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OK, my job does come with some pretty cool treats. Not often two days in a row, but sometimes. So hot on the heels of visiting the actual set of Horrible Histories, I got to interview legendary actor Kyle MacLachlan in a sold out gig at the huge Central Hall, Westminster.
Kyle is briefly in the country doing a book tour for his autobiography
Fictional Selves which I can very highly recommend. Some famous people's memoirs are just full of all their triumphs and stories about why they are brilliant (Peter Kay), but even though Kyle has had some incredible triumphs, he is very open about the jobs that didn't work for him and the parts that he failed to get. It's vulnerable and honest and also includes fantastic behind the scenes stories about the people he's worked with (and loved) and having to fight his inner critic (Him 2?) who questions all his decisions.
You wouldn't necessarily expect someone to remember a gurning fool that they'd met 30 years ago, but when I mentioned Ben, Kyle's face lit up and he said what a lovely man he was. I think he genuinely remembered him, which is incredibly impressive.
Ben was right about Kyle (and Kyle was right about Ben) - he was an absolute gem: funny, polite, interested in everyone and happily chatting with everyone. For someone with such phenomenal success he is incredibly down to earth and unaffected by fame. I think because the work is always the most important thing to him. Of course he enjoys it when people like what he's done, but he has his feet on the ground.
The reception he got as I brought him on stage tonight was extraordinary. I let myself pretend for a second that adulation for me (Kyle was modest -and insane- enough to suggest that it was for both of us). It's easy to see why people's heads get turned if they can inspire such adulation, which makes Kyle's lack turned head all the more impressive.
I knew this would be special. Obviously I've interviewed a lot of famous people over the last 15 years, but the reaction I got when I told people I was interviewing Kyle was generally awe and amazement (with a hint of that fact that surely someone somewhere had made a mistake giving me this job). He is definitely on another level of stardom to anyone I have spent an evening with and yet carries it so lightly. It must be nice being him - even though his book reveals his insecurities and feeling of being an outsider.
It was a great chat and Kyle answered questions freely and openly and was very funny. I am hoping I can persuade the organisers to let me release it as a podcast (or two), but initially they said not.
Kyle just has a natural ability to make people happy, based partly on his amazing characters (as the book explores) but mainly due to his beguiling charm. He's a very handsome man, yet there's some indefinable quirk there that makes him perfect for the parts he gets. Yet it also makes total sense why David Lynch plucked him from obscurity, just based on his personality.
It was a very special evening and I think it's probable that everyone in the room felt that way.
Kyle and his team were going out for a post-gig meal/drink and he kindly invited me to come along. But conscious of having to relieve our baby-sitter and getting a train and being socially awkward I declined. Which is in some ways insane - what kind of idiot turns down a night out with Kyle MacLachlan?- but we'd had a chat about how fatherhood changes your priorities and Kyle smiled said "Getting home to your family." He got it.
A huge crowd of people were waiting for him at the stage door afterwards. His car was waiting for him in a garage inside the venue so that he could navigate this without being mobbed. My car was outside, as the organisers had surmised that I wouldn't be mobbed. I walked past the mob. Not even one of them was interested in mobbing me. Though every member of a mob knows you can't do a mob on your own. None of them wanted to be the one who tried to mob alone.
I think I am glad that I have never inspired a mob, but maybe it would be nice to be mobbed just once before I die. By a friendly mob. I think I can easily inspire an angry mob. Any kind of mob coming for you is still impressive though.
Being accidentally killed by a friendly mob is probably a good way to go. Unlike being strung up from a lamp post by an angry mob, which is how I predict I will go out.
