The Last Ship star Craig Young talks Hollywood, toilet humour and partying with Sir Elton John !
Seeing him share a pint of cider with his retired mum at the Nottingham Beach bar, it’s hard to believe that Nottingham actor Craig Young spends the majority of his year in Los Angeles, working on big budget productions such as TV’s “Lost”, partying with the legendary Elton John and living directly under the Hollywood sign’s H.
The 41-year-old does, however, look the part, with a golden tan, blonde quiff and twinkling smile, but it takes some gentle persuasion from his mum before he starts sharing his star stories.
“I go to The Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award Party,” he smiles, taking a sip of his increasingly warm pint. “I stayed at his house in the south of France one time, which was fun. He has these massive Bentley convertibles, and he goes, ‘right come on everyone we are going to the restaurant, everyone get in.‘ So you get ready and go out and he has this convoy of open-top Bentleys, and you go through Nice and everyone is looking at you and you think, ‘oh my God, this is so embarrassing, but also amazing’.”
Currently starring as Declan in the post-apocalyptic Sky 1 series, The Last Ship, Craig, who grew-up in Farnborough Road where his mum and dad still live, plays the sonar operator on a rogue nuclear submarine.
He said: “I’m a bit like Scotty from Star Trek. I went for an audition on the Monday, got the job Tuesday and was filming Wednesday so it was a pretty fast turn-around. But I have a nephew who is in the navy and, because I am sort of playing an ex-navy type, I called him to say, ‘what is this ? What does that mean ? Where’s starboard ?’ It was fantastic to film, it was almost like lads being away.”
The show, which also stars Grey’s Anatomy’s Eric Dane, was filmed at the famous Culver Studios, in California. Craig said: “It’s where ‘Gone With The Wind’, ‘I Love Lucy’, and some really big television shows, were shot, so we were in very good company.”
As well as The Last Ship, Craig has just finished a film called “Kiss Me Kill Me”, a modern-day film noir about a man who wakes up in a hospital bed to find out his fiancée has been murdered. However, being injured in the process means he has no memory of it and is the prime suspect. Its US premiere is in September in Chicago.
And then there’s the one-man show the former ‘Deuce’ band member is developing for next year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival called “The Lost Year” Of Richard Burton. He said: “In 2012, his diaries were released in a book form but there was a year missing despite him writing avidly.”
Despite his heavy workload after 16 years in Hollywood, Craig insists that family time is crucial and he plans to go to the pub and have a game of bowling while he is here with his family. Craig says that, deep down, he’s still the same Clifton boy, and when a certain Vine video he made of a person passing wind is mentioned he roars with laughter.
He said: “I guess you can’t really take the boy out of Clifton. I have a real schoolboy humour and fart humour is the funniest thing in the world to me. It’s not highbrow, it’s disgusting – but I can’t stop laughing.”
Source : The Nottingham Post (18/08/2015)
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