Russell Brand

BRITAIN'S STRANGEST COMEDY IMPORT HAS SURVIVED SEX ADDICTION, A DRUG HABIT,

NUMEROUS ARRESTS, DEATH THREATS AND A PRONOUNCED LACK OF FAME. NOW HE'S

MARRYING KATY PERRY AND STARRING IN A MOVIE. WELCOME TO AMERICA, RUSSELL

PLAYBOY: You've starred in several stand-up comedy specials, you hosted the MTV Music Video Awards, and you're appearing in your second Judd Apatow-produced movie this summer. Why aren't you a household name yet?

BRAND: I haven't been here long enough. Aside from the bits you just mentioned, I've spent most of the past few years in England. I've actually been focusing on becoming a household name in

Russia and China, because that's the future. I hope

*1», you enjoy this innocent era before your

empire collapses.

Q2

PLAYBOY: In your memoir. My Booky Wook, you describe a childhood

and early adulthood filled with heroin addiction, bulimia and sex with prostitutes. While you were living it. were you thinking. Oh man, this is going to make great fodder for comedy someday? BRAND: I sort of did, yeah. I had enough foresight at the time to think. This is pretty horrible, but it'll make for a good story. That was the only thing that made it tolerable, to have a bemused detach­ment about it. I think finding the humor in your life is sometimes the only thing that makes it bearable. You can contend with that sense of sadness by opposing it, byoverwheiming it with comedy. It's a useful method for navigating through sadness and misery.

Q3

PLAYBOY: Your father bought a prostitute for you during a trip to Hong Kong when you were just 16 years old. Was that experience terrifying or exhilarating?

It wasn't as irresponsible as it sounds. It was just the con­sequence of a night of drinking. I was in no way coerced. It was actually one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me. I can still recall everything about that night-the women in their high heels clinking across the floor and the smell of perfume and booze. I've had a strange attraction to prostitutes ever since. I just liked hanging out with them and talking to them. Prostitutes are some of the most fascinating women I've met in the world.

PLAYBOY: At least until recently you had a tremendous appetite for groupie sex. What are the reasons you wouldn't sleep with a fan?

BRAND: It's just aesthetics, was at my most promiscuous, charging locomotive. My selection

When I I was like a process was

outsourced. I had a team of experts who took care of finding women for me. They had very specific instructions. It was as if I was talking to a wine steward. "I'm looking for something French, a bit fruity, smells of oak." [laughs] I've (continued on page 114)

russell brand

(continued, from page 89) reached a point in my life where I under­stand empirically that this is not the answer. When you sleep with loads of women, it becomes a bit pointless and futile.

Q5

PIAYBOY: You went to rehab for sex addic­tion. Weren't you just surrounded by nymphomaniacs?

brand: Not at all! The majority of people in sex rehab are just disgusting men. There aren't hot blondes ripping off their clothes and saying, "I'm gorgeous, and I just can't get enough cock!" It's just slca/y men wank­ing off in dark corners. Let's not shy away from it: They're pedophiles. Pedophiles and perverts. I'm sorry if I burst your bubble and took some of the magic out of it, but you had to think about it for only 10 seconds. I was there for a month.

QG

PLAYBOY: You're engaged to pop singer Katy Perry of "I Kissed a Girl" fame, and you've talked about your relationship with her in your stand-up comedy. Does that mean she has free license to write songs about you? brand: I don't like to speculate on her cre­ative process. That's not my jurisdiction. God knows what she gets up to in that lab­oratory. I suppose if I talk about her a lot, it's going to be odd if I decide at some point to go, "Listen, I changed my mind. This is private." I'll make jokes about it, but the rest of the time I tiy to keep my relationship with her close to the chest. It's the first time in my life I've had something I've cared about this much and wanted to protect.

Q7

playboy: You're starring in a new movie called C,el Him to tlie Creek, in which you play a rock star who's also a drug addict and a sex fiend. Aside from the rock star part, how is this character not based on you? brand: Admittedly, we do have some similar characteristics. We have the same face, voice and body, for instance. We were both drug addicts, and as you pointed out, we both enjoy sex a great deal. But Aldous Snow, my character, is actually markedly different from me. While we were shooting the film, the director was constantly stopping me and saying, "No, no, no, not like that. Stop playing yourself." I'm very verbose and fast; Aldous is much more cool and laconic.

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PLAYBOY While making this movie you got to perform as a musician in front of 20,000 people in London. At any point did you think, I'm in the wrong business? brand: I've always wanted to be a rock star, if just because of the sexiness of it. But I'm far too sell-conscious. I'm much happier being a comedian who's sexy and a bit rock-and-roll rather than the most gauche, awkwardly embarrassing rock star in history. You can'I be a rock star if you're too aware of how ridiculous it is. You can't be ironic about it. When we did that concert I felt legiti­mately sexy in that moment. It was only later I thought, What was I thinking, thrusting my hips in that way and snarling?

Q9

piayboY: You first portrayed Aldous Snow in the 2008 comedy Forgetting Sarah Mar­shall, in which he is just a minor character. Aie you ready for the pressures of being a leading man?

BRAND: Absolutely. 'Ib tell you the truth, once you're in a film, you have to be on the set an awful lot regardless of how much you're in the script. I'd much rather be acting than sitting around in my trailer, thinking of new ways to masturbate.

Q10

PLAYBOY: This is your second movie playing the same character. Would you mind if Aldous Snow becomes more famous than you? BRAND: If that happens I'll destroy him. {langhs{ Honestly, no, I'd be line with that. My ego is big enough to compete with an alter ego. I actually like the idea. I can just pin all my bad behavior and poor decisions on him. "Oh goodness no, that was Aldmis who was caught drunk driving. I never would have agreed to be in those terrible commercials. That was entirely Aldmis's idea. He must value money more than integrity." I can remain in the Van Gogh school of tor­tured genius, and he can deal solely with the commerce and the tabloids.

Q11

PLAYBOY: There's a scene in Get Him to the Greek in which Aldous admits that being famous is essentially lonely and empty. Do you feel the same way? BRAND: Yeah, I do. And I wish more peo­ple would understand that. I certainly don't mean that fame is all about sitting atop your mansion and feeling sorry for yourself, because obviously loads of it is really go<xl. But fame is in no way a solution for being a bit sad or lonely. It's mostly unfullilling unless you're very careful about yourself. The courage and determination it takes to become famous can lie a detriment if not balanced with some kind of spirituality or self-awareness. I've been lucky to be sur­rounded by people who've known me for quite some time, and they are resolutely, pig-headedly, obstinately determined not to let me lose myself in the illusion of fame, {pauses] I'm thinking about firing those people.

Q12

playboy: Many Americans have preconceived notions about British people. We think of them as overly polite and dreadfully afraid of embarrassment. You're not any of those things. Aie we wrong about the British? BRAND: I don't know that you can define a people by a landmass. I suppose there are characteristics that all British people have in common, but you could say the same of Americans. I'm surprised when {Forgetting Sarah Marsliall co-star] Jason Segel talks about me and says, "Oh, he's just this wild, free-spirited person and doesn't give a fuck what anybody thinks." I do care what people think. I care that you think British people are all repressed, for a start. So I guess in that way I have constructed a comedy personality that's partly a reaction to the veiy stereotypes you've mentioned. But it's not as though I'm deliberately trying to address this stereotype or that I feel as if Knglish people are being unfairly judged. I just desperately don't want

to be one of those people who is awkward, embarrassed and slightly repressed.

Q13

PLAYBOY: For most oi the past decade you dressed like a cross between a Victorian jester and Willy Wonka with a leather fetish. But lately your fashion sense has become more conservative. Why the change? brand: When I was just getting started as a comic in England, having a veiy recognizable look gave me a head start. Wealing that sort of superhero bondage outfit probably made me a little more memorable. It gave me an identity that was dear, identifiable and recognizable and also not me. Now, granted, this is all high-falutin retrospective analysis, because I didn't think about it at the time. I wasn't so aware of iconography and imageiy that I could con­struct such an idea. But I feel I've reached a point where I don't have to wear those clothes anymore. Now I'm tliinking about the next step. What kind of identity do I want tomor­row? Avatar blue, maybe?

playboy: You once stuck a Barbie up your ass during a show in London, claiming it was a protest against consumerism. Is it possible there's a less personally invasive and painful way to protest consumerism? BRAND: If there is, I haven't found it. \laugks] If I remember correctly, I chose the Barbie doll because it represents the oppression of women, the stereotype of femininity, the commercialization of sexuality, blah blah blah. But what I learned from the experience, at least in hindsight, is that if you're going to make a satirical point involving putting things in your rectum, be selective. Don't take requests from the audience. I ultimately went with a Barbie doll because of the shape. It goes in easier, if you know what I mean.

Q15

playboy: When you hosted MTV's Video Music Awards a few years ago, you called President George Bush "that retarded cowboy fella." Were you surprised by the backlash? BRAND: When I said it, I thought, Well, tliis is a statement nobody can possibly have a problem with. I thought it was a veiy populist tiling to do. It was meant as a compliment. I wasn't remarking on Bush's mental retar­dation but the fact that Americans are so forward thinking they wouldn't object to putting a man with his limited intellectual capabilities into political office. It's quite a compliment that you let Bush run things for as long as you did. In my country he wouldn't have been trusted with a pair of scissors.

Q16

PLAYBOY: Didn't you get death threats because of the joke?

BRAND: I did, yeah. I was surprised my agency forwarded them along to me. It was like, "Look at all these death threats you've been getting!" I was also getting sexy letters with messages like "Hello, Russell. Here are pho­tos of my tits. I wish you'd come around and fuck me." But they never passed those along to me. Those letters they just burned. All I got were the death threats. I never took any of it seriously. If you think about it, a death threat is really futile, given the nature of mortality. If you want somebody to die, just wait.

Q-7

playboy: You also made sonic jokes at the VMAs about the Jonas Brothers and their vow of premarital abstinence. Is it safe to assume you're not a big proponent of vir­ginity under any circumstances? BRAND: I'm not morally opposed to the idea of sexual abstinence. It's just not practical for me, because I've got to have sex. I do think legitimate abstinence can be a good thing. I abstain from drugs and alcohol, so I under­stand the impulse. It's the public nature of it that I find interesting. Michel Foucault, the poststiiicturalist French philosopher, said that in Victorian society, the preeminence and cel­ebration of chastity was in fact the mirror of hedonism. In other words, if you're con­stantly drawing attention to your abstinence from sex, you're also drawing attention to sex. With somebody like Mick fagger, it's all about sex, sex, sex. But with the Jonas Brothel's, it's no sex, no sex, no sex. You see what I mean? The emphasis is still on sex.

Q18

PL\YBOY: You had a short-lived cult TV show in England called RE:Brand, which featured some pretty outrageous stunts, such as when you took a bath with a homeless man with an ulcerating leg and jerked off an older gay man in a bathroom. When did it stop being funny and become a cry for help? BRAND: That entire show was probably a cry for help. I was a junkie when that show was on the air. Within two or three months of it ending, I was in rehab. That was the last dice throw of a desperate man. It was less a cry for help than a mental breakdown on film. Jackass was a popular TV show at the time, and I was trying to do a psychological ver­sion of Jackass. When I watch it now, I still can't believe half of what I was doing.

Q19

PIAYBOY: You've been arrested 11 times thus far in your life. When you reach double digits, does getting arrested lose some of its magic? brand: It definitely does. It becomes routine and a little humdrum. You start unthinkingly raising your wiists to be cuffed. And you bow your head automatically as they put you into the back of a police car. Occasionally you'll encounter an overly vicious policeman who perhaps gets a bit rough with you, and that's when it gets exciting again. It's quite similar to promiscuity. You take pleasure in small details, the shape of an ankle or a distinctive eyebrow. Everyone has something magical. Eveiy police officer has something unique about him or her, some part of the arresting technique that makes it special.

Q20

playboy: You've twice been voted PETA's celebrity Sexiest Vegetarian Alive. Please explain how being a vegetarian is sexy. BRAND: Being the world's sexiest vegetar­ian is akin to being the world's most lovable pedophile. In a way it's as much a condem­nation as it is an endorsement. But I'm proud to be considered sexy, let alone the world's sexiest in any category. If I were nom­inated to be the sexiest man on this sofa, I would happily accept that title.