Rowan Atkinson Hates Several of His Best-Loved Characters – Including the One He Is Most Famous For
Rowan Atkinson, the icon known for his role in Mr. Bean, has shared that he doesn’t love many of his characters. Not only is the actor not fond of them, but when addressing his most famous one, he describes him as a “selfish” man he wouldn’t gladly welcome into his house. Now, who wouldn’t want to be friends with Mr. Bean?
According to Deadline, Atkinson recently talked about Mr. Bean during a screening of his latest project, the Netflix series Man vs. Baby. The 70-year-old star has played Bean since 1990, and reprised the role for feature films, animated shows, and even live appearances. However, when discussing the non-verbal character, Atkinson says that he truly dislikes the character:
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“I dislike Mr. Bean as a person, I certainly would never like to have dinner with him. But at the same time, I like him as a character, because he is possibly a bit like I was at age 10 – that sort of childish sort of selfishness and working things out in a slightly eccentric way. But at the same time, I wouldn’t want him in my house.”
The actor isn’t as active today as he once was. His Netflix series has kept him busy for years, and the last time we saw him on the big screen was in the musical Wonka. Man vs. Bee did quite well with critics, and hopefully, the sequel Man vs. Baby does equally well. Nevertheless, Atkinson isn’t exactly keen on reading reviews, as he believes success comes from somewhere else:
“I haven’t read a review or critique of anything I’ve done since the 20th century so I don’t know what reviewers, pundits and critics think of what I do, because the only thing that interests me is how many people watch this, and would they like to watch more? That’s the litmus test, and the sign of success, to me.”
‘Mr. Bean’ Is Undoubtedly Atkinson’s Most Important Creation
Mr Bean tries to cheat on an exam in the show mr. beanITV
Atkinson rose to TV fame in the early 1980s after appearing in the sketch show Not the Nine O’Clock News for the BBC. His work as a writer was good enough to convince the BBC to give him the opportunity to create Blackadder, the sitcom that starred Atkinson alongside Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, among others. Considered one of the best comedy shows of all time, Blackadder then led Atkinson to create the one-man show, Mr. Bean. The rest was history, as the sitcom found a strong following across the globe.
But while the clumsy and clownish man became his most important character, Atkinson simply doesn’t hold him high as one of his favorite creations. When navigating through the highlights of his career, Atkinson compares, and says Trevor Bingley, from Man vs. Bee and Man vs. Baby, is the nicest character he has ever played:
“Trevor Bingley, in his basic form, is arguably one of the nicest people I’ve ever played. Because I think most people I’ve played are sort of deeply unpleasant, really, you know, Mr. Bean is a selfish, self-serving, anarchic child. Blackadder, is a sort of sarcastic and sardonic and basically negative force, I think.
“Even Johnny English is a sort of vain, sort of charmless. I think actually, Trevor has turned out to be one of my more pleasant, amenable creations. I quite like playing the nice guy, which I haven’t done very often.”
Release Date
1990 – 1995-00-00
Directors
John Birkin, Paul Weiland, John Howard Davies
Franchise(s)
Mr. Bean
