No cakes in Hollywood? Richard Dreyfuss ‘never baked’ before Celebrity Bake Off

Hollywood star Richard Dreyfuss has said that he has never baked in his life despite taking part in The Great British Bake Off’s celebrity spin-off.

The Oscar-winning actor, known for roles in Jaws, American Graffiti and The Goodbye Girl, said that he was tempted to take part in the programme after seeing how happy John Lithgow was when he took part in the charity series last year.

Dreyfuss will compete against Inbetweeners star James Buckley, TV presenter Scarlett Moffatt and former EastEnders actress Patsy Palmer in the famous tent to raise money for cancer research.

Speaking ahead of his stint on the show, Dreyfuss, 72, said that he would rate himself a “zero” out of 10 in terms of his baking experience.

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“I’m not even on the charts,” he added.

He said that has never baked in his life, has “never learned how to bake”, and joked that “if anyone tried to teach me how to bake, I’d shoot them”.

Asked how he prepared for the programme, he said that he “flew over” from the US to the UK, and that it was “the sum of what I did”.

However, despite the travel, Dreyfuss said that deciding to take part in the Bake Off was easy.

“Well, it’s a wonderful thing to be asked to help,” he said.

“And the thing that locked it for me was that it was an invitation to come to England. So that, added to a desire to help, meant it was a big ‘yes’.

“There’s always someone asking you to help with something, but this was an easy one to say yes to.”

He added: “When I saw a good friend, John Lithgow, grinning madly as he baked his way through his segment of the Celebrity Bake Off show I was awash with envy, I wanted to have that same goofy grin on my face.

“And when I was told I had to come to England to participate, my wife Svetlana and I swore that we would never tell the producers that with the slightest hesitation on their part, I would row our way over and we’d sleep in Regent’s Park to do it.

“No performance anxiety, no flop sweat, just fun and a great chance to come back to where we honeymooned, lived for four years, found grown up romance and now, a chance to learn to Bake? Are you kidding me? What’s wrong with that picture? Nothing, my Anglo cousins, not a blessed thing.”

Dreyfuss’s episode of Bake Off will air on Tuesday March 17.

The Great Celebrity Bake Off For Stand Up To Cancer starts on Channel 4 at 8pm on March 10, with Louis Theroux, Jenny Eclair, Ovie Soko and Russell Howard in the tent.

You can donate at channel4.com/su2c or sign up to fundraise at standuptocancer.org.uk – 100% of donations go to Cancer Research UK in support of the Stand Up To Cancer campaign.