PYTHON’S CLEESE JOINS

For over 30 years John Cleese has left an indelible impression as one of the most ingenious British comics since Chaplin. From Monty Python to Fawlty Towers and beyond, Cleese’s timing and developed sense of satire, remain as fresh today as they ever were. Whether he is promoting the re-release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail or his upcoming, scene-stealing performance in the farcical Rat Race, Cleese remains a unique presence – both on and off the screen – as Paul Fischer discovered when he recently met the esteemed actor.

John Cleese enters a room, slowly, deliberately, yet forcefully. Tall and equally gregarious, his sharp wit has lost none of its edge. On the eve of the re-release of Python’s Holy Grail, when asked to explain the longevity of the Python team, he rapidly responds with “avoidance of death”. But seriously, folks, Monty Python, which began it all for maestro Cleese, DID survive the sixties to transcend a generation, because “I think that sometimes you do something that makes a small group of people laugh, which is all we were trying to do; we were just trying to make each other laugh,” Cleese explains. “We thought after the [Holy Grail], it would just fade away and no one would hear a bit of it again. It is extraordinary how this somehow caught on. I can’t explain it because we never thought it would happen; it never even occurred to us.” Even following the untimely death of Graham Chapman, Cleese does recall the remaining group was “offered about $40” to do a reunion. “Actually it was Palin the bastard who pulled the plug; I can’t imagine we’d do one.”

But for Cleese in particular, there was very much life after Python. Fawlty Towers remains as popular today as it was in its heyday “for some inexplicable reason. I guess it struck a nerve.” On the big screen, Cleese has had a successful post-Python career, and prior to his role in Rat Race, joined the Bond team, confirming his participation in at least three more 007 sagas. Following the death of Desmond Llewellyn, Cleese will play Q. “Desmond was really rather wonderful. Not only nice but he’d been in a prison war camp in Germany for five years during the war and it was always rather interesting how well the Germans treated him. He was extraordinary. He wanted to have an assistant because, I suppose because, he felt that at some point he was going to have to move on.  I always assumed that he would do the next two or three because he was totally confident, having no trouble with his lines. And then there was this terrible car accident. I had just talked to Desmond two weeks before the accident. He was in high spirits and determined to make as many more Bond films as he was able to. I was not brought on to the Bond films to replace Desmond but to support him, to be his assistant. I have no idea what my involvement will be in the next Bond film only that I will be involved. I don’t expect to know anything until a few weeks before they intend to film. That’s how it was with The World Is Not Enough.”

Besides Bond, Cleese manages to steal Jerry Zucker’s outrageous Rat Race. In the film, Cleese plays Las Vegas casino tycoon Donald Sinclair, who dreams up an improbable race so his biggest clients, can wager on the success and failure of six different individuals. “I got to wear hideous false teeth, but I wish I could have thought of something even more outrageous to bring to the character.”

Commenting the slapstick ensemble comedy, Cleese remarks “Rat Race reminds of me Chaplin and Keaton. They did such big comedy without actually resorting to pure shtick. They never sacrificed plot for laughs which is what Jerry Zucker impressed upon us.”

While Cleese admits he doesn’t like movies all that much, he works an awfully lot in them these days. His rationale? “It’s because of this stuff called money that you have to have ... to get things with; you exchange it. It’s very hard to get on without it,” he dryly retorts. Now living with his third wife outside Los Angeles, he adds that he “enjoys being a man of leisure and an actor for hire. At my age, I want to wake up and see sunshine pouring in the windows every day. “

Later this year, Cleese will turn up in the anticipated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, as Nearly-Headless Nick, a ghost and friend of young Harry who lives in Gryffindor Tower. “That was an awful lot of fun to do.” At a very youthful 65, the master of silly walks hasn’t lost his touch.

The Rat Race

Release Date: August 17th, 2001

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Production Companies: Alphaville Films, Seven Arts International, Zucker Co.

Cast: Rowan Atkinson (Pollini), Kathy Bates, Dean Cain (Shawn), Lanai Chapman, John Cleese (Donald St. Claire), Whoopi Goldberg (Vera), Cuba Gooding, Jr., Seth Green (Duane), Wayne Knight, Jon Lovitz (Randy), Breckin Meyer (Nick), Kathy Najimy (Bev), Paul Rodriguez (Gus), Amy Smart (Tracy), Dave Thomas (Grisham), Vince Vieluf, Brandy Ledford (Vicky), Deborah Theaker, Silas Weir Mitchell

Director: Jerry Zucker

Screenwriter: Andy Breckman

Plot Summary: Donald Sinclair owns the biggest, snazziest, flashiest, high rolling-est. casino in Las Vagas. And to entertain some of his wealthiest patrons, he's created the most original high stakes game that Sin City has ever seen! The contestants? Six teams. The jackpot? $2 million stuffed in a locker hundreds of miles away. The odds of winning? One in six. The rules? Well there's only one... Get there first. What the racers don't know is that the tycoon and his rich friends are betting on the outcome, and that their every move is being tracked. There's greed, speed, and a whole lot of bad driving as the race is on for the six contestants who'll go to just about any extreme to lay their hands on the cash. But it's only a matter of time before they realize that they've been used, and they veer off on a course that sends them speeding towards a totally different kind of payoff.

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JOHN CLEESE was born Oct 27, 1939, in Weston-Super-Mare, England and educated at Clifton College and Cambridge before beginning his career as a performer and writer.  Following his debut as a member of the Cambridge Footlights Revue in the West End, Cleese went on to two Broadway shows: "The Cambridge Revue" and "Half a Sixpence" with Tommy Steele. 

He then returned to England to work for BBC Television on the "The Frost Report," "At Last the 1948 Show," with Marty Feldman and "Monty Python's Flying Circus."In the 1970's, Cleese made his first Monty Python film, "And Now for Something Completely Different," later taking the comedy act on a stage tour before beginning with "Monty Python and The Holy Grail" in the 1974 and the BBC-TV series, "Fawlty Towers" in 1975 and 1979. 

Since then he has made two other Monty Python films; "Life of Brian" in 1978 and "Meaning of Life" in 1982.  He also directed several Amnesty stage shows including "The Secret Policeman's Ball," portrayed Petruchio in "Taming of the Shrew" for the BBC and he wrote the books Families And How To Survive Them with Dr. Robin Skynner and its sequel Life And How To Survive It. 

With the release of "A Fish Called Wanda" in 1988, Cleese won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and received an Oscar‚ and Writer's Guild nomination in the United States, as well as an Italian Oscar, for Best Screenplay.Additional film credits include "Isn't She Great," "The World Is Not Enough," as well as "George of the Jungle," "Fierce Creatures," "The Wind in the Willows," Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."  In 1994, he received The Jack Oakie Award for Comedy in Motion Pictures from the Screen Actor's Guild in America.Most recently, Cleese appeared as 'R' in the latest James Bond installment, "The World is Not Enough," a role he will continue to play in the upcoming "Bond 20."  He will also star in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

Credits

• The Human Face (2001)
  Rat Race (2001)
• Quantum Project (2000)
  Isn't She Great (2000)
• The Out-of-Towners  (1999)
• Fawlty Towers (BBC Collection)  (1998)
• Fierce Creatures  (1997)
• George of the Jungle  (1997)
• The Wind in the Willows  (1997)
• Ferocidade MáXima  (1997)
• The Fine Art of Separating People From Their Money  (1996)
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein  (1994)
• The Jungle Book  (1994)
• The Swan Princess  (1994)
• Rudyard Kipling's the Jungle Book  (1994)
• Princesa Encantada  (1994)
• Mogli: O Livro Da Selva  (1994)
• Splitting Heirs  (1993)
• An American Tail: Fievel Goes West  (1991)
• Life of Python  (1990)
• Monty Python's Parrot Sketch Not Included  (1990)
• Erik the Viking  (1989)
• Bullseye!  (1989)
• A Fish Called Wanda  (1988)
• Clockwise  (1985)
• Silverado  (1985)
• Monty Python's the Meaning of Life  (1983)
• Yellowbeard  (1983)
• Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl  (1982)
• Privates on Parade  (1982)
• Secret Policeman's Other Ball  (1982)
• The Great Muppet Caper  (1981)
• The Secret Policeman's Private Parts  (1981)
• Time Bandits  (1981)
• Whoops Apocalypse  (1981)
• Monty Python's Life of Brian  (1979)
• The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash  (1978)
• Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It  (1977)
• Monty Python and The Holy Grail  (1975)
• Romance With a Double Bass  (1974)
• Dr. Seuss - Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?  (1973)
• The Love Ban  (1973)
• And Now for Something Completely Different  (1972)
• The Statue  (1971)
• The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom  (1968)