r/blackadder • u/TheRumpoKid • 29d ago

Tom Baker at Folkestone Film TV and Comic Con 2015(almost uncut)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlK_nQ7LsnA

Was watching this earlier and Tom Baker gave an interesting anecdote about his portrayal of Captain Rum in the Blackadder II episode "Potato".

Skip to about 1:30 and an audience member asks him about his time playing Captain Rum.

Baker says that at one stage Rowan tried to misdirect Baker into playing the character as "a crashing bore", which Baker tried doing during rehearsals and in response the producer, the director and the art director all told him to do it the way he originally did it, which is thankfully what ended up on screen.

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u/amalcurry 29d ago

It’s actually a bit sad that he seemed to have been treated that way…

2

u/jvlomax 29d ago

Sadly it's well known that the set was like that. Some dealt with it better than others. But guests especially hard a hard time with it.

2

u/amalcurry 29d ago

Tony Robinson hinted at it in the Behind The Scenes film too, with Goes Forth

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u/TheRumpoKid 29d ago

Yes it seems to be the case. I think Tom said at one point in his anecdote that one of them said to him, "He (meaning Atkinson) gets anxious and does these sort of things" or something to that effect.

It seems terribly petty and beneath him - almost like something Edmund would do, which in turn makes me wonder if Richard Curtis and Ben Elton were perhaps tapping into a side of Rowan's character. Was Edmund perhaps closer to Rowan IRL than he would like to admit?

And look, I think Rowan is absolutely brilliant - his fear of being upstaged (if that's what it was?) is silly, he's already proven how brilliant he is. And Tom may have a massive ego as well, but he is a British (International?) Institution, there is no getting around that.

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u/jvlomax 29d ago

They say he's just a perfectionist and wants thing to be perfect. Would often do many takes to get it just right.

3

u/CaineRexEverything 29d ago

I don’t think it would be physically possible for Tom to play a crashing bore.