John Cleese discusses his career origins, new autobiography with “Varsity”

John Cleese, who played Nearly Headless Nick in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, recently gave an interview to Varsity, a publication of his alma mater, Cambridge University. In the interview Cleese discusses the origins of his career in show business and his new novel, So Anyway…

On his start in comedy, Cleese shares,

I spent a lot of time there because I was incredibly lucky to get digs just around the corner, literally around 100 yards away, and that’s why I think I spent so much time there. If I hadn’t had digs around the corner, I probably wouldn’t be in show business; it’s very strange.

Cleese describes his experience with writing his new autobiography, which is set to be released this coming Tuesday, November 4.

It was as though in my mind I’d integrated all these different parts of my life, and it felt more integrated than it did before, and it gave me a stronger sense that my life had led up.

Cleese’s writing style somewhat mirrors that of J.K. Rowling herself in that he prefers to write by hand:

The nice thing about this piece of technology, this little propelling pencil, is that on the other end from the lead, there’s a little piece of rubber, and if you rub it against what is written on the piece of paper, you can rub it out, and this seems to me an ideal combination.

Are you planning on reading Cleese’s autobiography when it hits stores on Tuesday? Let us know in the comments!