Rowan Atkinson Reveals the Real Reason He Grew to Dislike Mr. Bean
Mr. Bean is beloved worldwide — just not by the man who made him. At a London screening for his new Netflix series, Rowan Atkinson admitted he doesn’t find the character likable, offering a rare candid take on his most iconic role.
Rowan Atkinson just did the thing you rarely hear actors do: he admitted he doesn’t actually like the character that made him globally famous. At a London screening for his Netflix comedy Man vs Bee, the Mr. Bean star got blunt about Mr. Bean himself.
"I dislike Mr. Bean as a person, I certainly would never like to have dinner with him."
That wasn’t a tossed-off gag. Atkinson unpacked it. In his view, Bean is basically a walking chaos engine: selfish, self-serving, and stubbornly disruptive. He even sees a little of his own 10-year-old self in there, the impulsive kid who solves problems in odd, roundabout ways. That childlike mischief is exactly why the character works on screen. But invite him over? Hard pass. Atkinson was crystal clear he wouldn’t want Bean in his house.
He also drew a clean line between Bean and Trevor Bingley, the lead of Man vs Bee. Where Bean is entertaining because he’s a wrecking ball, Trevor is, in Atkinson’s words, one of the nicest characters he’s ever played. And when Atkinson looks across his resume, he says a lot of his roles skew pretty unpleasant anyway. Even Blackadder, beloved as he is, lands as a sarcastic, sardonic, fundamentally negative force.
How Atkinson sizes up his most famous characters
- Mr. Bean: hugely entertaining to watch, but a selfish, unruly man-child you’d avoid in real life.
- Trevor Bingley (Man vs Bee): a genuinely kind guy, basically the polar opposite of Bean’s personality.
- Blackadder: sharp-tongued, cynical, and proudly unsunny about humanity.
It’s a refreshingly candid take from the guy behind an icon. The short version: Mr. Bean is great when he’s trapped on your TV screen. Anywhere else, he’s a menace.