Bean there, done that
Rowan to kill off Mr Bean
Rowan Atkinson says he is unlikely to play Mr Bean ever again.The comic says he will hang up his battered tweed jacket now his second movie, Mr Bean’s Holiday, has been released.
He said: ‘I cannot envisage a good scenario in which I would play him again.
‘Never say never, but at the moment it feels highly unlikely.’
The character that was to become Mr Bean was one of the first comic personas Atkinson adopted when he started in comedy, while a 20-year-old Oxford student.
Atkinson, now 52, told the Glasgow Herald that he ‘just looked at my face, and explored it and stretched it, and tweaked it, and just had fun with it.
‘Suddenly this character and this absurdity started to evolve, and this bizarre little five-minute sketch evolved, which was really the precursor to Mr. Bean, about this guy who didn't speak but just burbled and came out and tried to give away this piece of paper to anyone in the audience who would have it.’
Mr Bean first appeared on TV in 1988 special for Thames Television, and the first film a decade ago grossed $250million worldwide.
Mr Bean’s Holiday is released in the UK next Friday.
Published: 23 Mar 2007
