Nice Quirk If You Can Get It

Though sporting thick glasses and his trademark hip-Grampa garb of skinny jeans, a shirt and blazer, Richard Ayoade looks much younger than his 33 years. And as he curls into the corner of a couch and hesitantly, though ever so politely, answers all my questions with self-effacing deflections, I begin to feel like the aunt of a very well-behaved, soft-spoken teenager who knows he must suffer through the inevitable “and what are you going to do for your summer holidays?” questions before quietly excusing himself to the back room to watch TV.

Over to promote his first feature film Submarine, a gorgeous and quirky adaptation of Joe Dunthorne’s novel, Ayoade has officially made the seamless transition from comedy actor to acclaimed director. Had he harboured these career aspirations for a while?
“I probably would have wanted to be in a band really, more than anything. Everyone wants to be in band, don’t they?”
Does he sing?
“No.”
Does he play anything?
“Guitar.”
Is he good?
“No.”
Right.
“Well,” he concedes, “I’m better than Noel Gallagher… but then, everyone is better than Noel Gallagher.”
But though he may never have played lead guitar in a successful band, he got to boss one around, which might just be even cooler. “Through happenstance” Ayoade was asked to direct the music video for Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Fluorescent Adolescent,’ and his debut foray into directing was nominated for the inaugural UK Music Video Awards. But of course, Richard is sure that that wasn’t due to any talent on his part.
“The song was just so good, it made it easy to connect to whatever visuals I put on it, it could have been finger-painting,” he muses.
He’s similarly dismissive of being elected president of the famous Footlights theatre club during his college years, whose alumni include stars such as John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
“Yeah, it used to be very good,” he admits when faced with this list of comic geniuses, before immediately retreating into his self-effacing default setting. “But see, there was a dip in our year, which then got better again. After I left. It just so happened that there weren’t very many people who were doing it in my year, statistically that’s the case. I think the only other person who did comedy in my year was John Oliver who does The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and so I got to take over, and we got to do some generally sub-standard Chris Morris-style stuff, but in a theatre context, which was ill-advised.”
For an “ill-advised” start to his career, the experience served him rather well. He certainly hasn’t been wanting for high-profile work, spending two years playing the socially awkward technophile Maurice Moss on The IT Crowd, appearing on Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt’s hit show The Mighty Boosh and directing more music videos for Arctic Monkeys as well as Super Furry Animals, Kasabian and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But when I suggest that he must consider his career to be – dare I say – “a success”, he gets so uncomfortable he suddenly starts talking like the Queen.
“One certainly feels it’s unwise to assume that you’ll ever certainly be working, and when you finish working on one project, you almost certainly feel you’ll never be working again. So you don’t finish one thing and say, ‘which of the manifolds of far-flung projects should I deign to consider?’ You just try to find the next thing that you hope you might be able to do some work on.”
Last year, he “found” Submarine, a Rushmore-esque tale of Oliver Tate, a somewhat awkward young man navigating his way through teenage life in Wales. But though Ayoade clearly has a great affection for his film, and seems genuinely touched when I tell him I loved it, he still reverts to wisecracks over talking openly about it. When I ask about Ben Stiller’s involvement as an executive producer, he merely jokes, “Oh you’ve heard of him? Yeah, he was a great P.A., makes good coffee,” and describes his directing style as, “Violent. Just violent. I mean for the younger actors, you have to change your style a little bit, but it’s just really the severity of the violence.”
But if Ayoade may not be willing to brag about his film himself, he has plenty of friends in the public eye willing to do it for him, as his friendships with Noel Fielding and Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Tuner – who wrote the soundtrack for Submarine – have propelled him into the elite cool group of the London social scene.
“Well obviously I am very similar to Lou Reed and other icons of cool,” he deadpans. “Yes, I see myself in that lineage. Because obviously I am very, very cool.” He sighs. “It’s a strange concept, this idea of ‘cool.’ I mean, Noel gets a lot of media attention and Alex has a major following, but I don’t really… I don’t think I’m… required. Certainly people would be imprudent to rely on me to improve circulation.”
He looks at me apologetically.
“You’ve probably gathered I’m not really adept at talking about myself, which is why I find all this kind of strange. The interviews, the ‘cool’ thing…” He pauses, looking somewhat pained by the very notion. “I just don’t know why anyone would find me interesting.”
Oh, Richard, don’t you get it yet? Mystery is always interesting.

Submarine is in cinemas from March 18.