Dominic West moved to the countryside after seeing ‘Captain Fantastic’.
The 49-year-old actor – who has a 20-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and Dora, 12, Senan, 10, Francis, nine, and five-year-old Christabel with his wife Catherine FitzGerald – recently relocated to Slaughterford, a tiny village in Wiltshire, South West England, to live out his "fantasy" life.
Asked why he moved, he said: "I saw a film called ‘Captain Fantastic’. Did you see that, with Viggo Mortesen? Anyway, it’s about him raising his kids in the mountains in Oregon or somewhere.
"And I was sitting there and my missus looked at me and she went, ‘This is just your fantasy, isn’t it?’ So we moved to the country.
"But no one said I was going to become a driver. Actually, no, I think maybe they did. And I ignored them. Yeah, I didn’t bank on that."
But the ‘Colette’ actor admitted some aspects of rural life have left him unimpressed and his kids horrified".
He told the Sunday Times magazine: "I don’t have f***ing broadband! I’ve been trying to get broadband for two months. The kids are horrified. I keep kicking them out to build forts in the woods, and they just look at me."
Dominic’s brood are set to get a break from rural life in the coming months as they will be joining him in Los Angeles and homeschooled while he films ‘The Affair’ before travelling across the US to Canada by April.
However – none of his family are keen on the plan and his wife isn’t convinced about his idea of home education.
He said: "She has a point that if we don’t get them out of the house in the morning, she’ll go insane.
"The truth is, I don’t know what we’re going to do, but we’ll do something. Yes, it could be a catastrophe. No one wants to go. It’s fraught with potential disaster."
Despite his family’s reluctance, the former ‘Wire’ star is confident he’s making the right decision.
He said: "I’ve been away so much doing ‘The Affair’ and I’m very conscious of missing out on these golden years.
"So, when they said they had to do another season of ‘The Affair’, I thought I’d bring them all out with me…
"A friend of mine went around New Zealand on a trip with his wife and two sons, then his wife died a couple of years later and he said that trip is what they’ll remember all their life. So that’s why I’ve forced everyone’s hand. It’s good to be selfish sometimes."
Dominic West inspired by Captain Fantastic
