Masterclass with Mark Gatiss

On Friday the 16th of October, we were lucky enough to get a masterclass with Mark Gatiss, surprisingly his birthday was the very next day! He is well known for writing and directing the TV Series Doctor Who.  He is also an actor that is well known for playing a part in Sherlock. During the 2 hour masterclass I had taken down notes of what he had mentioned that I thought were significant and may help me in my personal aspiration to become an actor. 

Mark Gatiss' most favourite thing about being an actor is that he loves meeting new people and in his terms, it is important to have a laugh. However, his least favourite thing about being an actor is that the experience does not get less terrifying due to the fact that it flows naturally now and there are rarely any challenges that he faces when it comes to a new role. Gatiss also mentioned that he has done TV mostly over stage and radio. He had also helped write 2 episodes of Game of Thrones In Belfast. At one point, he was asked at the premiere 'who should be on the iron throne?' - he said himself! In addition at one point, during filming, he had got lost on set!

Another interesting fact that Gatiss mentioned was that his favourite type of films were the Early American films. One of the inspirations that fueled Gatiss to write was Agatha Christie's crime - which greatly contributed to Sherlock.

Mark Gatiss loves to collaborate with other writer/directors and says that collaboration is a very good thing in the creative industry. Furthermore, when it comes to writing, Gatiss says he puts himself in the shoes of past icons to make the piece more realistic. However, when it comes to acting Gatiss sometimes improvises on his own script as it makes his character flow through who he really is and both eventually merge in to one making his character his own. Throughout how writing career, he had written a Christmas Horror where his moral raised, which was always be positive, the world is very dark - it can collapse all at once or can keep going. Furthermore his inspirations of the creatures which make an appearance in the TV Series Doctor Who was about the story and  that there were no limitations in the world of writing . An important aspect that he had mentioned is that in order to write about a specific generation is that you have to be in it to write about which I had found truly inspiring.