Bill’s Brit baddie role is ‘groovy’

Jul 24 2009 by Kate Whiting, The Journal

Popular actor Bill Nighy gets into the groove of playing a bad guy but is still something of an enigma, as Kate Whiting reports

THERE are very few actors approaching 60 who can get away with saying “groovy” – but Bill Nighy is definitely one of them.

With his deep, purring voice and playful smile, the word rolls off his tongue with casual, and surprisingly sexy, ease.

Fresh on the heels of indulging his hippy side in Brit comedy The Boat That Rocked, the Bafta-winning actor is describing going over to the dark side, playing a British baddie in Disney’s guinea pig action adventure G-Force.

“It was just a groovy job,” he explains. “It was the sweetest engagement and they looked after you really well.” In a slightly gnawed nutshell, Nighy plays evil billionaire Leonard Saber, whose plans to destroy the world with household appliances are threatened by a team of highly-trained special agent guinea pigs.

Leaving the guinea pigs aside for a moment, was Nighy content to perpetuate the evil Brit stereotype?

“What part of that wouldn’t I like?” he returns, raising an eyebrow. “It’s a groovy thing. It’s a time-honoured tradition and I want it to continue for a long time.”

The movie’s all-star cast includes Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz and Sam Rockwell as the voices of kick-ass guinea pigs, while Nighy heads up the live action cast.

Having done his time as a voice star on films such as Flushed Away and The Magic Roundabout, he says working with CGI also comes with its own pitfalls.

“Mostly you end up talking to yourself, like a stupid person, or imagining that they are in the corner of the room or something.”

While many actors might spend weeks researching their latest role, Nighy left his own preparation to the night before.