Matt Lucas: 'I don't have Ashton's looks to lose'

Matt Lucas: 'I don't have Ashton's looks to lose'
Matt Lucas: 'I don't have Ashton's looks to lose' (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Matt Lucas says he isn't vain enough to feel embarrassed about baring all in new film Small Apartments. The star of Little Britain and Bridesmaids plays weirdo Franklin Franklin in the ensemble comedy which premiered at the SXSW film festival at the weekend, who appears wearing just a large pair of white Y-fronts, a bad wig, and some clogs. Matt told Entertainment Weekly: "I don't think vanity is going to help me. "I don't have Ashton Kutcher's looks to lose. So, you know, what the hell? I used to do stand up comedy when I started out and I used to heckle myself before the audience could heckle me. It's that kind of thing." He added: "I think a lot of the big film stars in America, their agents and their people around them will have an idea of what they need to do - play a sympathetic character, or a character close to their own age. "But I'm not a movie star by any stretch of the imagination, so I don't have to worry about those things. I already look like Uncle Fester on a good day, so it doesn't really matter to me." The 38-year-old British comedian said he took the role because he was keen to work with director Jonas Akerlund, best known for his music videos for Lady Gaga and Madonna. Matt said: "It's a strange film, and although it is quite heightened, it's a much more naturalistic performance than I often give in things like Little Britain."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.