The following is from a fine Bruce Robinson essay in the gorgeous Criterion Collection DVD of the classic cult film, Withnail and I. The essay is about writer/director Robinson’s 1960s friend Viv, upon whom many aspects of the Withnail character was based:
I met him in 1964 in our first year in drama school. He wore a blue suit and shades and looked like Marlon Brando. Everyone thought he was going to be a star. Within ten minutes I was his closest friend, and so was everyone else. Everyone loved Viv. He wasn’t a bad actor (though when we left Central School he hardly ever got a job). Wasn’t a bad writer either (although I don’t ever remember him writing anything). The reality is that, if he had acted, or had written, he wouldn’t have excelled at either because the interest wasn’t there. What Vivian was brilliant at was being Vivian. That was his genius, and everyone who ever met him was overwhelmed by it. His nicknames were “the spine” and “crime.” I don’t know where the first came from, but the latter predicated on his ability to spend all day in the pub, and always with discretion navigate his turn to buy a drink. “Crime doesn’t pay.”
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