Bill Nighy Never Auditioned Again After ‘Love Actually’

Even Bill Nighy hated auditioning. The star of Living took a trip down memory lane with Vanity Fair and talked through his storied career, from Love Actually to Pirates of the Caribbean and all the rest. 

Nighy told VF that he got his start acting in secondary school and that his tall stature (he’s six feet one) was partially responsible for his falling in love with the craft. “We had a drama priest who was keen on putting on plays, and I was tall, which was a result because it meant I didn’t have to play girls,” Nighy said. This led him to study drama at the Guildford School of Acting, where, Nighy said, he “learned not to have my tongue hanging out of my mouth.” 

Nighy began his journey into the past with the BBC serial The Men’s Room (1991), recalling that his character, Mark Carleton, was incredibly popular in the bedroom. “I had seven sex scenes with four different women,” Nighy said. Apparently, there was so much sex that a newspaper page instructed viewers with heart issues not to engage in the sexual activity that Nighy got up to on the show. “On the medical page it said, ‘If you have a pacemaker or any kind of heart issue, do not attempt the things that Mr. Nighy does on BBC 2.’” What were those things? “Later, I did see in another newspaper, in the listings for TV, it said ‘cunnilingus on BBC 2,’” Nighy said. “And I have no memory of that either.”

The biggest shift in Nighy’s career came after he landed a plum role in Love Actually. “The casting of Love Actually involved a read-through, or I think what they call in America a table read,” Nighy said. He went on to admit that he did the read-through as a favor to the casting director and thought there was “no possibility” he’d ever get the part. “I read the part of Billy Mack, and then subsequently, completely to my surprise, I got the gig,” he said.

Nighy said that before Love Actually, he “had a very familiar English career, and I was happy. I wasn’t in any trouble.” But starring in the beloved ensemble romantic comedy with Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, and the late Alan Rickman “took it up to another level.” “It changed everything because it was a big hit, and it was a big hit in America, and it changed the way that I went to work,” Nighy said. 

The best change of all? Nighy catapulted to the coveted status of an offer-only actor. “One of the greatest things that ever happened to me, and ask any actor—it meant that I didn’t have to audition ever again for the rest of my life,” Nighy said. “You don’t have to sit in any of those outer offices sweating, worrying, short of breath, going and making a fool of yourself, and going home and, you know, weeping.”

As for Pirates of the Caribbean, Nighy was initially reluctant to take on the role of Davy Jones—part man, part octopus—in the mega-franchise. When he arrived on set, Nighy was surprised to learn that he wouldn’t have a costume like the other actors due to the CGI needs of his character. “I had to wear computer pajamas with white bobbles all over them, and a skull cap with a bobble on the top, and 250 dots painted out on my face,” he recalled. “And sneakers—I mean trainers—which is a stretch for me anyway, but trainers with a bobble on top. And then they introduce you to Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. If you ever felt lonely before, now it’s for real.”