Steve Coogan says he tried to “put a little love” into his Hamlet 2 role as eccentric drama teacher Dana Marschz (inset, playing “Sexy Jesus” in the film’s titular high school play).

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Merging the hilarious with the blasphemous

Veteran U.K. comedian and actor Steve Coogan admits he’s often made it a challenge for audiences to like his onscreen personas. Whether it’s narcissistic television presenter Alan Partridge (from various BBC series), real-life music impresario Tony Wilson (24 Hour Party People) or less-than-flattering incarnations of himself (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story), Coogan has routinely favoured roles that he deems “dysfunctional and mean-spirited.” (Others might simply opt for “asshole.”)

Consequently, playing high-school drama teacher Dana Marschz in the new comedy Hamlet 2, Coogan’s first headlining role in a U.S.-made movie, seems decidedly out of character.

“Playing cynical characters — it’s a safer place to be. I just wanted to forego that and — it might sound mawkish — put a little love into it,” says Coogan, speaking over the phone from Los Angeles. “[Dana’s] trying to do the right thing, no matter how stupid his actions are. He cares about people and believes in something. At first, people laugh at him. But, as the movie goes on, people start to care about him. By the end, they’re really sort of pleased for him when he’s successful.”

There’s certainly ample opportunity to laugh at Dana’s expense early on. The passionate but hapless drama teacher has a penchant for adapting Hollywood fare such as Erin Brockovich for the high-school stage. Prone to wearing caftans and rollerskates, he’s a failed actor who is desperately attempting to inspire his disinterested charges before the school shuts down the theatre department. Pulling out all the stops, he mounts a self-penned sequel to Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet, which just happens to be an irreverent musical featuring tunes like “Raped in the Face” and the show-stopping “Rock Me, Sexy Jesus.”

While Coogan accepts that Dana might be outrageous, he doesn’t see him as the least bit unrealistic. “He is an outlandish, extroverted, extravagant character, but those people are real; they do exist in theatrical circles,” he insists. Yet, there was a precarious balance the actor needed to strike. “My fear was doing a big performance and overacting. At the same time, I didn’t want to make Dana small, because I wanted to get that sense of eccentricity across. Whenever there was an emotional moment in the movie, I committed to it, trying to make those little moments real so that people cared about him. If it was just me doing a goofy performance, I think that it would run out of energy early on.

“It was difficult, actually,” he continues. “I knew what I wanted to do, but Andrew Fleming, the director, would oftentimes have to say to me, ‘Don’t try and be funny. Just play the truth of the situation. Just be sad. Just be vulnerable.’”

For Coogan, the lure of his old, cynical inclinations is something with which he constantly has to struggle. “Sometimes it’s a safe haven — a comfort blanket — to go for the gag, undercut yourself and be ironic. It’s a defence mechanism. You really have to concentrate to just let that moment be.”

It was the script’s many “little moments” (including some rather painful ones he shares with Catherine Keener, who plays his belligerent alcoholic wife) that initially attracted Coogan to the script, written by Fleming and Pam Brady, the latter of whom is a writer and producer for South Park. “It felt genuine,” he says. “It had a point to it. It didn’t feel as though it was... written to satisfy a certain sense of the market. They’d written it for themselves. It made me laugh in a way that wasn’t predictable.”

After meeting with the writers, Coogan was sold on the project. What sealed the deal? “We made each other laugh,” he offers. “We shared the same sense of humour.”

While Coogan felt an immediate affinity with his creative partners, Hamlet 2’s filming location proved more of a foreign concept to the Manchester native. Encamped in Albuquerque, New Mexico (masquerading as Tucson, Arizona), he found himself amidst landscapes he’d previously only been familiar with through “a diet of American movies.” If anything, the unfamiliar surroundings assisted the actor in moulding his largest role on these shores to date. “Dana is as culturally alien to Tucson as I was,” says Coogan. “In terms of playing a fish out of water, that served me well.”

Also joining Coogan on set in Albuquerque was actress Elisabeth Shue, who plays, well... actress Elisabeth Shue! Considering Coogan’s experience with “playing himself” (including a hilarious turn in 2003’s Coffee and Cigarettes), it begs the question as to whether he and Shue had a chance to compare notes. “That conversation did come up,” he admits. “My concern is not to look smug in a way of, ‘Look at me! I’m playing myself and having a little bit of a joke with myself. Aren’t I cool?’” In turn, he admired Shue’s casual approach to the task at hand. “She’s very straight, very secure. She’s very comfortable in herself. There were less successful actresses that we approached that wouldn’t go near it. She absolutely loved the idea and didn’t have to be persuaded at all.”

Coogan will next play Steve Coogan, as well as a number of other roles, when he embarks on a stand-up tour of the U.K. that’s been self-effacingly dubbed Steve Coogan is Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters. Encompassing a total of 40 dates and featuring “singing, dancing and supporting acts,” it will mark Coogan’s first tour in 10 years. The experience of making Hamlet 2 contributed in no small part to the undertaking. “I have to say that the very act of walking onto a stage in Hamlet 2, actually taking that step onto the stage, made me crave that feeling of performing a live show in front of an audience,” he enthuses. “I really want to do something interesting, funny and twisted.”

But then, a slight hint of trepidation is heard as Coogan confesses, “I’ve only written half a show, and most of the tickets are sold.”

However, this merely offers up another incentive for heading back out on the road. “I also really wanted to scare myself. And right now, I am very scared. So, I’ve succeeded.”