I kind of thought it was a well known trade secret who Banksy is, but the moment anyone reveals it, the magic is gone to the point that nobody profits. Banksy’s identity, like Dril’s identiy and other “anonymous” people is easily known, it’s just not in the people who know it’s interest to do so.
It’s not the comedy — he’s hilarious, especially when he’s playing it straight, like in that film with Brendan Fraser that I can never remember the name of — it just seems incongruous for him to show up more or less unannounced on the BBC (and for some reason, the fact it’s set in Bristol makes it even odder). It’s like, how did the casting director swing that? Did Walken owe them a favour?
IIRC there are more than a few more plausible candidates out there, including at least one “probably”.
But there’s enough deliberate nonsense around it that even if the actual no shit Bansky announced and proved it during the Superbowl the speculation wouldn’t stop. A lot of people wouldn’t buy it, and the rest would just keep playing the game since how ridiculous it is is very much the point.
Walken has a long standing practice of never saying no to a serious job offer. If his schedule allowed it, and he didn’t have to audition (or already had cause apparently he never turned down an audition either). He’d just take it. Didn’t matter what it was, didn’t matter what it paid, didn’t matter where.
So apparently it’s as simple as they called, and he was available.
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It wasn’t destroyed. It’s an ensemble painting.
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Blast from the Past
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Thank you!
I wouldn’t rule out the fact it’s Stephen Merchant either, his cachet in the film world is definitely rising as he seems to have some chops as a writer and director so i’m not entirely surprised Walken at least agreed to meet with him in the states, he flew out there apparently to talk to him about the project. I agree though that it is very pleasantly odd to see him in this weird comedy drama set in Bristol of all places. But it’s very good i think.
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Why, though? I think there is a lot more people moving back and forth between British and American TV/film now a days…
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I’m doing a Walken tribute in my spare room as we speak!
seeing as banksy only agreed to it on the condition that it would be painted over, and that his work is only valuable if it’s considered “official” by his company in writing, and considering he surely wouldn’t have signed off on it if they had changed their minds, (see the case if the stolen banksy a dude tried to get appraised on antiques roadshow) the idea that something valuable was destroyed is not really true. Its likely no one could have sold it in any case.
I don’t know, he just seems to be a bit too big to be messing around with BBC shows about people on community service in Bristol. In my mind, it’s a bit like De Niro showing up as a semi-regular on EastEnders. Maybe there’s a bit too much idolisation on my part (I would happily watch Walken read the telephone directory). Maybe I’m not acknowledging how much more of a big deal the BBC is internationally (particularly in America) than it was when I was a kid. Or maybe I’m not taking account of the fact that, as @Ryuthrowsstuff says, Walken still regards himself as fundamentally a jobbing actor, and just doesn’t turn down work without a very good reason.
Or advertising, among others, bagels, cars or Switzerland?
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You have a point there. For example, Ryan Reynolds has been riding a wave of popularity for at least a decade, yet he’s hawking potato chips in Mexico on the side.
Go check out his credit list. He’s been in quite a lot of trash, and for a good long while his reputation was more “that weird actor that does b movies”, guy ended up in Joe Dirt. (ETA: and he was fucking fabulous in Joe Dirt).
Reynolds has an interesting thing going on. Because hawking chips in Mexico is less of a side gig than you’d think.
He took the marketing team he put together for Deadpool, and turned it into a marketing company called Maximum Effort.
That marketing company then bought Aviation Gin (rather than Reynolds as usually reported), and built the brand up to be worth more than a half billion dollars. Between the two Maximum Effort became one of the hottest advertising and marketing concerns going.
Reynold’s remains Aviation’s spokesman, Maximum Effort their marketing agency. Reynold’s also recently bought a controlling state in Mint Mobile, a budget cell service provider. So you’ll see him doing ads for that.
This kinda shit seems to be the primary thing he does now. Popping up in some Mexican chip ads is probably part an parcel of it.
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And buying Wrexham A.F.C. 
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“Frankenstein’s monster paints over Banksy’s work”
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The best part is, Stephen Merchant managed to convince him to come over by telling Walken that Bristol is “just like San Francisco”. Well, we’ve got a famous bridge, and lot of hills, and we’re near the sea, practically identical!
Many people in Bristol know who Banksy really is, because he was born and grew up here, and I assume most of his family still live here. No one would publicly name him though, because he’s a local hero.
I don’t know, but then I’ve only lived here about ten years. There’s a good chance I’ve been in the same pub as him at some point and never realised (one local pub used to have some graffiti over one of the urinals saying “banksy pissed here”, but that disappeared when it got gastro-pubbed). Bristol’s a small city, sooner or later you get to bump into everyone (literally in Big Jeff’s case).
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