Bill Nighy has a role in the upcoming Detective Pikachu movie. He just can't tell you what is. He can tell our sister magazine Total Film all about discovering Pokemon for the first time though, and what he did with his Pokedex.
"You can guess how much I knew about Pokemon before I did the movie," he tells Total Film in the latest issue. "I know a bit more now. I met the head of Pokemon, the seventh richest man in the world, I think, and the man who drew all the Pokemon. And I bought the Pokedex, which is a fabulous book, actually. It was great fun."
Nighy kindly sent his copy of the sacred Pokemon tome to "a small boy in Canada" and now almost regrets it. "It’s such a beautiful book. It’s got a plastic ball in the cover, with a Pikachu inside. I got very interested in the thing. In fact, I have two decorative panels made of plaster, to look like stone, with classical figures next to Pokemon figures. They look like ancient Grecian works of art. They were on the set and I admired them, so they gave them to me. I’m the only person in the world who has these things. I might have to Ebay them for charity or something."
Unlike fellow actor Ryan Reynolds, who plays Pikachu, Nighy has to use his own face for his role. "I’m a live-action character, but I’m not at liberty to tell you who." In fact, he's one of several stars in the film with an intriguing blank space next to their names in the cast list: Assassination Nation's Suki Waterhouse and singer Rita Ora are also playing classified characters.
Detective Pikachu will be released May 10, and you can read more about it in this month's Total Film magazine.
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