On His Memoir, Turning Mental Pain Into Tattoo Pain And His First Directorial Role

17 November 2015 | 1:00 pm | Mitch Knox

"If I can write books and direct and have cool people around me, then that's what I'd like to do."

Nick Frost

Nick Frost

Before there was Spaced, there was still Nick Frost.

The celebrated comic actor and long-time collaborator of fellow funnyman Simon Pegg may have only broken through to the popular consciousness in 1999, as part of the cast of cult UK comedy Spaced, created by Pegg and Jessica Hynes and directed by now-frequent Pegg-Frost collaborator Edgar Wright, but for 29 years prior, there was still Nick Frost, and he had lived a life, even before his 30th birthday. To summarise and oversimplify: His elder sister passed away when he was 10; at 15, his parents' furniture building business went under and the family lost their home; and his mother suffered a stress-induced stroke.

To teenage Frost, the notion that before he turned 45 he would have rubbed shoulders with Hollywood elite and starred in movies and on television would be a crazy story — but it's not the story that 43-year-old Frost wanted to tell in his debut memoir, Truths, Half-Truths & Little White Lies. Instead, he wanted to focus on the years leading up to when he ended up at 23 Meteor Street in the first place.

"I woke up and there were two tattooed giants putting a blanket around me, giving me some water [laughs]." 

"I think people imagine that I just popped into existence when we did Spaced 14 years ago and that was that, you know, but there was a whole life before that," Frost explains on the phone from London. "I didn't start acting until I was 29, and as you see in the book, it's kind of riddled with drugs and pain and alcoholism, but also a lot of fun and laughter. And I think it was a story I wanted to write down before... not before it was too late, but I wanted to do it now while I remembered it all and while it was fresh. I didn't just wanna write a ghost-written autobiography by a 'celeb', in inverted commas, which is just about their first-class flights and movie premieres and hobnobbing with the stars."

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"I think that's all fine if you're into that, but it makes a very crappy read. What I wanted to write down was, you know, a hard life."

With the hardest part behind him (we'd hope), Frost is ebullient about his impending sojourn to Australia for Supanova Pop Culture Expo this month, exuding excitement for the journey — though he does admit that may partially be because he's booked in some "cheeky" time to hang out with some old friends. Just keep an eye out for "the biggest, hairiest, most tattooed man on the beach, and that's me."

Wait, most tattooed?

"Oh, yeah, my top half is pretty much covered," Frost explains. "I got a tattoo when I was 18, and it was a birthday present from a friend of mine. At that point, Celtic ink was in, so it was like a Celtic sun. He did literally four seconds and I passed out. I woke up and there were two tattooed giants putting a blanket around me, giving me some water [laughs]." 

"I think it was purely that at that point everyone was into Pearl Jam and the Chili Peppers, so it was all about tribal art, he continues. "It's the only tribal one I've got; I didn't get another tattoo until I was 39."

While it mightn't seem it at face value — especially with the tribal-tat origins — Frost's eventual affinity for ink also carried a deeper motivation, after years of not "[getting] around to it or fanc[ying] being in any kind of physical pain."

"Part of me getting more tattoos was about, after my old man died, you know, it was literally a way to turn a mental pain into a physical pain and thus try and expel it, and it oddly worked," Frost says.

With his memoir printed and bound and another 15 years on screen between its tales and today, Frost seems intent - despite his book - on keeping his attention ever forward, with eyes turned towards prospects a little more behind the camera than he's used to. In fact, he tells The Music, that he has just been approached to direct his first project. He's "not allowed to say" what it is, "but it's a short film" and "I jumped at the chance to do that" — and has plans to develop his directorial portfolio even further in future.

"I think any day that I don't have to spend two hours panicking about lines is a good day," Frost laughs. "So if I can write books and direct and have cool people around me, then that's what I'd like to do."

"As an actor, I spend a lot of time watching what the crew does rather than what the other actors are doing, so I think I've spent the last 12-15 years doing a very long apprenticeship in terms of being able to direct something. So I think directing's about good time management and being a bit of a control freak, and wanting to know and have an opinion on everything — and that fits me perfectly!"