Playing Mr Bean is stressful and exhausting- Rowan Atkinson
Popular British actor, Rowan Atkinson, has revealed that he finds portraying the role, Mr Bean, stressful and exhausting.
The 65-year-old comic actor, who is in the middle of developing an animated movie of the popular character, said he finds ‘the weight of responsibility not pleasant’, meaning he ‘doesn’t much enjoy playing him’.
Atkinson portrayed the titular role in the successful series from 1990 until 1995, before later taking on the films Bean Movie in 1997 and Mr Bean’s Holiday in 2007, dailymail.co.uk reports.
He said, “I don’t much enjoy playing him. The weight of responsibility is not pleasant. I find it stressful and exhausting, and I look forward to the end of it.”
Speaking in an interview with this week’s issue of Radio Times, Rowan said, “Having made an animated television series, we are now in the foothills of developing an animated movie for Mr Bean – it’s easier for me to perform the character vocally than visually.
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“I don’t much enjoy playing him. The weight of responsibility is not pleasant. I find it stressful and exhausting, and I look forward to the end of it.
“I don’t actually like the process of making anything – with the possible exception of Blackadder, because the responsibility for making that series funny was on many shoulders, not just mine.”
The Johnny English star is not surprised about the success of his character, saying, “Mr Bean’s success has never surprised me.
Watching an adult behaving in a childish way without being remotely aware of his inappropriateness is fundamentally funny. The fact the comedy is visual rather than verbal means it has been successful internationally, too.”
Rowan wrote and starred in Blackadder between 1983 and 1989 and said the most optimistic he could be about a revival is that it is ‘certainly not impossible’.
Speaking on whether Edmund could resurface, he said, “It’s certainly not impossible. That’s about as optimistic as I can be, and I’d rather not speculate on when it could be set. But Blackadder represented the creative energy we all had in the 80s. To try to replicate that 30 years on wouldn’t be easy.”
