rejoicing in the title The Legend of Rooney's Ring. 'I've started reconnecting with Liverpool recently,' says Serafinowicz, scouse accent unmistakable as she dishes up a cuppa at her home in Norwich. 'And I was invited to the Eurovision song contest in the city a few years ago.' While there, she went to see her friend, the actor Keddy Sutton, in a Jonathan Harvey play called A Thong for Europe at the Royal Court theatre. This was where teenage Helen used to watch heavy metal bands: elitist middle-class theatre the Royal Court is not. 'It seems to have opened itself up to everyone.' And the play? 'It was mad, but very funny. It showed that you can be very silly and true to Liverpool without taking the piss. That unlocked a lot of stuff for me. I began to think I might have some ideas.' The one she went with involved 'a legend that exists in Liverpool of Wayne and Coleen Rooney having this massive argument in their car, and her chucking her very expensive engagement ring out of the window. The next day, everyone in town went out with their metal detectors, looking for it.' Local history? Urban myth? Or pretext for a sub-Game of Thrones summer panto with pop songs and a cameo for Donald Trump? 'Coleen is a princess and her parents are queen and king, and Wayne is a warrior. They get together, they split up, she's broken-hearted and he goes on a quest to find the ring and re-propose to her.' She pauses. 'The theatre says they've never done anything like this before.' It is, she says, 'a love story. I'm not making fun of them. There's no Rebekah Vardy in it. I could have really gone for Wayne with some of the things that have stuck with him from previous news stories. But I don't want to do that.' And as for Coleen: 'She's clever, she's cool, she's just a really interesting person.' She's invited the Rooneys via their agent (no response so far) – and 'I know that some of their family go to that theatre and might come.' Maybe that's why the 51-year-old professes herself 'a bit nervous' about the show. Or is it because the theatre, and writing by herself, are outside her comfort zone? The unglamorous-parenting comedy Motherland was co-written with Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh and Barunka O'Shaughnessy; so too its recent sequel Amandaland, about which Serafinowicz was 'really not sure,' she recalls. 'Because spin-offs don't have a great record, do they? I was so surprised when we got those brilliant reviews.' Collaborating is tried and tested, then – but 'being on my own is great too, to stick the blinkers on and delve into it'. And as for writing for the stage: 'I just wanted to see if I could.' So has she caught the theatre bug? 'I would do, if the bug had a little bit of money attached to it!' Perhaps writing a local show for local people in Merseyside wasn't the shrewdest way to capitalise on TV success. But it's still pinch-yourself territory for a woman whose primary professional concern until recently was selling vintage furniture. 'I had a shop here in Norwich. It's what Hygge Tygge in Motherland was based on. I bought a lorry-load of mid-century German furniture from this guy selling it at £30 a piece. But the day I signed the lease on my shop was the day Motherland got the nod from the BBC. So I used it as an office. Customers would disturb me while I was on Zoom. It was a strange situation.' Back then, the most famous sitcom writer in Serafinowicz's family was her then-husband Graham Linehan (The IT Crowd; Father Ted), from whom she has since separated. Her brother, meanwhile, is actor, comedian – and host of Netflix's recent Million Dollar Secret – Peter Serafinowicz. But now it's Helen who's hot telly property. 'I'm in a really good position,' she admits. 'People will look at my stuff. There are a million things I want to do, and not enough time to do them.' But first, Rooney's ring. Might it be, in Eurovision parlance, her Waterloo? 'I had a dream that I won a Tony award for the script. Oh, God!,' she groans, tea cups drained. 'It's like exposing yourself, like streaking at a football match. This is just what has come out of my head. I'm really interested – no, not interested, terrified – to see how it goes.' The Legend of Rooney's Ring is at the Royal Court Liverpool, from 18 July to 23 August

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