Peter James: A-listers being in awe of each other, why I quit the movie business and sandwiches with Joan Collins
16:02 10 January 2017
Peter James and Joan Collins
Bestselling crime
writer Peter James talks us through his gastronomic adventures and keeps
us abreast of everything relating to his fictional detective, Roy Grace
Celebrity is a curious thing. I learned years ago in my film
producing days that even among Hollywood’s A-list there is a pecking
order. Back in 2003 I was making what turned out to be a rather
lacklustre film,
The Bridge Of St Luis Rey, despite its quite
stellar cast of Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Kathy Bates and Gabriel
Byrne. During the course of filming, Harvey Keitel confessed that he was
nervous working with De Niro because he was so in awe of him. Byrne
said he was nervous of working with Keitel for the same reason, and
Kathy Bates said she was in awe of Keitel and Byrne. I never found out
who De Niro was in awe of.
As a producer you pander to the whims
of your stars and the riders that are part of every contract these days.
Although I guess riders aren’t a new thing. When the late Sir
Christopher Soames agreed to take the post of Governor of Southern
Rhodesia, it was on condition he would be able to have his customary
full English breakfast every morning, and roast pheasant, grouse or
partridge, with game chips and all the trimmings for his dinner daily
throughout the UK game season.
Not all movie stars have egos the size of aircraft carriers – Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons, who I worked with on
The Merchant Of Venice, are wonderfully grounded and fun people. And so are the two stars of my new play,
Not Dead Enough – fabulous Shane Richie, who will be playing Roy Grace, and the truly delightful Laura Whitmore – who had a brilliant stint in
Strictly
– who will be Cleo. I’m looking forward to starting rehearsals. The
play begins a nationwide tour on 25 January, and will be at the Theatre
Royal, Brighton the week of 13 February.
I’ve had my fair share of
difficult actors. One memorable nightmare of an occasion was filming in
Toronto with Ernest Borgnine and Michael J Pollard – who shot to fame
as CW Moss in
Bonnie and Clyde. I was summoned by the night
manager of the Hyatt hotel, at 3.30am, to remove a rooster, which was
keeping all the hotel guests awake, from Mr Pollard’s suite.
For
anyone who has ever wondered why I quit the movie business for a career
in writing novels, I rest my case... And the beauty is that in my books
my characters do exactly what I want – I don’t have to pander to any of
their whims! Although sometimes during the course of promoting a book I
come across some challenging requests from my fans. Two in particular
stick in my mind. The first was being asked by a husband to sign his
wife’s breast, at a very posh Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve dinner in
Shoreham! The other was to sign the inside of a gentleman’s coffin –
fortunately he was not in residence at the time.
The launch of my YouTube channel, Peter James TV (
www.peterjames.com/youtube),
has brought me back into the orbit of stars. Among them Joan Collins
(pictured with me). I’ve always found her and her husband, Percy,
utterly charming.. So imagine how I felt a few
weeks ago when Joan was at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, doing her
brilliant one-woman show. She has a number of Brighton and Sussex
connections, including her father who spent the last decade of his life
in the city. We arranged I would interview her for Peter James TV before
the show, and afterwards she, Percy, Lara and I would go to dinner at
English’s. Everything was arranged with the restaurant, we were to have
an upstairs area – totally private. So imagine my surprise and
consternation when we turned up at English’s at our booked time of
10.30pm to find it shut. Clearly a big misunderstanding somewhere, and
my first black mark for the place in very many years of considering it
my Brighton go-to eatery.
So what to do with a tired, thirsty and
hungry Joan Collins, in the middle of Brighton on a freezing Monday
night? I needed either a bright idea or a knight in shining armour. The
latter appeared, just as we turned away from the locked door and
darkened windows, asking if we were okay. When I explained the situation
he said he was the manager of the pub right across the alley, The
Sussex, and whilst his chef had gone home for the night, he’d be happy
to rustle us up some cheese and pickle sandwiches.
Joan took it
all with good humour. We ended up having a fun time, with great
sandwiches, and booze flowing. When we had finished, our shining and
very charming knight refused to accept one penny for the food or drink.
Sometimes, celebrity rocks… And, hey, how many people have been able to
call Joan Collins a cheap dinner date?
The paperback of
Peter James’s latest Roy Grace novel, Love You Dead is out now. He
donates his fee for this column to his charitable foundation supporting
Sussex charities and this month’s fee will be given to the Terrys Cross
Trust.
