Juliette Binoche signed my drawing at the Curzon Cinema in Mayfair, London after a Q&A session following the screening of her film Certified Copy in August 2010.
She won the Best Actress Award at Cannes that year for her role in the movie.
When Richard Griffiths passed away earlier this year, Daniel Radcliffe lead the tributes:
“Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career. In August 2000, before official production had even began on Potter, we filmed a shot outside the Dursley’s, which was my first ever shot as Harry. I was nervous and he made me feel at ease. Seven years later, we embarked on Equus together. It was my first time doing a play, but, terrified as I was, his encouragement, tutelage and humour made it a joy. Any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever by his presence. I am proud to say I knew him.”
Peter Shaffer’s Equus is a favourite of mine, both on screen and stage. A revival, directed by Thea Sharrock opened at the Gielgud Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue in February 2007 and subsequently transferred to the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway, running until February 2009. Daniel received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play.
I did a quick ‘montage’ sketch of Daniel as Alan Strang, the boy who blinds a number of horse with a hoof pick and Richard’s Martin Dysart, a child psychiatrist trying to understand the cause of the boys actions, while wrestling with his own sense of purpose.
In the mayhem that surrounds Daniel I risked damage at this year’s Olivier Theatre Awards at the Royal Opera House to get it signed. Daniel’s signature is always his full name, so that combined with haste to sign as many as possible means the final ‘graph can vary in quality. However, he did take the time to dedicate it to me and seemed genuinely touched by the drawing.
I had also drawn another sketch of just Daniel with Richard behind him, so dropped it into the rehearsal room where Daniel was preparing for The Cripple of Inishmaan (currently in previews at the Noël Coward Theatre). I also enclosed a flyer for him to sign, which he did and sent it back. As you can see, the more ‘relaxed’ ‘graph is a model of legibility.
‘Short People’ was a surprise and controversial hit in 1977 for Randall Stuart ‘Randy’ Newman and one of my favourite tunes-a kind of an anthem for us vertically-challenged types. Randy always maintains it was written as a joke, like a number of his satirical pop songs. He has also produced numerous film scores and has the dubious distinction of having the most Academy Award nominations (15) without a single win. In 2002, when he eventually picked up the Best Original Song Oscar for ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ from MONSTERS INC,he received a standing ovation. He reacted with the opening joke to his acceptance speech, “I don’t need your pity.” He did beat an impressive line-up: Sting, Enya and Sir Paul McCartney. He picked up his second Oscar after his 20th nomination in 2011 for ‘We Belong Together’ from TOY STORY 3 and quipped, “My percentages aren’t great.” He does have a way to go to match his uncle, Alfred Newman,the dean of Hollywood composers. He was nominated 54 times for nine wins,including one for THE KING AND I in 1956. Randy has also won a handful of Emmys and Grammys and was inducted into the Rock-And -Roll Hall of Fame in April this year.
In February 2012 Randy played London’s Royal Festival Hall, but I missed meeting him to have my sketch signed in person, so sent it to the Carre Theatre in Amsterdam, where he had a gig on 12 March. Sending items to venues is always a hit-and-miss affair,but I have a high success rate with the Dutch and they continued that trend.
Catherine Fabienne Dorléac is one of France’s most renowned actresses and better known as Catherine Deneuve.
Promoting the period comedy film Potiche at the British Film Institute in June 2011, she was ‘mobbed’ by autograph hunters and protected by a number of of security staff as she quickly went from the entrance to the BFI’s green room.
I was positioned at the halfway point on the bend. She was about to rush by, saw the sketch and stopped to sign it, then continued on her trajectory at light speed.
Earlier that year, she made headlines in Madrid when she was asked to put out her cigarette at a press conference promoting the same film. She said she would rather pay the fine. I didn’t see her with a ciggy in hand, but I did get her siggy, which was very fine!
Nurse Gl-Gl-Gl-Gladys Emmanuel – the object of Arkwright’s affections in Open All Hours – alias Lynda Baron signed my sketch after a performance of J.B. Priestley’s When We Were Married at the Garrick Theatre in the West End in November 2012.
She is currently featuring in D.H. Lawrences’s The Daughter at the Sheffield Crucible.
A quick, minimal lined indian ink portrait with letraset spirit-based marker of comedian, actor and sometimes transvestite Eddie Izzard (without eyeliner). I’m seeing his Force Majeure show tonight at London’s O2.
I met him at the British Film Institute in December 2011, when he did a Q&A after the screening of his film Lost Christmas. He said, “you know, I usually sign drawings on the back,” and did so. A quick, moderately line ‘graph in blue sharpie
Oscar winner Charlize Theron signed my sketch at the Prometheus World Premiere at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London in May 2012.
Jessica Biel also signed my sketch at the Total Recall UK premiere in August 2012, along with Kate Beckinsale.
Ian Rickson’s classy revival of Pinter’s cryptic play Old Times had a limited (Jan-April) engagement at the Harold Pinter theatre in London earlier this year. Locked away in a secluded farmhouse, Kate, Deeley and Anna reminisce about early days together in London. But, with conflicting memories and underlying sexual tensions, the past suddenly feels vividly present.
Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams alternated the role of Kate and Anna with Rufus Sewell playing Deeley. All three were happy to sign my sketch after a Saturday evening performance. In fact, Rufus even picked my New Zealand accent, and didn’t call me ‘Australian’ as is often the case
New York born Sir Yehudi Menuhin spent most of his performing life in the UK. He is considered to be one of the great classical violinists of the 20th Century. His EMI contract lasted almost 70 years and is on of the longest in the history of the music inustry. His first recording was in 1929 at the age of 13 and his last was in 1999 aged 83, the year he passed away.
I left my sketch at his London office in 1995 and he signed and returned it with New Year’s wishes.
French fiddler Stephane Grappelli was considered ‘the grandfather of jazz violinists’. His self taught improvisation skills produced ‘tender lyricism and vivacious swing’.
He was playing concerts around the world well into his 80s. He toured New Zealand many times and signed my sketch in Dunedin in September 1991. In 1997 he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. When asked about retirement, he said he didn’t know the word. Music was his ‘fountain of youth’. He died later that year, aged 89, after a hernia operation in a Paris clinic.
Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson was a former child prodigy. Her father was an English hotelier of Thai descent and her mother a Chinese lawyer. She was born in Singapore, but moved to the UK at the age of 4. She describes her style as ‘violin techno-acoustic fusion’. Vanessa-Mae signed my sketch at her concert in the Queen’s Wharf Events Centre in Wellington, New Zealand on January 25th 1996. A keen skier, she now lives in Switzerland and plans to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics in the downhill representing Thailand.
ChicanePictures 