‘It’s about making the best of life as it is, and infusing it with as much goodness as you can’ ‘I’ve done the interview thing, this is there to entertain people’
George Clooney and Ben Affleck talk to Keri-ann Roper about teaming up again for the film adaptation of the coming-of-age novel The Tender Bar John Bishop talks to Georgia Humphreys about his new Saturday night show for ITV
When George Clooney needed to cast one of the main characters for his film The Tender Bar, he knew exactly who would fit the bill.
His friend, previous collaborator and Hollywood’s star, Ben Affleck.
“Once we told Amazon we wanted to do The Tender Bar, the question was who was going to play Uncle Charlie,” says Clooney of the comingof-age film, which he directs and which is based on a book of the same name by JR Moehringer.
It tells the story of a boy, JR, who seeks father figures at a bar called the Dickens, run by his Uncle Charlie.
Clooney and Affleck worked together previously on Argo, the 2012 film which won them both Oscars as producers when it took home the best picture gong.
“The character had to have two specific qualities. You have to believe he’s really smart and really well-read. That is a no-brainer with Ben Affleck. He’s a really smart actor and a smart man,” Clooney, 60, explains of casting Affleck as Uncle Charlie.
“And then he has to be a little worn down. He needs a bit of gravitas. Ben is a different actor now than he was 15 years ago. With age comes a little bit of grey in the hair and a little bit of crinkle in his eye. Ben couldn’t have played this part five or 10 years ago. Now he is exactly right for it. As soon as we read the script, we thought of him.”
Affleck’s star power is matched by the rest of the cast, with names like Lily Rabe (who plays JR’S overprotective mother Dorothy) and Back To The Future’s
Christopher Lloyd also on the bill.
We meet the main character of JR Maguire as a child, played by Daniel Ranieri, and then as an adult, with Tye Sheridan playing the grownup JR, whose father, a radio DJ dubbed The Voice, abandons him and his mother.
Good Will Hunting star Affleck, who turns 50 next year and whose personal life has grabbed headlines lately after a romantic reunion with actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, was happy to take on the role of Charlie.
Affleck says: “George (Clooney) put the story together in a beautifully intelligent way and there’s a lot of wisdom that comes across in this character, but also a sense, not that life is perfect, or things work out exactly the way we want, or that it’s going to meet the expectations of whatever fantasies we have.
“It’s about making the best of life as it is, and infusing it with as much goodness and integrity as you can, even though none of us are perfect.
“And also, honestly, I have three kids and that’s really what I care most about, and so for me to even leave my
kids for seven weeks… it has to be a really meaningful, important role.”
Affleck agrees with Clooney that being a bit older helped him play Uncle Charlie.
He says: “I do feel as though I’m not one of these actors who at 20 is able to conjure up the incredibly detailed life experience, that they’re able to just use their imagination.
“I’m very rooted in my own experiences or research or finding out kind of what’s true, what’s real. And I’m about to turn 50, you know, in August (2022) and it turns out (you) live enough years, you start to learn a few things, whether you like it or not.”
For 25-year-old American star Sheridan, whose credits also include the X-men films, The Tender Bar prompted him to think about the relationships in his life.
He says: “I think it made me think about what it might be like to not have my dad around, because my dad was a big part of my life growing up. He’s a baseball coach and he was always there and so was my mom.
“And this especially made me think about my relationship with my mom, because I spent a lot of time with my mom, just the two of us, because I was getting into film at such an early age when I was 15, 16. And she would come along with me and travel with me and be there to support this crazy dream of mine.
“So it definitely brought me back to that and definitely made me think about my own relationships with my parents.”
Shining a light on the value of imperfect role models and their role in relationships, is the character of Uncle Charlie, who is Dorothy’s brother and a real man’s man who becomes a cornerstone in JR’S life.
That Charlie is not a traditional role model is something Affleck found appealing.
He explains: “It’s not about the family model or the role model, the father figure, the mother figure, the parental figure fitting into any specific box.
“And that what is really meaningful, is to have people who are around children who love them, and take care of them and appreciate them and value them and are kind to them, and that really is what you need as a young person in order to grow up to have a healthy sense of yourself, that you’re worth something, that you’re meaningful and valuable, and you have something to give.
“And it doesn’t have to take any specific form,” he adds, pointing out, “Most of us don’t parent exactly according to the parenting books and the exact ways that we’re told to do it.
“We try our best, we fail often, we also succeed, but what’s really important is how much love and time you’re able to give, and that’s the most valuable commodity of all.”
● The Tender Bar is released today on Amazon Prime Video
John Bishop certainly knows a thing or two about performing live. The Liverpudlian comedian, 55, first tried stand-up while working as a sales rep, before becoming a full-time comedian in 2006.
Since then he has played to sold-out arenas and he is taking his latest tour across Europe next summer. But before that, he has The John Bishop Show starting on ITV, involving celebrity guests, lots of topical comedy and a live studio audience, which will be filmed on the day it is going out.
“I don’t generally get nervous over doing stand-up comedy, and I don’t know whether I’ll get nervous doing this,” notes the fatherof-three, who married wife Melanie in 1993.
“There’s the responsibility that it’s not just me on screen; there’s a big production team that want to make it a success and people’s jobs depend on making it a success, so that level of responsibility gives you a twinge of nerves, I suppose.
“But, in many respects, if we’ve learnt anything this year, it’s to put things in context. At the end of the day, it’s only telly.”
Down-to-earth Bishop says the series has been about three years in the making – they were in pre-production when the first Covid-19 lockdown happened in 2020.
“Just because of the nature of the show, we decided to postpone it,” he explains. “It has evolved since then, and it’s become a different beast because it’s now a more topical chat show, rather than a straightforward interview show.”
He seems glad they’ve made these changes from the first iteration though.
“The show that we were talking of then did have a bit more of a traditional approach, and it gives us a chance to throw everything out the window and just say, ‘No, I want to do something different than what is currently on’.”
The star, who joined the cast of Doctor Who this year, as the Time Lord’s companion, Dan Lewis, has previously hosted a talk show on W, called John Bishop: In Conversation With…
But he suggests this programme will feel more lighthearted.
“I’ve done the interview thing. I’ve got a podcast where I talk in a long-form way with people; that’s where you start revealing people’s personalities. This is there to entertain people, and it’s unashamedly getting set up that way as well.”
What else makes The John Bishop Show stand out?
“Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross are the kings of chat shows in the UK, and there’s no way that this is trying to emulate what they do. This is a little bit more like the American-style show, in the fact that it goes out on the day it’s recorded, and it’s also a little bit more entertainment-based because there’ll be a few little [prefilmed] VTS that might get dropped into it.
“Also, the guests themselves are going to be part of this show throughout; there’s not going to be one segment where I talk to the guest about what they’re doing. Hopefully, it’ll feel a little bit like three or four people just having a chat together.”
● The John Bishop Show starts on STV tomorrow at 9:30pm