Exclusive: Brian and Charles Director and Producer Jim Archer and Rupert Majendie Discuss the Movie

The new movie Brian and Charles has actually been a long time in the making. British comedian and actor David Earl had developed a character by the name of Brian Gittins, someone who would pop up on radio shows, podcasts, and even television. Earl has even played the character of some of Ricky Gervais’ shows, such as Extras and After Life. But it was around 2013 when someone called into one of his shows using a computerized voice and pretending to be a sentient robot by the name of Charles.

That someone was Rupert Majendie, a very funny person who had worked with Earl before but did not consider himself to be a performer. They had instant chemistry, which would take them on a journey through comedy and cinema. Along the way, they teamed up with writer and actor Chris Hayward for live shows, then met filmmaker Jim Archer, who directed a 2017 short film about Brian and his robot buddy Charles. It was a funny, quaint, unique piece (which you can watch below), and now they’ll all be on the big screen with the theatrical release of their first feature, Brian and Charles. Majendie and Archer spoke with us about the film.

Rupert Majendie on the Birth of Brian and Charles

“I was a fan of the character Brian Gittins,” Majendie says, “and had worked with him quite a lot in live stuff before, and when he started the radio show, I wanted to be a part of it, but I’m not a performer. I was sort of terrified to talk, so I just did some touch typing and Charles was born.” Majendie called in using computer software, where he would type in what he wanted to say, and a digital voice would read it aloud. The interactions between Earl and Majendie as Brian and Charles were funny from the start. “[Charles] became a sort of regular caller over the year.”

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Since Majendie is not a performer, when they took their odd-couple act to live comedy shows and stand-up, Chris Hayward stepped in to play Charles. The Brian Gittins character was already awkwardly, often inappropriately funny, but his back-and-forth with a clumsy and visibly ridiculous robot was hilarious. Hayward and Majendie would often write material for Charles, but for the shows, Majendie would be in the back with a computer, typing out what Charles would say, and Hayward would be in the silly robot suit (which looks like an old man made of blocky cardboard as seen through the lens of Cubism) acting it all out.

Of course, Majendie had some wicked fun with this set-up, getting Hayward to do some wild things. “He’d be reacting to quite strange stuff sometimes,” Majendie laughs, “I’d sort of make him like attack the audience. I was egging him on.” Archer adds, “There would be times when Chris would be like ‘Oh, God,’ and kind of get annoyed at the instructions and pause for a moment.”

Jim Archer Brings Brian and Charles to Theaters

With the film, the titular Brian and Charles characters are now a bit different, having evolved over the years. Part of this is because their creators wanted them to be a bit more likable for a feature film, but also because they had a particular story to tell where the characters needed a bit of a change. “I think particularly Brian,” Archer says, “he’s got the same voice and the same kind of look, but in terms of his backstory, his sort of softness and kindness and all this other stuff, that wasn’t the live version of Brian. So yeah, huge change. And then Charles, well, Charles was kind of changed in every way.”

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“Yeah, he was sort of there to annoy Brian and wind him up in the live shows,” Majendie adds, “whereas once you get him on screen, it’s more sort of an Odd Couple type thing.” “We had to create a story,” Archer says, “so that sort of shaped it a lot more.” The results are surprisingly sweet, and Brian and Charles sort of becomes a quietly funny meditation on loneliness and friendship, with the socially awkward inventor Brian building his only real friend, Charles Petrescu, and the two sharing a house in the country together. A lot of its success comes from Archer’s direction, which captures beautiful landscapes as well as the warm but claustrophobic house the two share. The fact that Archer utilized a mockumentary movie structure, the same as he did with the short film, helps a lot as well. Archer explains:

Originally, I think we thought maybe we would go away from the mockumentary thing and do it narratively. But then eventually we did come back to that because we thought we’re actually losing something, especially with the loneliness. There’s something kind of more tragic and interesting and funny this way, and Brian is kind of real […] It was just about taking what we had for the short and just trying to elevate every element of it. How can we make all of these things better, now that we have a sort of modest budget and time? What’s the sort of next level we can take it to?

As a gently funny study on loneliness, Brian and Charles really works. It’s odd to see the silly-looking Charles in the film and actually be emotionally invested in him and Brian, but that’s what happens.

Brian and Charles is a Gently Funny Look at Parenting

Part of what’s emotionally interesting about Brian and Charles is also how their relationship becomes slightly symbolic of parenthood itself. Charles often seems representative of an increasingly rebellious teenager, and Brian gradually becomes like a father afraid of being an empty-nester and having his child (his creation) go off into the world. There’s an authenticity to it, as Earl used some of his own interactions with his teenager, who was 15 at the time, for the film.

“That’s a big part of the sort of arc and the story structure,” Archer says. “Like, I think you can relate to it in many different ways, even if you don’t have kids, but I think that for those who have children who are maybe close to leaving home or growing up, I think it might hit even harder. But we’ve all been teenagers, you sort of know how that behavior goes down and the sort of confused emotions of that time in your life.” Thanks to Earl’s personal input, “it’s got that authorship there,” Majendie says.

What they’ve done with Brian and Charles seems to be working, as the trailer for the film has nearly seven million views on YouTube. “We’ll see, I don’t know if that will turn into ticket sales,” Archer laughs. “When we marketed it, if you just see what Charles looks like, you’d be like, ‘What the hell is that?’ It’s just something that invites intrigue. If I watched that trailer, I’d be intrigued.” “Yeah, I’d go watch it,” Majendie adds. Hopefully, many other people will, too.

From Focus Features, and an official selection from Sundance, Brian and Charles is now in theaters.