Bill Nighy has missed out on watching Love Actually like the rest of us (Picture: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
Bill Nighy has revealed he refuses to watch his own films back as it ‘robs him of any pleasure’ he felt in making them.
The actor, 72, might be a fan favourite but he is not one to enjoy his own work due to a lack of self-confidence that has plagued him throughout his career.
He made the admission during a talk at the BFI London Film Festival on Tuesday, after putting his fingers in his ears as the audience watched a clip of his latest film Living.
In Living, Bill plays a civil servant who receives a medical diagnosis which inspires him to move to the coast to enjoy his final days.
He admitted: ‘There is a degree of pressure to watch… I’ve tried. If I don’t watch, everything is great, everything is marvellous, it’s a perfect relationship for me.
‘If I watch, it’s all stolen from me. It robs me of any pleasure, any sense of achievement or anything.
Bill’s next movie is Living (Picture: Ross Ferguson)
‘It doesn’t matter that it’s not logical, it doesn’t matter that other people think it’s all right… for me, I know and I’ve really, really worked on it, I know that it will steal the experience from me. So I gave it up very early on.’
Bill revealed that he suffered from a lack of self-confidence as a young actor, adding: ‘I had whatever the violent opposite of confidence is.
‘I don’t know why I persisted, it’s a mystery except I know I didn’t want to have the conversation with anybody where they said, “Are you still doing that acting thing” and me saying no.
‘I didn’t want to have that exchange with anybody, I was too prideful. I had flunked school, I didn’t have any qualifications in anything and I didn’t have any enthusiasm for anything.
Bill’s missing out on his movies, which are fan favourites (Picture: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for BFI)
‘I wanted to be a writer and I procrastinate at an Olympic level, I’ve made it to this point in my life without ever having put pen to paper which I’m kind of stupidly proud of.
‘I didn’t want to do anything, I didn’t have any hobbies, I didn’t have a plan B so I just kept going because occasionally they gave me a job.’
Bill has gone on to star in a string of Hollywood blockbusters including The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Love Actually and while he might have missed out on enjoying the finished product, they have become massive fan favourites.
Living is set for release on November 4.
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Bill Nighy has never had the pleasure of watching Love Actually like the rest of us.