Kayvan Novak

Avoiding leather salesmen, Dagenham and doing impressions in interviews that aren't being video'd...

*Four Lions, out to own on DVD and Blu-ray now*

Your character Waj in Four Lions is a bit simple. Did you research all the best ‘thick’ screen performances?
I wished I had. As soon as we finished filming, I thought of Trigger from Only Fools & Horses, and the beardy bloke from The Hangover. But I’m naturally thick anyway, so all I had to do was put an accent on.

What’s the thickest thing you’ve ever done then?
I once bought two leather jackets from a man who said he worked for Giorgio Armani and was just on his way to Italy. He stopped me as I was driving my car to tell me this and I paid him £250 for two of the most hideous leather jackets I’ve ever seen. That was 10 years ago and was the pinnacle of my stupidity.

That sounds like the sort of thing that might happen in Dagenham.
Oh really? I don’t go down that way, mate. This happened in Kensington.

Did you improvise any of the lines in Four Lions?
Not really, it was so well scripted. The one line that I did improvise was “fuck me Babybel”, but you can’t improvise a line like that unless you already have a brilliant script before it.

Do you like Babybels?
Yeah, they’re okay.

When was the last time you pissed yourself laughing?
It was last night, when I was watching the DVD extras for Four Lions. The ‘extras’ menu has a shot of Nigel Lindsay who plays Barry, screaming at the camera repeatedly. Then he goes back into the van, comes out and screams again. It’s on a loop. It’s simple but really funny. I did actually piss myself.

You’re a man of many voices and accents. What’s the hardest accent to do?
Waj’s one in the film was very hard. I had to practice lots because it’s an Asian and northern combo, and that can fall into the Brummy if you’re not careful. I observed a lot of northern Asian lads talking, then I watched Kes and it became a rough approximation of the two.

Are there any accents you can’t do?
Dagenham.

You mean to tell me you can’t do a ‘wideboy Essex-y cockney geezer’ accent?
Yeah, of course I can. There’s no accent I can’t do.

And there’s no point me getting you to demonstrate any because this is a written interview and it will look crap in print.
Yeah, you’ll have to do that rubbish thing in brackets where it says ‘adopts weird voice’.

Do you get any Victor Meldrew-style moments of people screaming their catchphrases at you?
Yeah, it’s usually [adopts weird voice and makes Brian Badonde ‘bwahhh’ noise].

How do you spell that?
B-O-H.

Has it started to piss you off yet?
No! It’s always good-natured. People only want to talk to me because they like and watch my stuff. But I don’t think they’d dare piss me off. I’m a big lad, you know. I’m 6' 1".

What are you working on next?
We want to do another Facejacker for Channel 4, but in the US, which will use the same characters and probably some new ones, too. The plan’s to start filming in November, so it will be shown next year sometime. I don’t think I could walk around in the UK as Brian Badonde [the pervy art critic] without attracting attention anymore.




*Four Lions, out to own on DVD and Blu-ray now*