I thought there could be no greater accolade than getting to play Orson Welles in my first film but being Bafta-nominated is very close. I am very grateful.
–Christian McKay, quoted in The Independent
********************
To celebrate Christian McKay’s BAFTA nomination as “Best Supporting Actor,” my longtime video director, Al San Miguel has posted two excerpts from my interview with Christian McKay and director Richard Linklater on YouTube.
In addition, you can now ask Christian McKay questions directly, as he is tweeting from the official Me and Orson Welles Twitter page.
Christian’s tweets all end with a “CM.”
There is also a recent interview with Christian McKay at The New York Times Award Season Blog HERE, where Mr. McKay reveals that Richard Linklater paid for the one and only “Best Supporting Actor” trade ad for Me and Orson Welles out of his own pocket!
In commenting on the N. Y. Times interview at his BLOG, Jonathan Rosenbaum points out an amusing error that has happened rather frequently in the numerous interviews Mr. McKay has given about Orson Welles. Namely, that very often Mr. McKay’s questioners don’t seem to know much about Welles’s career, which leads to mis-spellings of film titles, such as “Kane” becoming “Caine,” or cases of the names of people Welles knew and worked with getting mangled in print. Astonishingly enough, one interviewer apparently didn’t even know who Charlie Chaplin was!
One of the most ridiculous questions McKay gets asked appeared recently in Tom O’Neil’s interview for The Los Angeles Times.
Mr. O’Neil begins by asking “Do you think Orson Welles was aware of what a monster he was?” and then goes on to proclaim, “Welles was one of the great tragic figures of Hollywood!”
The gracious Mr. McKay winces at those mis-statements, but goes on to try and gently instruct O’Neil in the error of his ways. It’s a bravura performance!