Steve Coogan's skating struggle

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Steve Coogan's 'Hamlet 2' character had to be rewritten because his rollerblading skills were so bad.

The funnyman is set to star as Dana Marschz, a failed actor who turns to teaching high school drama, in the movie and says scenes of him skating to and from work had to be altered when he couldn't master the unorthodox travel method.

He explained: "I thought, 'Well, maybe I could be really good at it'. Then rapidly that became obvious that it wasn't going to happen.

"I was in Venice Beach and I took some lessons. I checked into a hotel for two nights and booked, I said, 'I'd like two days, or three days, maybe three nights.'

"Yeah, so three days straight, I just kept going up and down. There were these two roller skating experts. I just wanted it to look like it was conceivable I could commute to work on them, but I can't."

Steve also admitted he struggled to feel at ease with song and dance routines in scenes involving his character encouraging students to put on an original musical.

He added: "We were doing a musical show, but we were making a movie and then we were doing this musical, so you had to rehearse the musical because it's very specific moves and things.

"I did a little bit in it, but mostly it was the guys, the kids."

'Hamlet 2' is due for release in cinemas in November.

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