Stills Photographer “Leon the Pig Farmer”

June 07, 1999

Having worked with Mark on “Leon the Pig Farmer” my best memory would be his continual sense of humour, even when the pressures of filming were at their height.

Mark would understandably get a bit fed up with being kept waiting around and so would on occasions wait until just before he was required for a shot at which point he would decide to go the loo. On one occasion walking past me with a mischievous smile he said “they’ve kept me waiting now they can wait for me”.

Another time, during filming in London, a lot of “reverse angle” shots ( from behind Mark) were being made. This meant that it was only the back of Marks head being seen it the foreground of the shots – when of course he wanted his face to be seen. He was making comments about how good his “back of head acting” was, when in a break he asked if I had a Polaroid camera. I replied no, but the make up girl had. He then got her to take a picture and said to me “get ready”. Soon after, at a particularly heated moment with the director and producer watching the monitor, the camera tracked along shooting film as the scene developed. Suddenly the producer shouted “what’s that in the foreground” as an image of Mark suddenly appeared in their monitor. Mark had stuck the Polaroid of himself onto the back of his head. (See photo below)

He was a great guy and I thoroughly enjoyed working with him.