Mart: The most terrible one ... there’s a couple. You know the one I made in Brasil, the one called ‘Boca’? I’ve never been as pleased to leave a country as I was to leave Brasil, that I got out of there.
KQ: Was it that bad?!
Mart: Rio was just horrific, you know the story when someone pulled a gun to my head. Someone got out of a car and pulled a gun to my head ... that shook me up, more than anything. Having a guy, a Portuguese guy scream at me in Portuguese up with his gun against my temple, and it was loaded and copped ... it just freaked me out, it freaked me out for a couple of days. And I’ve never been more pleased to get on the plane home. And the film wasn’t good enough to die for. When the gun was against my head all I could think of was ‘This film ain’t good enough’.
KQ: And which film was the most fun to make?
Mart: The most fun ...the most fun was the Krays, because it was with Gary. Because it was an extension of our own lives, you know, we were asked to do things that we did in drama school, playing at being seven year olds and playing at being nine year olds before we actually made the Krays. It was like going back into our own life and being seven years old again, sitting on the floor. It was incredible enjoying that whole thing again. And with Gary, looking into his eyes and he was my brother. You two know, it’s that special bond that you have. So for lots of what is in the movie you don’t have to try, it’s naturally there. That was the most enjoyable one, for that reason. I’m very proud of that movie.
KQ: And you can be, everyone who was involved was really good. Is there any particular role you once would like to play, perhaps a classic role?
Mart: No.
KQ: So you don’t have any ambitions to play Shakespeare once?
Mart: Definitely not, no ... playing Shakespeare doesn’t appeal to me at all. There is no particular role I can think of where I would say ‘yeah,that’s where I wanna go’. But you’re always surprised with small things that come up. Things that are offered along the way, and that’s the most exciting, everytime you do something different. Every new project, the next one that you do is the best one that you gonna do.
KQ: So how do you make your decision when you get an offer? Do you just look at the script or also who else is involved.
Mart: Mainly you look at the script. Because even if I knew it was gonna be a bad director I would still like to have a go at it, because you think you can control the character, you control how it’s gonna be. But there’s several different things you have to take into consideration ... and one’s the money!
KQ: Sure, you gotta pay your rent.
Mart: So you have several things that push you into doing something. What you always find is that the ones that pay the good money are the bad films and the good films don’t pay you any money. So you have to kind of push around a bit. You have to weigh up a lot of things.
KQ: Who’s your favourite actor or actress?
Mart: Oh, there’s a few. Johnny Depp, I like Johnny Depp. I can’t think of any good actors now. Anyone I really like.
KQ: Any females?
Mart: Yeah, I’m trying to think. I like Winona Ryder. I like the way she is really small but plays so big, the way she acts.
KQ: Is there any particular actor/ actress you would like to play with once?
Mart: Oh gosh, Marlon Brando?
KQ: Really, he’s got a reputation of being a bit difficult.
Mart: Michael Caine then.
KQ: Is there any specific director you admire, that you would like to work with?
Mart: Scorsese ... I mean it’s really obvious, every actor says the same things, Scorsese, Brando ... because everyone wants to work with a legend. Films like ‘Casino’ you can’t beat , they’re the best films on the planet. And of course you wanna be involved with that type of movie and people that make films of that quality.
KQ: And your Top5 favourite films?
Mart: Mutiny On The Bounty.
KQ: Which one?
Mart: With Brando. Raging Bull, Casino, and the two God Father films, first and second ... how many is that?
KQ: It’s five, you’re done ... so what’s the last film you’ve seen in the cinema?
Mart: The last film??? I saw ... can’t remember the name of it ... the one that won best screen writing, that won the Oscar for Best Screenwriting, it was this Damon ...
KQ: Oh yes, ‘Good Will Hunting’ ... so is it really as good as everyone says?
Mart: Fantastic .. I saw ‘Titanic’ and a few days later I saw that one. When I saw ‘Titanic’ I thought ‘that’s the best film ever’, then I came out of ‘Good Will Hunting’ and thought ‘that’s better’. You know it was so small but the script was so good. The acting was great, the script was great, the editing was great. Everything about it, the music was great, Robin Williams didn’t try to top everyone else, he kind of set back into it as well. It was brilliant.You must see that! I haven’t been to the cinema for a few weeks to be honest.
KQ: Do you ever quarrel with your wife which film to see when you’re going to the cinema?
Mart: No, because we go seperately. It’s much easier. You know what, because I spend quite a lot of time away. When I’m away, that’s when I see all the films. When I’m in LA I go and see two films a day, sort of catch up on what’s going on ... and when I come back Shirlie spends a lot of time with her friend going to the cinema. So it’s kind of nice. It’s only a few films that we kind of go and see together.
KQ: So you don’t have this eternal quarrel at home where he wants to see some guy film and she wants to see something romantic.
Mart: No, no ...that’s taken care of because the kids rule that. They’re in control. They’re in control of what video you get out.
KQ: That’s what you get when you have kids, they’re the boss. Well, workwise, have you ever regretted moving back from LA to England or doesn’t it make such a difference?
Mart: No, I could regret it if I wanted to but you have to move on.
KQ: How is it for you as an English actor to work in the States. Is it hard for you even to find someone to talk to about a project with all this competition?
Mart: No it’s not, to be honest. At first they see you as a novelty, because you’re English and they always think that English actors are great and got this kind of thespian thing about them. So they kind of enjoy seeing English actors, but then you have to cut the mustard, and then you have to prove to them that you can do an American accent. And that’s the thing that lets a lot of English actors down. You can pick up a lot of films if you can do an American accent. But it’s hard, it’s really hard, you have to take a lot of time out to learn how to do that.
KQ: Yeah, we have this little info from your agent and at the bottom it lists you special qualifications and one of those are your different accents, American and
Mart: German (laughs). In America if you’re English and you can do an American accent ... there’s a difference in accents, like if I do a German accent YOU wouldn’t think I’m a German, there’s a difference in that, but ... it’s a difference in doing an American accent and actually selling it to an American, make them think that you’re an American ... that’s a big difference. It’s really hard work.
KQ: Would you like to be in one of these big blockbuster films like Gary experienced it with ‘Bodyguard’?
Mart: I’d love to.
KQ: We had the feeling HE didn’t enjoy that very much.
Mart: No he didn’t, but ... no, he didn’t but I wouldn’t turn it down ‘no sorry, I’m busy ... no, can’t do that’.
KQ: You have been in both businesses, the music and the film business ... both of them kind of dodgy, so tell us, which one’s worse?
Mart: Well, in the music industry I wasn’t really dealing with it, because the manager was always dealing with it. And in the film industry I deal with people a lot closer and a lot more. So obviously I would say the film industry. At seventeen in a band you kept away from it all, so you don’t really see the bad side of it. To be honest I have to say the film industry is far worse because that’s the business I really know.
KQ: It always seems to me that it’s such an unfair business, there are so many briliant stage actors that never get famous whereas others are not really good but are in the right film at he right time and make it really big over night.
Mart: Yeah, that’s right ... that’s how it is. That’s how it will always be.
KQ: So you don’t spend your time worrying about such things, you just take it as it comes?
Mart: Yeah, I have to ... otherwise you’d be worrying all the time. I think there are far more important things to worry about. If you worry about the small stuff God help you when it comes to the big stuff.
KQ: Being famous, what do you consider the best thing about it and what’s the worst?
Mart: The best thing about people knowing who you are is ... like when you walk into a restaurant and someone knows your name and says ‘come in Martin’ and embraces you ... that’s really nice. You can be at the other side of the world and someone says ‘hey, how are you doing’, and that’s really nice. And ... I don’t know, the worst thing ... the worst thing I suppose is your privacy. Well, I haven’t done that for a while but when you have to live in a hotel to get a break. When you’re in a hotel there is nowhere else to go and that’s really hard, living in a hotel. But I haven’t done that for a long time.
KQ: Are you still in touch with some of your old schoolmates or is it hard to do that when you are in something as big as the band was?
Mart: No, it’s not that really, I mean, are you still in touch with your old mates?
KQ: Some, but it’s difficult ... they move away or get married and don’t have so much time anymore.
Mart: Yeah, same with me ... it’s not because of the band or the job or anything. If I see them we chat but ... it’s like you move on, don’t you. You make new friends, you have a new life. You become someone else.
KQ: But occasionally you bump into some old friends?
Mart: Not very often.
KQ: But do you get sometimes people come up to you saying ‘oh, don’t you remember me, we were in the same class at school’?
Mart: Yes, I do, that’s embarrassing, isn’t it? Just the other day someone approached me saying ‘do you remember me’. And I went ‘er, no, I don’t, I haven’t got a clue’. But they knew my BROTHER, and they were saying to me ‘oh do you remember us down on such and such old street’ but I didn’t. They knew Gary, and then I walked away and thought ‘oh no’ ... they must have thought I was so rude.
KQ: But sometimes it’s difficult to remember. When I think of my last school reunion, I had a strange feeling that half the people there were not from my year, I didn’t recognize them.
Mart: Yeah, and they always look so old. You go ‘oh God, am I that old???’. Is that me??? They always look like they’ve grown up.
KQ: I have a feeling a lot of people as soon as they become 30 they think they have to settle down, become really serious and ... boring?
Mart: Midlife crisis, that’s what it is. Everyone gets it. The older you get the faster time goes. Now it just goes ‘zoooom’. I remember being a kid and I remember thinking ‘oh, how slow a year takes to go’ and from one weekend to the next would seem like a lifetime, but NOW... a month would go past just like this, it’s gone.
KQ: Lets go on to the next question before we get depressed ... you were a worldwide star with Spandau, now you’re still well known, but you can enjoy much more of a private life. Would you like to become so big again that it’s back to the old times?
Mart: You don’t think of it like that. You think of it like ... the more success you have the better films you can make. And I don’t think it would come into it whether or not I would like to be famous. I’ve done that. I was lucky, I did that when I was a kid. I think what it DOES mean is that you can make better films.
KQ: So it’s rather for the working opportunities and you don’t really miss all that attention and sometimes hysteria?
Mart: Absolutely not. No, you’ve done it and it was nice. I enjoy myself and I’m happy.
KQ: If your kids would like to get into showbiz would you support that?
Mart: Yeah!
KQ: Or would you rather like them to have a proper job?
Mart: Oh no, no, definitely not. I would love them to get into showbusiness.
KQ: Roman might be too small yet, but Harley, when you were around her age you were already at drama school, does she do something like that?
Mart: Yes, she’s done drama school for a bit and she wasn’t very happy there so she’s come out, she’s done piano for a bit and she wasn’t very happy there, and she did karate for a bit and she wasn’t very happy there so she stopped that. So she’s trying to find herself but she’s definitely an entertainer. She definitely is, she sings and she’s got a beautiful voice, a stunning voice, that really surprises me. Listen, she takes after Shirlie, not me! She’s very musical.
KQ: She’s so beautiful and so grown up, we saw her last week and she speaks so very posh with a very very British accent.
Mart: Frightens me. Really frightens me, sometimes I try and put on an accent so I can talk to her, so that I can keep up. Where does she get that from? It’s her school, her friends at school are very middle class so it comes across. Everyone there speaks very posh. It’s nice though, I’m pleased. I hope my little boy catches that.
KQ: He’s so cute with his blue eyes.
Mart: Yeah, he’s a good boy. He loves football.
KQ: He takes after his daddy.
Mart: I made him love football, I said ‘you better, you have a problem if you don’t’.
KQ: So he’s an Arsenal supporter like you?
Mart: Oh yeah. You know I took him down to ... you know Arsenal won the cups the other week and they bring the cups into Islington on the top of a bus. I took him down there to watch it, just to make sure that he becomes an Arsenal supporter. Because I remember my dad, when Arsenal ... you know they won the two cups and they say they won the double, and the last time they did that was in 1971 and my dad took ME down to show ME, so I took him, made him watch ... I said ‘don’t blink’, just made sure that it gets into his soul. So now he’s an Arsenal supporter.
KQ: Does he already follow it, every weekend, the matches?
Mart: No, but you know what, he’s just coming to the bit where he wants to watch England play because of the World Cup. It’s a really good time for him, because now he knows all the players in the England team. He loves looking at all the books, you know, it’s kind of addictive, the whole World Cup thing, so he’s getting carried away with that.. I’m pleased.
KQ: Even I get carried away with the World Cup.
Mart: Everyone ... even if you don’t like football, you get carried away a bit.
KQ: Usually I don’t watch a lot of football, when I was younger I was heavily into it, Germany had much better players then, but every time the World Cup comes along I watch every stupid game.
Mart: Everyone does, it’s amazing.
KQ: The English team is always very good, they play with a heart, I think ... The Germans only play
Mart: yeah, with the skill, with knowledge. Sometimes I’d rather the English would play with the knowledge than with the heart.
KQ: I think England would never do something like Germany did once at this awful shameful match against Austria.
Mart: What happened?
KQ: They actually didn’t play, they just stood around because both teams knew if none of them would lose they would make it both into the next round and there was this silent agreement just to kick the ball around for 90 minutes.
Mart: Oh, that’s awful.
KQ: Yeah, I think that was the most awful moment in German football history.
Mart: But they have great players ... good football. They have a good chance.
KQ: The English team did very well during the qualification.
Mart: Yes, they did ... the German team is quite old now, isn’t it? Klinsman is old and a couple of the others ... Matthäus, he’s come back again, hasn’t he? They must be getting ... over 30 now (laughs).
KQ: Yeah, they’re old, but we hardly have any new names.
Mart: That’s right, but there is one, there’s ... Bierhoff? He’s really good, isn’t he. He’s like, the big new name ... but he’s not Gerd Müller.
KQ: No way, nobody is Gerd Müller!!! Or Beckenbauer.
Mart: Beckenbauer, yeah ... he’s managing now, isn’t he?
KQ: No, he’s the president of Bayern Munich.
Mart. Oh is he.
KQ: Well, back to your children ... if they get into a showbiz career, at what age would you support that, if you look at those boybands nowadays, they get younger and younger all the time ... or just look at one Aaron Carter.
Mart: I would support them, absolutely. I don’t mind at all, if they’ve got the talent and they wanted to do it, why would you ever wanna stop them?
KQ: But don’t you think that at a certain age it might be too much to handle for a child?
Mart: No, I don’t, no. I think if that’s the point in time that you are given the opportunity to do it, then you should go for it, because you might never get this opportunity again. If it’s sitting there and you can take it then you should take it.I think it would be very sad if I were a dad and I would say ‘no you can’t do it’. When I was 17 I said to my dad ‘this is what I wanna do’ and he completely supported me and said ‘okay, leave work and you do whatever you wanna do’. You have to support your kids, if that’s the window of opportunity they get than that’s the time they should go for it, because I don’t think it will come along twice.
KQ: Well, I suppose that almost answers the next question ... you were rather young yourself when you started out with the band, you never felt that it was too early?
Mart: No, not at all. I think starting young has given me the opportunity to do it twice, if it would have come along a lot later I probably wouldn’t have made the Krays, I wouldn’t have had THAT opportunity. So it has given me two windows, it’s been good for me, you know. Also you learn a lot, life’s like a game ...life’s like a board game, like snakes and ladders, you go up one bit and you come down the other bit and you gotta try and get to the end in one piece. I think if there’s a big ladder at the beginning of the board I don’t think I would say ‘no, I’m not going up that one, I wait for the later one’, I think you just go up there.
KQ: So you never felt that you missed out on anything?
Mart: No, not at all, not at all.
KQ: Okay ... in an interview you once said that you would like to have two children with Shirlie and then perhaps would like to adopt more. How do you feel about that now, as experienced father, you want more kids?
Mart: Oh no, two is enough. Definitely! Two is enough for ME, it might not be for other people, but two is enough for me ... I don’t know how I could share out my time any more than I do, and I don’t know how you can share out your love more than I do. You must be able to because lots of people do it, I’m sure it comes naturally, but thinking about it now, I think I wouldn’t have the time to share out. It’s difficult for my kids NOW, they want all your time. I love it, I really love it, but you have to walk away sometimes and say ‘no, this is my time’, and that’s really difficult. Especially if you spend a lot of time at home.
KQ: They think you’re always available.
Mart: Yeah, yeah ... they think you’re just an extension of their Nintendo, do you know what I mean? They just sit there on this chair and you do it.
KQ: Can you still remember the first time you met Shirlie and when was it that you knew that she is Mrs Right for you?
Mart: Straight away. And I can remember it like yesterday.
KQ: So, did you ever forget a wedding anniversary?
Mart: No, I’ve never forgotten the wedding anniversary, but I’ve forgotten the present, does that make sense?
KQ: We leave this open for the readers’ interpretation ... our final question, what’s your favourite country for a holiday?
Mart: I don’t really like the Caribbean very much. Have you ever been there? It’s really ... I don’t like it there. I like Europe, I would say my favourite place to go on a holiday is Ibiza, which is only 2½ hours on the airplane from here, it’s not a lot of grief to get to, it’s really easy travelling and when you get there it’s everything you want the Caribbean to be. It’s like see through water,cristal clear water, white sand, palm trees ... you could be on the Caribbean but 2½ hours from home. To get on a plane and have to go ten, twelve hours ...
KQ: Especially with kids.
Mart: Yes, it’s a nightmare! And by the time you get there you’re just exhausted, so ... Ibiza, definitely! And Steve’s lucky, Steve lives there ... I’m really jealous.
KQ: You’ve seen him lately?
Mart: Yeah, we wrote a song together for his album. The last time I was there.
KQ: Wow, I didn’t know that. And this song will definitely be on his album then?
Mart: Yeah, the last time we were there we were staying in a villa and Steve came over for a barbecue and we sat down and we wrote the song.
KQ: Great, and what’s the name of the song? Does it have a name?
Mart: Yes, it’s called ‘Indian Summer’.
KQ: That’s great news, so you still have an affinity to music, it’s nothing you put into a closet?
Mart: No, no, I would like to go back to it one day as well ... when the right time comes!
KQ: That makes for a good last sentence ... many thanks for your time and the lovely conversation!