Mr. Walken is now appearing in a British series called “The Outlaws”, created by and starring Stephen Merchant. Mrs. solost and I watched ep 1, and I had mixed feelings about it. I settled in expecting to enjoy some lovely dry, droll Brit wit, and while there was a decent amount of that, there was also a surprisingly serious subplot involving two teenagers who get involved in a dangerous interaction with a gang in order to protect a relative, which I was not expecting and kind of threw me.
Anyway, back to Mr. Walken-- I saw this amusing AVClub article about how the crew visited Stonehenge and he wanted to touch a rock, but was refused. Merchant himself attempted to intervene:
I took her to one side and said, “He’s 78 years old. He’s an Academy Award winner. He’s Christopher Walken. He’s come 3,000 miles. These things have been here 5,000 years. You can’t just let him touch a stone?” And she’s like, “No. Definitely not.”
So, should Christopher Walken be allowed to touch the stone? I’m torn-- part of me says yes, absolutely! But part of me would be afraid that Christopher Walken making contact with Stonehenge may bust open the final seal of the Apocalypse, dooming us all, or something.
Is anyone else allowed to touch Stonehenge? No? Then Christopher Walken can’t touch Stonehenge. Being an academy award winner, etc., blah, blah, blah shouldn’t give you carte blanche to ignore the rules.
Well, if the ‘No. Definitely not’ Stonehenge caretaker who Stephen Merchant spoke to quits her job, and you decide to relocate and apply for it, I bet you’ll do very well in the interview process
Hollywood royalty doesn’t mean much here - we have royalty, who I can assume can touch whatever they like. But Christopher Walken isn’t special.
My sole claim to fame, Stephen Merchant’s sister is my neighbour, and they filmed a scene from that series in my office. I can attest that Stephen gets his remarkable height from his mother, who I have seen picking the grandkids up.
I have no idea if touching, per se, would do any damage to the stones, though many thousands of touches might add up. But, part of the issue is apparently not just plan-old touching with a hand, but all of the other shenanigans and defacements that have happened when people could come into contact with the stones.
What a struggle it was for Mrs. solost and I to work with him, too! He has no sense of humor whatsoever. Clearly Gervaise carried him through most of his previous projects. Does not take direction well, either. Kept hitting his head on doorframes and such
Given that Christopher Walken painted over a Banksy during the filming of a previous episode of the show, of course he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Stonehenge. (Gift link to NYTimes article that should be accessible by anyone.)
Well, it’s not like he wants to whitewash Stonehenge, just touch it (though after 5,000 years, honestly I’d say it’s due for a little freshening up, innit?).
If the monument preservation people didn’t have the rule, can you imagine how long the stones would be left standing? I’d guess about 10 minutes, given the general run of mankind these days. Walken presumably wouldn’t have done any harm, but it’s a very important rule.
