When Robbie Coltrane starred in a Kate Bush video
With the sad news of Robbie Coltrane’s death earlier today at the age of 72, most movie fans will remember his role as the nurturing and protective Rubeus Hagrid from all eight films in the Harry Potter series. But Coltrane’s career extended into four different decades, with the Flastaffian actor bringing his unique presence to a host of different projects.
There was the time he actually played Falstaff in Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 adaptation of Henry V. There were his comedic performances with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry on the show Alfresco. He was in two separate James Bond movies, GoldenEye and The World is Not Enough, and made a hilarious one-off appearance as the cryptic Matsui in Ocean’s Twelve. Coltrane had range as an actor, often using his size and kind reputation to subvert expectations.
Kate Bush knew that reputation well. As a friend of Coltrane’s, Bush employed Coltrane as one of the many disembodied voices trying to wake Bush up in the Hounds of Love track ‘Waking the Witch’. “These sort of visitors come to wake them up, to bring them out of this dream so that they don’t drown,” Bush told BBC Radio 1 in 1992. “My mother’s in there, my father, my brothers Paddy and John, Brian Tench – the guy that mixed the album with us – is in there, Del is in there, Robbie Coltrane does one of the voices. It was just trying to get lots of different characters and all the ways that people wake you up, like you know, you sorta fall asleep at your desk at school and the teacher says, ‘Wake up child, pay attention!'”
Coltrane’s connection with Bush didn’t stop there. Nearly two full decades later, Coltrane and Bush renewed their partnership when Coltrane starred in the video for ‘Deeper Understanding’. Bush originally released the song on 1989’s The Sensual World but cut a new version for 2011’s Director’s Cut. The Director’s Cut version got a video directed by Bush as well, with Coltrane starring as the central character.
Since he was generally known for playing warm and compassionate characters, Coltrane goes the opposite way in the video for ‘Deeper Understanding’, forsaking human contact for the warm embrace of technology. Coltrane turns his back on his family, eventually simulating human contact and murdering Noel Fielding under the influence of his simulated reality.
It’s a darker turn from Coltrane but also one of the stranger and more interesting appearances that he’s made outside of his normal milieu. Check out Coltrane’s starring role in the video for ‘Deeper Understanding’ down below.
