AV CLUB: Robert Carlyle on California Solo, American vs. British TV, and the appeal of fairy tales
by Sam Adams
December 20, 2012
Apart from a Scottish burr, there’s not much connecting the roles that made Robert Carlyle’s career. Trainspotting’s Begbie is a psychotic; The Full Monty’s Gaz is a genial, unemployed steelworker. Finding a common thread in Carlyle’s filmography—a thread that links a bus driver drawn into the Nicaraguan revolution with a James Bond villain—is no easy task, but that’s how he likes it. Along with his gig on Once Upon A Time, where he plays a modern spin on Rumpelstiltskin, Carlyle recently took on his first character-driven lead role in years, playing a onetime British rocker who’s found a new life as the manager of a California organic farm in California Solo. The drug-related death of his brother, who fronted a band briefly touted as the British Nirvana, is decades past, but he dwells on the subject indirectly by recording a podcast devoted to famous rock-’n’-roll flameouts, although it’s never clear who (if anyone) is listening. When a DUI puts his immigration status in jeopardy, Carlyle’s character is faced with the possibility he’ll be sent back to confront ghosts he thought he’d left behind for good, and guilt he can no longer escape. TV duties kept Carlyle from making the film’s Sundance première, but he talked to The A.V. Club in Park City the day before...
... AVC: Once Upon A Time has been an interesting change of pace. You haven’t had much of a chance to act in this kind of mythic or fantastic register—maybe on Stargate Universe.
Robert Carlyle: "Stargate was something else. [Once Upon A Time] is something I’m really, really enjoying. Rumpelstiltskin himself—after the second episode, that was the No. 2 most Googled thing on the planet. Fucking hell. That was interesting. I started to think more about that name. Who is Rumpelstiltskin to people? This gave me the opportunity to define the part for a younger generation, so that any time youngsters who are watching hear “Rumpelstiltskin,” they’re going to see that face. That was important to me, because I’ve got a few young kids now—5, 7, and 9; and my 7- and my 9-year-old, they love it..."
California Solo cast includes Robert Carlyle, Danny Masterson, Kathleen Wilhoite, William Russ, A Martinez, Alexia Rasmussen, Michael Des Barres and Patrick Gallagher.
Once Upon A Time returns with NEW episodes on Sunday, January 6, 2013 at 8/7C on ABC.
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