Media Comments and Reviews

Martin Grove on Mark Lindsay Chapman as John Lennon

"We don't get a very good look at Lennon in the film, but the actor playing the role makes you believe you're seeing Lennon on the screen. When I looked at the credits for "Chapter 27" I couldn't believe my eyes because Lennon is played by an English actor named Mark Lindsay Chapman. His credits include soap operas like "The Young and the Restless" and "Days of Our Lives" as well as James Cameron's 'Titanic.'"
--from Hollywood Reporter, March 26, 2008

"I didn't intend it," Schaefer said of the uncanny coincidence of having Lennon played by an actor whose first and last names are those of Lennon's killer. "It was a weird (thing). We were looking everywhere for John. There was this world famous Lennon impersonator who was pretty amazing, but also the way I hear it very difficult to work with. We were going after him for a little while, but it just couldn't happen and he's also very, very expensive. All the guys that make their money looking like John Lennon, you know, play him too iconically. They play him six inches off the ground and they act like they're in a movie already. I wasn't happy with any of them. There were bunches of John Lennons in Los Angeles going on tape for me and I heard one of (them was named) Mark Lindsay Chapman -- and I was like, 'That's just weird.'

"I got the tape and it was all the L.A. guys. I put it on in my office and let it play and was doing other things and then (I saw) this guy, this British stage actor, who wasn't even performing. He was talking to the casting director. He was from South London and has that sort of blood-in-the-street thing. You know, Liverpool, where John grew up, is a tough town and John was on the road traveling with his band when he was only 16 and he's got this very famous chip on his shoulder and was always cracking these cynical one-liners. And that's what the impersonators couldn't come off with. But Mark Lindsay Chapman, who's from South London and who's been a theater actor all his life, popping up in 'Titanic' and 'Law and Order' and all kinds of places, has that real quality to him -- that worn, cynical dimension that attracts people to John. That's how he got the job."
--J.P. Schaefer, quoted in the review by Martin Grove in Hollywood Reporter
 





'"Swamp Thing: The Series' had two things working for it from the outset: Dick Durock’s iconic performance as the rumbling title character let’s be fair – it had as much to do with the suit as with his clunky dialogue), and Mark Lindsay Chapman’s deliciously evil take on the series’ villain, Anton Arcane. Chapman had the challenge of living up to his predecessor in the role, Louis Jordan, but he also had the advantage of the character practically being reinvented from the ground up. Another advantage: a British accent that somehow aids him in making his every line positively ooze with evil."
--from bullz-eye.com

"The general plot of the show mirrors the earlier seasons; episodes revolve around either Swamp Thing stopping the latest scheme of mad scientist Anton Arcane (Mark Lindsay Chapman, the best part of the show)… Chapman, as stated previously, makes the show fun and enjoyable when he’s around."
--from popsyndicate.com