LOS ANGELES, California—We continue our piece on Russell Brand, who is virtually an unknown outside England, but we predict that the comedian, controversial radio and TV host, columnist and book author will soon be enjoying international stardom.

Thanks to his scene-stealing performance as a lustful British rocker in the bawdy comedy, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” Russell makes his first big step toward fame beyond Britain’s shores.

The multi-talented performer is also busy preparing the film adaptation of his best-selling autobiographical book, “My Booky Wook,” about his early life of drugs and brothels.

Trademark

Russell arrived at the press con with his trademark teased-up long hair. Soon after, he had the reporters in stitches with his outlandish wit. He parried questions with humor and intelligence—including one from our French colleague, who openly admired the British actor’s unabashed sexuality in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Excerpts:

From the journalist from France: “As a Frenchman, I was jealous to see the kind of sexuality coming from you in the movie. Where does it come from? I asked you this because it’s rare to see a Briton so comfortable with his sexuality.”

It certainly isn’t from my native England, where sexuality is repressed at birth. I had to nurture my sexuality as a young man on London’s cruel streets, lit only by gaslight, fearing the Ripper’s knife at every turn, but I stayed steadfast and developed what I think is one of the most delightful sexualities on earth.

Yes, it may be ambiguous, but it’s definitely heterosexual. It must be baffling for you as a Frenchman to see an Englishman so comfortable with his own genitals. I’m a one-off. The rest of England is still very much about repression and cups of tea.

Initial intention

How did you start in show business?

My initial intention was to become a serious Method actor, very much in the vein of James Dean or Robert De Niro. When I trained at the Drama Centre London, one of the finest institutions for acting, which has produced such wonderful performers as Colin Firth, Paul Bettany and Pierce Brosnan, I had intentions of becoming a serious dramatic actor. However, people incessantly chuckled at me regardless of how serious I was. When I played Macbeth, people scoffed throughout. Eventually, I had to become a comedian, simply because my life is a joke.

Stand-up comedy grants you autonomy. You’re not waiting for the phone to ring. In England, there’s good machinery for processing stand-up comedic talent. You can perform in front of 30 people in pubs.

Why is your life a joke?

I feel imprisoned by self-obsession and relentless embarrassment. I thought the embarrassment might abate when I became famous and wealthy in my own country, but this has not occurred. I misjudge people and myself, and I misjudge the timber of a conversation.

Ricky Gervais called me up once to befriend me. I inadvertently told him about a brothel in his hometown of Reading. He didn’t call again for several months.

Consumerist obsessions

What do you take seriously?

Love, spiritual unity, and the acceptance that life is transient and meaningless but for love, and that we’re all one. We must no longer be enslaved by the material world, convoluted and misdirected into consumerist obsessions. These things I take seriously. But, the most serious thing of all is comedy.

Yet, you’re wearing all this jewelry…

I feel that I’ve not yet reached enlightenment. To dress in robes would be disingenuous. So, for now, I decorate myself in baubles and trinkets like a living magpie or jackdaw forever robbing balls from windowsills.

Day will come when I can put aside these material things. Only love is important, but you can only exist within the context that you find yourself in. I’m a comedian. My dream is to become as ubiquitous in the US as I am in the United Kingdom.

How did Judd Apatow cast you in this movie?

Adam Sandler, the great American comic actor, guested on a chat show that I did in the UK. We got on very well. After the interview, Adam asked, “Would you be interested to appear in films?” I said I would love that very much. It sounded like an exciting way to pass time until your inevitable death—not Adam Sandler’s inevitable death, but my own, although I believe that Adam is mortal too.

English author

So, Adam and his agent took my manager and me to the United States. We met heads of studios, and Judd was one of the people we met. They happened to be casting for the part of an English author in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” They were kind enough to rewrite the part to suit my aesthetics and abilities.

It’s unusual for such a young man like you to write an autobiography.

It would have been presumptuous had I not been offered an enormous advance. Once the advance had been offered, it seemed financially necessary to write the book. This doesn’t mean that I see my life as being over. It has just begun, but it was also a lovely opportunity. I’ve had a difficult past which, in many ways, I’m not proud of. I was a drug addict. I had a difficult early life wrapped in petty crime. Writing this book was a good way to draw a line under that difficult period.

The book also afforded me the opportunity to make a film about it with Michael Winterbottom, the English filmmaker who won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. I’ve already written the first draft, and I will be playing myself. They said, “Do you want someone else to play you?” I answered, “No, I actually lived this life. Then, it becomes a film—and someone else gets to do it?” That doesn’t sound right. I’m in it for the glamour, which I recognize is transient.

Which character are you playing in the new Disney film, “Bedtime Stories”?

I have scenes with Adam Sandler as his sidekick. His character tells stories to his nephews, and those fantastic realms of his imagination spill over into the quotidian. I’m grimier in it than I am in real life, not nearly so well-groomed and probably not such a sexual opportunist, because it’s a family film. That family is not the Mansons.

Obscurity

Is fame exactly what you hoped it would be?

I have deep love for the art of comedy, and if I knew that for the rest of my life I would be performing in pubs, in front of 30 people for 50 quid a night, I would happily spend the rest of my life doing that! But, I would also spend 50 pounds on heroin to anesthetize me through a terrifying life of obscurity.

Fame was initially attractive to me for self-validation and for my self-esteem—and perhaps, in our early lives, we feel that we don’t get enough attention. We seek it externally and, while it’s ultimately vapid and vacuous, to be famous is quite good fun! People ask, “Are you sure you want to be famous? You won’t be able to go to the supermarket.” But, I don’t want to go to the supermarket—it’s horrible and cold. I can stay indoors with my fame!

E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com, and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.