Andrew Lee Potts and Hannah Spearitt
Despite enjoying a career as a child actor Andrew Lee Potts shot to fame in 2007 when he took on the role of Connor Temple in ITV's Primeval.
I caught up with him to talk about series 3 of the show as well as him backinging the Pringles Select campaign and competition.
You have found fame in Primeval and fans of the show are all waiting for series 3 what can we expect from it?
Season 3 erm not everyone makes it they shocked everybody last year by getting rid of one of the central characters, which I don’t think anyone expected, and there’s going to be more of the same really. We don’t want people to be like we know what to expect with this show we want to be like well you don’t, a bit like in the vein of Lost, so it does keep an audience on the edge of their seat plus it’s really really action this year, well next year when it starts.
We are really into doing most of our own stunts now which is fantastic but I have a big Bourne Supremacy car chase so there’s lots of funs to be had, and obviously Hannah is doing a lot more karate kicking and flying about.
The series started back in 2007 what was it about the character of Connor that drew you to the project?
Well I didn’t think that I was right to be honest he was your classic style geek and academic, not that I’m saying I’m not a geek, but I’m definitely not an academic, but that is the way that it was written in the script very nerdy, and I had never played a character like that I had played a lot of baddies.
In fact I have never played that many nice characters so it was nice the casting woman, who I had worked with before, got me in and I was a bit surprised. I couldn’t pronounce any of the dinosaurs, because I have t speak about the dinosaurs all of the time, I couldn’t pronounce anything, especially with my northern accent, I could hardly read anything and I just kind of blagged it I messed around because I didn’t think that I was going to get it and made a lot of jokes.
It kind of worked because they rung back and said ’we like you but we don’t believe anything that came out of your mouth we don’t believe you know anything’ and I was like ’well I don’t’ so they said ’can you come back in and sound more convincing.
So I went back in and I didn’t sound anymore convincing but they felt sorry for me and cast me. I had my little trilby on when I went to the casting and that’s why it made it into the show.
the new series is ten episodes this time how surprised are you by it’s success?
It’s been, I’m really surprised, but from the start of it we haven’t really had much time to do anything else if we are not filming it we are promoting it and now with it opening in America it only gains momentum, plus we have got the toys. So it’s living a Primeval life at the moment and it’s either go with it or go against and we are going with it at the moment, which is great for us.
It’s lovely to be involved in, I have never done a series before, and it’s lovely to be involved in a series that people want to watch because this day and age there’s a lot of crap that gets made and also there’s not that much drama, there’s a lot of reality TV, but it’s nice to have a bit of drama.
I was very impressed with the, obviously the CGI has a massive factor to do with it, it’s a learning process every time we go on because a lot of the new directors have never done a show in this style before, in fact it’s getting more popular the whole sci-fi thing now that they have seen that Doctor Who and Primeval work I think suddenly everyone has gone sci-fi crazy, but it’s nice that we were part of the beginning of that and we were one of the production companies that were brave enough to go ’ look what we are doing we are actually doing something different.’ That was a really longing winded answer to yes I’m surprised by it’s success.
Well that sort of leads me into my next question really what is the filming process like do you have to do a lot of green screen and how challenging is that?
There isn’t a lot of green screen you know we thought there would be loads of green screen too but technology has moved on and the only time you do green screen is if the thing is behind you or if we stand in front of the anomalies but other times they just literally go ’it’s there’ they give us an eyeline and we react to nothing like when we are working with Rex we will be told that he is sat there on the table, he’s moving about and you are feeding him but there’s nothing there.
In the rushes we must look insane, I personally talk to Rex like he is a human so I’m having a conversation with no one all of the time, I suppose it is a bit nuts and we don’t realise it until guest cast members come on, because it’s our everyday life now and I prefer working with CGI creatures because they don’t answer back.
What are relationships like on set between the core member of the cast?
Oh great, the cast has got a lot bigger this year which is great, me and Dougie, who plays Cutter the lead, it’s a very similar relationship to how we are on screen we have a lot of respect for each other but I think I do say stuff when he doesn’t want me to.
It’s a neat little family even me and James Murray were like we were on screen a bit like brothers who annoyed each other but we do have a lot of respect for each other and a lot of time for each other and now the new cast members have come in there’s a lot more fun to be had, especially now Jason Flemming has joined the cast because he is just a joker.
At the forefront of his mind is the acting side but on a par with that is what he can do at the end of a scene to make it funny or to make us laugh, and that will include taking all of his clothes off and it was like ‘whoa dude you’ve got your willy out’ (laughs) or he will start break dancing at the end of a scene he’s a funny dude. But yeah we get on really well we do, it’s a good job because we spend a lot of time together.
How did you get into acting?
I started as a kid, I did my first job when I was about seven, I did a lot of Northern stuff I was just in a normal acting class after school that was all. But I got really lucky really quickly because I got in quite a few kids dramas and I got known by the casting people and it just grew from there so I was a proper child actor this is all I have ever done. I kind of learnt on the job I was terrible when I was younger I have destroyed everything I won’t show Hannah anything below the age of seventeen but I’m sure my dad has got them in a loft somewhere I even destroyed then in the agency that I’m in.
You were also in Band of Brothers what was that experience like because I love that series?
It’s on the telly at the moment I just caught it it’s being repeated it was brilliant, I was actually talking to Hannah about it the other day, it was such a mad experience, I don’t know what you have heard about it, we were all treated like soldiers we all had trailers but we weren’t allowed in them we had to sit in tent and on set we didn’t have chairs we just sat in the rubble.
The day starts you put all your gear on, you dress yourself and learn all about the gear and that stuff, you have a weapons card, and if you forget your card you have to get a rubber rifle, without that card you haven’t got clearance to get you weapon. You have to keep your weapon with you at all time and if you left it anywhere there were these military advisors walking around and hey would punish you, they would make you do twenty press-ups in front of everyone while they were jeering you, it was strange for actors but that is how we really bonded.
I have got the dog tags in a frame upstairs, my character Eugene Jackson was one of the youngest in the whole of Band of Brothers, his mothers name in on there and his address it’s only the second time that those dog tags have ever been printed up, he’s a real person and he died in combat and it’s just amazing to portray a someone and bring their story to life.
It’s ten years old now and it’s still a top selling DVD and all that jazz it’s fantastic to have been involved in something like that., but it’s one of those things when you are coming home form a night out and the taxi-driver always go ’what do you do?’ And you say ‘I’m an actor’ and they always go ’oh yeah what have you been in then?’ And it’s really nice to go ’Band of Brothers’ and they go’ oh right nice.’
You have been supporting the Pringles win a party at your home competition why and how did you get involved with this?
Basically they approached us and they wanted to find a young couple to back them up in the campaign, as it’s aimed at this age range, we have just bought a house and we don’t go out much anymore and have started throwing loads of parties at home so when they got in touch with us we were like ‘that sounds just like us’ so we were really up for it. Plus I have eaten Pringles since they came out I’m obsessed with them along with my dad who is absolutely in love with them (laughs).
Can you tell me a bit about the competition?
The competition is now closed but the prize was to have a big party thrown at their house by the people who did Wayne Rooney and Coleen’s party and we are going to the party as well I think. The competition’s closed so they have obviously found a winner they just haven’t told us who.
Finally what’s next for you?
Well I do Ideal, it’s a show on BBC 3 with Johnny Vegas, I play rockstar who, throughout the series, has gone through massive changes and he’s an arrogant Mancunian rockstar and I spend a whole series sealed inside his boiler, it’s a really abstract series, and then I got released and I thought I had been reborn and was Jesus.
In the new series there is a documentary about me thinking that I am Jesus within the programme so that should be fun. We have all got our fingers crossed for series four which would be fantastic. And then there’s my film Freakdog which is released in February next year so keeping busy.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw