Mackenzie Crook was born in 1971 in Maidstone, Kent. He is an actor, director and writer. He played Gareth Keenan in The Office and Orell in Game of Thrones.
What’s your earliest memory?
Making my sister laugh by leaning out of my cot, pulling clothes out of a wardrobe and throwing them in a pile on the floor. My dad came upstairs and didn’t find it at all funny.
What book last changed your thinking?
Richard Morton Jack’s Nick Drake: The Life changed the way I think about one of my favourite musicians. I’d always bought into the “tortured poet” story and various myths surrounding Nick Drake’s troubled last few years. What I discovered was a charismatic, immensely popular, and fiercely creative man whose short life was a happy one.
Who are your heroes?
When I was a boy, Barry Sheene was the epitome of cool in my eyes. I decided that, when I grew up, I would race motorcycles and smoke cigarettes. I did end up having a long and successful smoking career but, to this day, have never ridden a motorbike.
Which political figure do you look up to?
Two American presidents spring to mind, one Republican, one Democrat: Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. I’m not politically minded but feel that these are two thoroughly decent men. I was living in New York when Obama was first elected and walking home down Broadway that night remains a joyous memory. People were dancing in the street and it seemed as though everything was going to be OK. One of my most treasured possessions is a Lincoln button from his re-election campaign in 1864.
In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?
I’m an avid reader of Charles Dickens and fascinated by the London he describes. I’m fully aware of how grim it was for the majority of people at the time, so can I also choose my station? I’d be an affluent gentleman, of course.
Who would paint your portrait?
Can I choose a dead artist? Beryl Cook. No, Francis Bacon. No, hang on, I’d like Kristian Hammerstad to do my portrait. And I’d like to be wearing Barry Sheene’s leather jacket in the picture. [You’re welcome. KH]
What’s currently bugging you?
People who loathe dogs. What is their problem? Everyone should own and anthropomorphise a dog and talk about it incessantly. There’s nothing pathetic about a grown adult dressing a tiny dog in tiny little clothes. I think it’s classy to walk down the road swinging a little plastic bag of dog poo from your finger. People who despise dogs need to get a life.
What single thing would make your life better?
If I’d seen Nirvana at Reading Festival in 1992 like I was supposed to, instead of not going at the last minute. Then I could insist on telling young people about it whenever I spot one wearing a Nirvana T-shirt. They’d think I was brilliant and would no doubt have all manner of questions for me.
When were you happiest?
I haven’t been happiest yet. I’ve often been happy but happiest is yet to come. I can’t wait.
In another life, what job might you have chosen?
In my teens and early twenties I volunteered to do conservation work and for a while imagined that’s what I would go into. Luckily for the world I decided to play skinny weirdos on TV.
Are we all doomed?
We’re probably just as doomed as we’ve always been, but in different ways. These days we’ve got AI writing songs that are indistinguishable from Ed Sheeran’s; when my dad was born, the Luftwaffe were dropping bombs on London every night. Swings and roundabouts.
Mackenzie Crook’s “If Nick Drake Came to My House” is published by Ebury. He is at the Cambridge Literary Festival on 23 November
[See also: Anne-Marie Duff Q&A: “We have to keep going towards each other”]
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This article appears in the 20 Nov 2024 issue of the New Statesman, Combat Zone