Rowan Atkinson names his favourite project from his career
Actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson is a national treasure in the United Kingdom, having written the legendary comedy shows and films Blackadder, Mr. Bean and Johnny English. Atkinson is known for his collaborations with Richard Curtis, and in 2013, his contributions to comedy and entertainment were recognised with him being appointed a CBE.
During a Reddit AMA session, Atkinson was once asked which project had been the most rewarding to him. He responded, noting two reasons that Mr. Bean had been his favourite, both from a perspective of monetary gain and creative freedom to express the dual genius/idiocy of the character himself.
Atkinson wrote, “Most rewarding… financially (if I’m being honest)… is Mr. Bean. And perhaps creatively rewarding as well. Because I find him a fascinating character being essentially a child trapped in a man’s body. And it’s always fun to be childish!”
Atkinson developed the character Mr. Bean when he was studying for a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Oxford University. He took a sketch featuring Bean to the Edinburgh fringe festival in the 1980s, but his most significant early performance of Bean came in 1987 in Montreal, Canada.
Atkinson had insisted on performing in the French-language section of the ‘Just for Laughs’ show even though he had now French dialogue in the performance. Atkinson made this choice because he wanted to see to what extent the audience would respond to Bean without him actually talking and relying on physical comedy.
Mr. Bean came to the British public’s attention in 1990 when a sitcom created by Atkinson and Richard Curtis was released, originally broadcast on ITV. It received excellent reviews and huge audiences. The success of the TV show led to a number of spin-offs, including an animated series and two feature-length films. Atkinson even performed as Mr. Bean at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony.
The first film came out in 1997. Titled Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, it saw Atkinson’s cherished character work as a security guard at the National Gallery in London. The gallery’s directors despise Bean for falling asleep on the job. In an attempt to get rid of him once and for all, they send him to the United States to discuss the unveiling of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s 1871 painting ‘Whistler’s Mother’.
A sequel, Mr. Bean’s Holiday, followed in 2007 and saw Mr. Bean win a holiday trip to Cannes in France. However, on his journey there, he is mistaken for a notorious kidnapper and an acclaimed film director heading to the famous film festival. Willem Dafoe, Max Baldry, Emma de Caunes and Karel Roden also starred in the film.
