John Cleese<\/a> has learned to be critical of himself throughout his career.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
John Cleese has learnt to be self-deprecating<\/p>\n
The 85-year-old comedy legend felt confident like never before after reading the script for Fawlty Towers: The Play at London’s Apollo Theatre in 2024, but John feels he has to be “self-deprecating” – even more so in the UK – because he does not want people to brand him as “cocky”.<\/p>\n
John told the new issue of Candis magazine: “To be honest, I was more confident about it than almost anything I’ve ever done.<\/p>\n
“But life has taught me to be self-deprecating, particularly in the UK; otherwise you’re accused of being a bit cocky and you get slapped down.”<\/p>\n
John thinks the production – which adapted three episodes of the much-loved BBC sitcom, The Hotel Inspectors, The Germans and Communication Problems – works because it is a “farce”, which he thinks causes the show to be “universal and timeless”.<\/p>\n
\nHe explained: “I remember reading the finished script and thinking it was really funny.<\/p>\n
\n“And the English do love farce. Think Ben Travers. Think Brian Rix and Ray Cooney. Look at the success of Noises Off and One Man, Two Guvnors.<\/p>\n
\n“Farce is universal and timeless.”<\/p>\n
\nElsewhere, John blamed his late mom Muriel for causing him to make “bad choices with women” as an adult.<\/p>\n
\nThe actor – who has had four wives, including his current spouse Jennifer Wade – said: “I developed an ingrained habit of walking on eggshells when dealing with her.<\/p>\n
\n“If you start life like that, you’re likely to make bad choices with women when you’re an adult.”<\/p>\n
\nIn 2008, John paid his third wife, Alyce Eichelberger, \u00a315 million in cash and assets, as well as an extra \u00a3600,000 a year for seven years in their divorce settlement.<\/p>\n
\nAnd he thinks it is unfair that when they both die, her children, Martin and Clinton, would inherit more money than his children.<\/p>\n
\nJohn – who has Cynthia with his first wife, Fawlty Towers co-writer Connie Booth, and Camilla with his second wife Barbara Trentham – said: “What I find so unfair is that, if we both died today, her children would inherit much more than mine.<\/p>\n
\n“On the other hand, think what I’d have had to pay her if she had contributed anything to the relationship like children. Or a conversation.”<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"13 June 2025 John Cleese has learned to be critical of himself throughout his career. John Cleese has learnt to be self-deprecating The 85-year-old comedy legend felt confident like never before after reading the script for Fawlty Towers: The Play at London’s Apollo Theatre in 2024, but John feels he has to be “self-deprecating” – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11328,11663,11664,11327,11323,11665],"class_list":{"0":"post-174473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-barbara-trentham","9":"tag-ben-travers","10":"tag-brian-rix","11":"tag-connie-booth","12":"tag-john-cleese","13":"tag-ray-cooney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}