Apparently, Atkinson was no less painfully slow on set. According to director Richard Curtis, while they were filming this scene, the Mr. Bean and Blackadder star would luxuriate in ridiculously long takes that lasted up to 11 minutes each. At the end of every take, he’d insist on giving it another go, saying, “Let’s go back and do that. Let’s start again.” This might be typical if you’re making a Kubrick film, but it was a bit much when in the service of a movie mostly remembered for the part where a guy romances his best friend’s wife using cue cards.
Understandably, this devotion to realism annoyed the hell out of Rickman, who “was there all the time going, ‘Grr, ugh.’” Which is at least a more measured response than he gave to John McClane’s wife’s coke-fiend buddy.
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