Q&A – The darker side of Hollywood with Nick Cohen and Life with Oscar at the Arcola Theatre This April

Actor and filmmaker Nick Cohen goes on a tragi-comic odyssey through the dark side of Hollywood as he relives his years in LA. After being invited over to the City of Angels by a double Oscar-winner with the promise of a nomination and a secret formula for a win, things begin to unravel and a darker underworld emerges. The show is playing at the Arcola Theatre from next Tuesday 2nd April. For tickets and more info go to www.arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/life-with-oscar

How did Life with Oscar come about?

Life with Oscar has taken a long time to come to the stage. First of all, I had to live the experience because it's all true. And then I had to get a lot of therapy and do a lot of healing before I could laugh about it, because it was very painful at the time to be humiliated and rejected and go through all the weird experiences that I did in Hollywood. So it's taken 10 years or so, to turn all that trauma into a black comedy, and bring it to the stage.

Did you face any challenges when making such a personal show?

It's difficult when you're doing something that's all true and totally personal. There's lots of ethical questions like, How much do you reveal about the true identities of the people whose behaviour can be illegal or shocking or outrageous? And how vulnerable you make yourself. Basically, I look like a total idiot in the show. And in some places that might make it be really embarrassing and make me lose all credibility. You have to be willing to surrender any scrap of dignity.

The show played at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, how important is somewhere like the Fringe for developing a show?

The Edinburgh Fringe is such a fantastic showcase for new work. You see such amazing experimental, daring, downright crazy pieces up there. It's so competitive. I think that's the only thing that people don't really know, I think people know about fleabag and its enormous success, but they don't realize how many 1000s of shows there are, with people just struggling to get anybody and I mean, literally anybody in the audience. I mean, I think the average audience for an Edinburgh Fringe show is like four people or something. And the accommodation is now through the roof. Someone once posted recently about how it Travelodge there for the whole month would cost you something like 30,000 pounds. But it still remains the most incredible atmosphere – you have to try it to know.

The show is very physical and you play 31 different characters, how do you prepare for a performance?

Playing 31 different characters is a big physical challenge. And I have to prepare mentally and physically, you have to be fit and focused. The original director Nick Pitt said, it's a bit like being a footballer. The very first question he asked me was, how fit Am I? Because it is a very physical energetic show.

What do you hope the audience will take from the show?

I hope that the audience will laugh and be moved and see Hollywood differently. Beyond that I’d love it if it makes them think about their own relationship to success and ambition. How in different ways, we're all slaves to the idea of success, whatever success means to each and every one of us, and how much freer we would be if we could just enjoy life without the tyranny of trying to be successful. Who defines success? What is success anyway?

You’re also a filmmaker, do you approach theatre differently to film?

I'm a filmmaker, as well as someone who works in the theatre. And I'm interested in the overlap between the two. Which is why there's film in the show, and projection in the show. Theatre requires a very raw connection to the audience. It's something that you feel in the moment, and it's totally unpredictable, every night is different. Film, you can be a lot more precise, because you can just repeat endlessly. So there's a kind of safety factor with film, whereas theater is a lot riskier. And that's the excitement of theater, even though it's a lot more challenging to find an audience, the audience, once you have them can be like nothing you can ever achieve anywhere else. 

There's no money in it until you get to the upper end of the West End or Broadway. So everybody's there for the love of it. And that creates a different atmosphere than film, which is a very commercial expensive thing. Also, in theater, you can go anywhere you can go to other planets, other dimensions. There's no restriction other than the imagination. Whereas with film, you're constantly aware of the budget. Theatre is constantly changing and constantly surprising, which is why I love it, even though it will make me bankrupt