Ed Stoppard: ‘I’ve got a drawer filled with wires. And I don’t know what any of them do’

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/02/ed-stoppard-me-and-my-tech

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Are you a gadget fiend or a technophobe?A technophobe. It’s probably something to do with admiration for my dad [Tom Stoppard].

Are you a fan of Skype auditions?I have Skyped with directors to discuss a role, I don’t think I have ever auditioned over Skype. I have done self-tapes [audition tapes], but it has always been a ridiculously ham-fisted process at my end. It took me years to get a video account and I still can’t quite remember how to log on to it.

How has technology changed an actor’s life?Obviously being able to email scripts. I have actually got jobs from self-tapes which I otherwise wouldn’t have got, so clearly the advantages are huge.

Do you use the web to research roles?Definitely. I do also go to the library. I am playing a character at the moment who was an anatomist of the early 19th century so I certainly did look things up on the internet but then at the same time I read books which had relevance. I also went to the British Library and asked them to get me out some 200-year-old anatomy books. Which, when push comes to shove, is more useful than just Wikipedia-ing something.

Would you like to see theatre productions become more hi-tech?My father did a trilogy of plays at the National Theatre about 15 years ago and the designer used projections on to these big screens. It was set in the mid-19th century so he was projecting Russian landscapes. It was kind of wonderful. As long as the technology is enlightening me, is helping to unlock the play for me, then terrific.

Your new ITV series, Home Fires, is set in the second world war - how did it feel being transported back to a pre-internet period?Oh, I’m much more comfortable in the 1940s. It’s my milieu, my era. I think of myself as something of a Luddite and I am sure my wife and my children think I am quite backward.

Do you have gadgets you’ve bought but never used?I’ve got a drawer in my study which is just filled with wires and of course I don’t know what any of them do. I shall hang on to them thinking that one day I will be trying to attach some appliance to something else and in that drawer I will find a wire that will fit both ends and I will feel an inordinate sense of triumph.

What’s the first thing you’d make with a 3D printer?On my way home last night on the train I came across an article about this company called E-nable. One in every 1,000 kids is born with missing fingers. The company, if I’ve understood it, will find institutions or even individuals who own 3D printers and say can we use your 3D printer to print a hand? The cost of the conventional prosthetic hands runs into the thousands of dollars but the materials for these [3D-printed] hands cost between $20 and $50. If I actually found myself with a 3D printer I’d contact E-nable and go: “Hi I’ve got a 3D printer; do you want me to print a prosthetic limb for some kid?”

What social media do you use?I’m not on Facebook. About a year ago I opened a Twitter account and I quite grandly, but also quite pathetically, thought I am going to subvert Twitter from the inside. So I don’t adhere to the 140-character thing – my tweets end in the middle of a sentence and then the sentence continues with my next tweet. Essentially I just ramble. I’ll do 11 tweets in 20 minutes because I am rambling about something and then nothing happens for four weeks.

Do you use any fitness trackers?My wife did have this thing on her phone. I took it and went out for a couple of runs and I’d run for two minutes and this voice would go “now walk” so I’d walk a bit and then it would go “jog!” so I’d start jogging.

Then I just worked out that I’ve got a fairly good idea of what two minutes feels like. It just doesn’t have to be that precise – I am not Mo Farah.

Do you have any apps?I’ve got apps on my phone – I can check the stock market using an app. But I don’t own any stocks, I don’t have any shares. I’d like to get rid of [it] but it’s like it has been tattooed to my phone.

Are there any apps you do use?The National Rail one. And Safari, that’s it. I am appalled. Hang on, let me check again. Maps, Safari and national rail. It’s pathetic. I know that there are apps out there that I would love to have, even if it is just one that [posts] me a newspaper everyday.

There is a Guardian and Observer app...I like to buy the Observer, I like to physically have the newspaper. I wouldn’t want to read it on my phone. That would be like buying a newspaper and reading it through the wrong end of a telescope.

Time travel - where to?Pre-industrial revolution, like mid-18th century. I would [also] like to go to Shakespeare’s Globe. Maybe I could just hop around in my time machine.