Dame Judi Dench is an Olivier Award winner, yet again. And she notched a new record with her victory. The veteran British actress, 81, took home the best supporting actress trophy during the Sunday ceremony at London's Royal Opera House - her eighth win. Dench is the most decorated actor in Olivier history, with the Sunday nod only solidifying her dominance. The Awards are presented once a year by the Society of London Theatre, and recognize excellence in the city's professional theatre. Audra McDonald is the only stage star to come near Dench's record, with six Tonys - the Olivier Awards'...
- 4/4/2016
- by Lindsay Kimble, @lekimble
- PEOPLE.com
Dame Judi Dench is an Olivier Award winner, yet again. And she notched a new record with her victory. The veteran British actress, 81, took home the best supporting actress trophy during the Sunday ceremony at London's Royal Opera House - her eighth win. Dench is the most decorated actor in Olivier history, with the Sunday nod only solidifying her dominance. The Awards are presented once a year by the Society of London Theatre, and recognize excellence in the city's professional theatre. Audra McDonald is the only stage star to come near Dench's record, with six Tonys - the Olivier Awards'...
- 4/4/2016
- by Lindsay Kimble, @lekimble
- PEOPLE.com
The Oliver Awards honor outstanding acheivements in the arts in London and Dame Judi Dench was the belle of the ball at Sunday's celebration of the 40th annual edition of these kudos. She claimed her seventh competitive award winning Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Paulina in "The Winter's Tale" opposite Kenneth Branagh in his production of the Shakespearean play. She previously prevailed in 1977 for "Macbeth," 1980 for "Juno and the Paycock," 1983 for "Pack of Lies," 1987 for "Antony and Cleopatra," 1995 for "A Little Night Music" and 1996 for "Absolute Hell." And she was feted with a special lifetime achievement award in 2004. (See full list of winners and nominees Here.) -Break- Subscribe to Gold Derby Breaking News Alerts & Experts’ Latest Tony Predictions Two transfers of Tony-winning musicals claimed three apiece: Three years after s...
- 4/4/2016
- Gold Derby
The first season of the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company Live will be broadcast into Australian cinemas from London's Garrick Theatre in January.
The season begins with The Winter.s Tale. Shakespeare.s timeless tragicomedy of obsession and redemption is reimagined in a new production co-directed by Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh, following their staging of Macbeth in Manchester and Manhattan.
The Winter's Tale tells the story of King Leontes, who appears to have everything: power, wealth, a loving family and trusted friends..
But sexual jealousy sets in motion a chain of events with tragic consequences
The Winter.s Tale stars Judi Dench as Paulina, alongside Tom Bateman (Florizel), Jessie Buckley (Perdita), Hadley Fraser (Polixenes), Miranda Raison (Hermione), Adam Garcia (Lord Amadis) and Kenneth Branagh as Leontes.
Screenings begin nationally on January 30.
The season begins with The Winter.s Tale. Shakespeare.s timeless tragicomedy of obsession and redemption is reimagined in a new production co-directed by Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh, following their staging of Macbeth in Manchester and Manhattan.
The Winter's Tale tells the story of King Leontes, who appears to have everything: power, wealth, a loving family and trusted friends..
But sexual jealousy sets in motion a chain of events with tragic consequences
The Winter.s Tale stars Judi Dench as Paulina, alongside Tom Bateman (Florizel), Jessie Buckley (Perdita), Hadley Fraser (Polixenes), Miranda Raison (Hermione), Adam Garcia (Lord Amadis) and Kenneth Branagh as Leontes.
Screenings begin nationally on January 30.
- 12/1/2015
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
The Gone Girl author and screenwriter is reuniting with New Regency to co-write the adaptation of UK show Widows with Steve McQueen.
McQueen, who collaborated with New Regency on best picture Oscar winner 12 Years A Slave, will direct and produces alongside his Shame and upcoming Codes Of Conduct collaborators Iain Canning and Emile Sherman of See-Saw Films.
New Regency is understood to be in talks with Film4 to co-finance the project and license UK free TV rights.
The feature is based on Lynda La Plante’s UK miniseries Widows, in which the wives of four armed robbers killed during a heist resolve to complete the job themselves.
Flynn is currently developing the HBO series and UK TV adaptation Utopia with her Gone Girl director David Fincher.
New Regency’s slate includes True Story starring Jonah Hill and James Franco set to open on April 17 through Fox Searchlight, Cameron Crowe’s Aloha that arrives on May 29 through [link=co...
McQueen, who collaborated with New Regency on best picture Oscar winner 12 Years A Slave, will direct and produces alongside his Shame and upcoming Codes Of Conduct collaborators Iain Canning and Emile Sherman of See-Saw Films.
New Regency is understood to be in talks with Film4 to co-finance the project and license UK free TV rights.
The feature is based on Lynda La Plante’s UK miniseries Widows, in which the wives of four armed robbers killed during a heist resolve to complete the job themselves.
Flynn is currently developing the HBO series and UK TV adaptation Utopia with her Gone Girl director David Fincher.
New Regency’s slate includes True Story starring Jonah Hill and James Franco set to open on April 17 through Fox Searchlight, Cameron Crowe’s Aloha that arrives on May 29 through [link=co...
- 3/27/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Offering over 50 Shakespeare productions, the platform is the first to ever to be offered by a theatre in the world.
Shakespeare’s Globe has become the first theatre in the world to offer an on-demand platform for digital content.
Globe Player features full-length HD films of over 50 Shakespeare productions at the Globe to rent or buy. Every foreign-language production from 2012’s ‘Globe to Globe’ festival has been made available, alongside the main productions from the 2009-2012 summer seasons including Twelfth Night [pictured], starring Stephen Fry, and Much Ado About Nothing, starring Eve Best.
The main 2013 titles - The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth - will be made available in the coming months.
Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, commented: “Whether we’re touring the world, inviting the world to the Globe, or being the first to experiment with low ticket prices with our £5 groundling tickets, the Globe is always looking for bold new...
Shakespeare’s Globe has become the first theatre in the world to offer an on-demand platform for digital content.
Globe Player features full-length HD films of over 50 Shakespeare productions at the Globe to rent or buy. Every foreign-language production from 2012’s ‘Globe to Globe’ festival has been made available, alongside the main productions from the 2009-2012 summer seasons including Twelfth Night [pictured], starring Stephen Fry, and Much Ado About Nothing, starring Eve Best.
The main 2013 titles - The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth - will be made available in the coming months.
Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, commented: “Whether we’re touring the world, inviting the world to the Globe, or being the first to experiment with low ticket prices with our £5 groundling tickets, the Globe is always looking for bold new...
- 11/4/2014
- by ian.sandwell@screendaily.com (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
Cast already includes Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney.
Guy Pearce and Dominic West have joined the cast of Michael Grandage’s Genius, announced today by Desert Wolf Productions and the Michael Grandage Company.
It bolsters an already strong cast that includes Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney.
Pearce, best known for roles in Memento and more recently Iron Man 3, will play the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald alongside The Wire star Dominic West, currently seen in Pride, as Ernest Hemmingway.
The film makes the debut feature of celebrated theatre director Grandage and shooting will commence this October at Shepperton Studios and on location in the UK.
Adapted by playwright and screenwriter John Logan (Skyfall) from A. Scott Berg’s book, Genius tells the true story of the complex relationship between literary giant Thomas Wolfe and Scribner’s iconic editor Max Perkins.
Law stars as Wolfe opposite Firth as Perkins...
Guy Pearce and Dominic West have joined the cast of Michael Grandage’s Genius, announced today by Desert Wolf Productions and the Michael Grandage Company.
It bolsters an already strong cast that includes Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney.
Pearce, best known for roles in Memento and more recently Iron Man 3, will play the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald alongside The Wire star Dominic West, currently seen in Pride, as Ernest Hemmingway.
The film makes the debut feature of celebrated theatre director Grandage and shooting will commence this October at Shepperton Studios and on location in the UK.
Adapted by playwright and screenwriter John Logan (Skyfall) from A. Scott Berg’s book, Genius tells the true story of the complex relationship between literary giant Thomas Wolfe and Scribner’s iconic editor Max Perkins.
Law stars as Wolfe opposite Firth as Perkins...
- 9/26/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Cast already includes Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney.
Guy Pearce and Dominic West have joined the cast of Michael Grandage’s Genius, announced today by Desert Wolf Productions and the Michael Grandage Company.
It bolsters an already strong cast that includes Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney.
Pearce, best known for roles in Memento and more recently Iron Man 3, will play the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald alongside The Wire star Dominic West, currently seen in Pride, as Ernest Hemmingway.
The film makes the debut feature of celebrated theatre director Grandage and shooting will commence this October at Shepperton Studios and on location in the UK.
Adapted by playwright and screenwriter John Logan (Skyfall) from A. Scott Berg’s book, Genius tells the true story of the complex relationship between literary giant Thomas Wolfe and Scribner’s iconic editor Max Perkins.
Law stars as Wolfe opposite Firth as Perkins...
Guy Pearce and Dominic West have joined the cast of Michael Grandage’s Genius, announced today by Desert Wolf Productions and the Michael Grandage Company.
It bolsters an already strong cast that includes Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney.
Pearce, best known for roles in Memento and more recently Iron Man 3, will play the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald alongside The Wire star Dominic West, currently seen in Pride, as Ernest Hemmingway.
The film makes the debut feature of celebrated theatre director Grandage and shooting will commence this October at Shepperton Studios and on location in the UK.
Adapted by playwright and screenwriter John Logan (Skyfall) from A. Scott Berg’s book, Genius tells the true story of the complex relationship between literary giant Thomas Wolfe and Scribner’s iconic editor Max Perkins.
Law stars as Wolfe opposite Firth as Perkins...
- 9/26/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
This story was originally published in the February 21st, 1991 issue of Rolling Stone.
Mr. and Mrs. Robin Williams are slow dancing. The time: a winter afternoon. The place: a photographer's studio in the Chelsea section of New York. The music: high-decibel funk. Everybody else in the studio is abuzz — adjusting lights, fussing with props, running back and forth from the kitchen with sushi. Still, Williams and his wife, Marsha, keep coming together in these quick, sweet tableaux. It's strange to see the thirty-nine-year-old actor and comedian with his guard down...
Mr. and Mrs. Robin Williams are slow dancing. The time: a winter afternoon. The place: a photographer's studio in the Chelsea section of New York. The music: high-decibel funk. Everybody else in the studio is abuzz — adjusting lights, fussing with props, running back and forth from the kitchen with sushi. Still, Williams and his wife, Marsha, keep coming together in these quick, sweet tableaux. It's strange to see the thirty-nine-year-old actor and comedian with his guard down...
- 8/12/2014
- Rollingstone.com
Sir Ian McKellen celebrates his 75th birthday today (May 25), and what better way to pay tribute to the great man himself than with a collection of his greatest roles.
McKellen has come a long way since starting his acting career at Bolton Little Theatre, with his roles stretching across stage, film and television. Here are eight memorable McKellen roles that are essential viewing…
Macbeth (1976)
McKellen began his career in theatre, nabbing roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. He memorably tackled the titular role in Trevor Nunn's Macbeth, starring alongside Judi Dench in a critically-lauded production. Below you can see a clip of his brilliant delivery of "tomorrow, and tomorrow…", while here is a great analysis of the text, which Michael Fassbender watched on repeat to perfect young Magneto's voice in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Richard III (1995)
Director Richard Loncraine teamed up with McKellen...
McKellen has come a long way since starting his acting career at Bolton Little Theatre, with his roles stretching across stage, film and television. Here are eight memorable McKellen roles that are essential viewing…
Macbeth (1976)
McKellen began his career in theatre, nabbing roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. He memorably tackled the titular role in Trevor Nunn's Macbeth, starring alongside Judi Dench in a critically-lauded production. Below you can see a clip of his brilliant delivery of "tomorrow, and tomorrow…", while here is a great analysis of the text, which Michael Fassbender watched on repeat to perfect young Magneto's voice in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Richard III (1995)
Director Richard Loncraine teamed up with McKellen...
- 5/25/2014
- Digital Spy
Look, it's Shakespeare's 450th birthday. We at Riot are generally concerned with internet memes and Zac Efron's musculature, but let's give credit where its due: These are real celebs kicking real ass in real Shakesperean roles and no one's worthy. And we can't contain ourselves. So, here are 10 people kicking thine ass in Shakespearean roles and leaving you in the mortal, pathetic dust. 1. Meryl Streep Serving You Death Sass In "The Taming Of The Shrew'2 Judi Dench With Gunpowder Eyes And A Kevlar Heart In "Twelfth Night" 3. Ralph Fiennes Is A Hotheaded Traitor Bad-ass In "Coriolanus," So Just Deal With It. 4. Kate Winslet Has A Song For You Losers, And It's A Heartbreak And A Goddamn Treasure In "Hamlet" 5. Now Is The Winter Of You Melting At The Computer, Because Kevin Spacey Is A Hunchbacked Hellraiser In "Richard III" 6. This Is CNN? Close, Moron, It's James Earl Jones...
- 4/24/2014
- by Louis Virtel
- Hitfix
1. She has always held a cigarette better than you.
2. She’s a stunning actress onstage and onscreen.
3. Sometimes she even does both at the same time. Check out this Macbeth monologue.
4. She won an Oscar for eight minutes of screentime.
5. Her version of “Send in the Clowns” is your favorite.
6. She single-handedly elevates the James Bond franchise from “cool” to “fabulous.”
7. She was the craziest kook who ever kooked in Notes on a Scandal.
8. Maybe Iris is her best work? It’s hard to pick one, isn’t it?
9. Finally: Her stare. Owns you.
Happy 79th to our dame and queen!
The post Happy 79th Birthday, Judi Dench! Here’s Why She Rules. appeared first on thebacklot.com.
2. She’s a stunning actress onstage and onscreen.
3. Sometimes she even does both at the same time. Check out this Macbeth monologue.
4. She won an Oscar for eight minutes of screentime.
5. Her version of “Send in the Clowns” is your favorite.
6. She single-handedly elevates the James Bond franchise from “cool” to “fabulous.”
7. She was the craziest kook who ever kooked in Notes on a Scandal.
8. Maybe Iris is her best work? It’s hard to pick one, isn’t it?
9. Finally: Her stare. Owns you.
Happy 79th to our dame and queen!
The post Happy 79th Birthday, Judi Dench! Here’s Why She Rules. appeared first on thebacklot.com.
- 12/9/2013
- by Louis Virtel
- The Backlot
Judi Dench says theatre is her 'idea of heaven', and she hopes playing M has drawn new audiences to stage shows
Long before she played M in the James Bond films, Judi Dench was a stellar Lady M in a famous Royal Shakespeare Company Macbeth. Now she's revealed that she took the screen role to get more people to go to the theatre.
The Oscar-winning actor has told Reader's Digest that her 17-year stint as the head of MI5, which started opposite Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye and ended with her shock screen death in last year's Skyfall, were intended partly as "bait" to draw Bond fans into her favourite art form.
She explained that young audiences who know her from the Bond franchise often have little idea of her 50-year stage career that has yielded six best actress Olivier awards and spanned Shakespeare, new plays and West End musicals.
"The...
Long before she played M in the James Bond films, Judi Dench was a stellar Lady M in a famous Royal Shakespeare Company Macbeth. Now she's revealed that she took the screen role to get more people to go to the theatre.
The Oscar-winning actor has told Reader's Digest that her 17-year stint as the head of MI5, which started opposite Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye and ended with her shock screen death in last year's Skyfall, were intended partly as "bait" to draw Bond fans into her favourite art form.
She explained that young audiences who know her from the Bond franchise often have little idea of her 50-year stage career that has yielded six best actress Olivier awards and spanned Shakespeare, new plays and West End musicals.
"The...
- 10/14/2013
- by Matt Trueman
- The Guardian - Film News
Some major marquee names are coming to Broadway this fall. Ethan Hawke will play the title role in Lincoln Center’s “Macbeth.” Mark Rylance is bringing his critically acclaimed, all-male productions of “Twelfth Night” and “Richard III.” Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are set to deliver “No Man’s Land” and “Waiting for Godot” in rep. Cherry Jones takes on the ultimate matriarch in “The Glass Menagerie.” Two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz is leading a new Broadway musical again with “Big Fish.” Jefferson Mays is transferring his tour-de-force performance with “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” which had productions at the Old Globe in San Diego and Hartford Stage in Connecticut. And in perhaps the most starry production, real-life couple Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz will play husband and wife in “Betrayal.” What makes all of these names different from others who might populate billboards just to...
- 9/25/2013
- backstage.com
Are you sure you don’t need a sweatshirt?” Sir Patrick Stewart asks as he tucks into his own gray hoodie. The actor, of Star Trek: The Next Generation and X-Men fame, is seated on the roof of his Park Slope duplex drinking Champagne. His wife, the singer Sunny Ozell, sits nearby. “Cheers, big ears,” she toasts. The two wed a week earlier at a ceremony in Lake Tahoe. Sir Ian McKellen, Stewart’s longtime friend and co-star in an upcoming Broadway repertoire of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, served as the officiant. Guests included the entire crew of the Starship Enterprise.Stewart is clearly smitten with his wife, whom he met five years ago when playing Macbeth at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. One night after a performance, he had dinner at the Brooklyn artisanal-pizza restaurant Franny’s, where Ozell was waiting tables.
- 9/21/2013
- by Sally Kohn
- Vulture
‘Star Trek’ star Patrick Stewart officially wed his long-time girlfriend, Sunny Ozell over the weekend! Tweeting a photo of he and his new bride, he captioned it “Yes, married.” So, who exactly is the lucky lady?
Patrick Stewart, 73 is officially off the market! In a service officiated by Sir Ian McKellan, Patrick tied the knot with Sunny Orzell.
Sunny Ozell: Get To Know Patrick Stewart’s Wife
1. She’s 35 Years Old. Yes, you read that right. Patrick is 38 years older than Sunny!
2. Sunny met Patrick in 2008 when he was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music starring in Macbeth. They were seen together in May and have been officially together since 2009.
3. Sunny is a songwriter and singer from Brooklyn, NY. She performs frequently at Rockwood and the Living Room in the Lower East Side, according to Sunnyozell.com. She has collaborated with some of the greatest including Jim Campilongo, Adam Levy of Norah Jones’ band,...
Patrick Stewart, 73 is officially off the market! In a service officiated by Sir Ian McKellan, Patrick tied the knot with Sunny Orzell.
Sunny Ozell: Get To Know Patrick Stewart’s Wife
1. She’s 35 Years Old. Yes, you read that right. Patrick is 38 years older than Sunny!
2. Sunny met Patrick in 2008 when he was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music starring in Macbeth. They were seen together in May and have been officially together since 2009.
3. Sunny is a songwriter and singer from Brooklyn, NY. She performs frequently at Rockwood and the Living Room in the Lower East Side, according to Sunnyozell.com. She has collaborated with some of the greatest including Jim Campilongo, Adam Levy of Norah Jones’ band,...
- 9/9/2013
- by Emily Longeretta
- HollywoodLife
It's the role that, according to theatrical cliché, every actress dreams of playing at least once in her life: Lady Macbeth. The conniving, persuasive, power-hungry -- and, finally, guilt-plagued -- wife of the stage's favorite tyrannical Scot has been played by everyone from Judi Dench to Simone Signoret to Vivien Leigh. But Natalie Portman -- for now, at least -- will not be joining that esteemed club, as Justin Kurzel's upcoming new screen version of "Macbeth" has swapped one Oscar-winner for another. Marion Cotillard will now be crying "Out, damned spot!" opposite Michael Fassbender's Mac. And, as far as I'm concerned,...
- 8/21/2013
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
Summer has officially taken hold, but all eyes seem to be on fall and spring, with nearly all of the 40 Broadway houses having scooped up shows to call their own if they don’t already have a tenant. This fall, we will see the arrival of a new Janis Joplin musical, A Night With Janis Joplin, which has been making the rounds nationally and finally setting up camp for a long run. Ethan Hawke is returning to Lincoln Center for his take on Macbeth, John Grisham gets his first Broadway salute with a Main Stem mounting of his legal thriller A Time to Kill,...
- 6/29/2013
- by Jason Clark
- EW.com - PopWatch
Timothy Spall in The Syndicate. BBC
Kieran Kinsella
The Syndicate Series 1
The Syndicate, Series One is the pick of Acorn Media’s late April DVD releases. The show is a fascinating character study involving the mundane staff members of a humdrum low-end British supermarket. In the normal course of events, there is nothing particularly intriguing about this group but that all changes when they win the national lottery. When millions of pounds are involved, personal relationships, work rivalries and previously undetected misdeeds suddenly become a lot more important. While the show doesn’t exactly portray the lottery as a bad thing, let’s just say that Kay Mellor’s scripts show us that every silver lining has a massive dark cloud attached to it.
The cast for The Syndicate is top notch and the biggest star among the talented ensemble is Harry Potter actor Timothy Spall. He plays the store manager Bob.
Kieran Kinsella
The Syndicate Series 1
The Syndicate, Series One is the pick of Acorn Media’s late April DVD releases. The show is a fascinating character study involving the mundane staff members of a humdrum low-end British supermarket. In the normal course of events, there is nothing particularly intriguing about this group but that all changes when they win the national lottery. When millions of pounds are involved, personal relationships, work rivalries and previously undetected misdeeds suddenly become a lot more important. While the show doesn’t exactly portray the lottery as a bad thing, let’s just say that Kay Mellor’s scripts show us that every silver lining has a massive dark cloud attached to it.
The cast for The Syndicate is top notch and the biggest star among the talented ensemble is Harry Potter actor Timothy Spall. He plays the store manager Bob.
- 4/30/2013
- by Edited by K Kinsella
Rufus Sewell was a pin-up in the 1990s, then his career stalled. He tells us about moving to La, giving up drinking and why he can't wait to lose his looks
There was a moment in the mid-1990s when Rufus Sewell's international stardom was assured. Before his 30th birthday, he had starred in two hugely successful TV adaptations, of Middlemarch and Cold Comfort Farm, and taken a lead role in the original production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, alongside Felicity Kendal and Bill Nighy. He would clearly become stupidly famous. But then he… didn't.
"People talk about opportunity knocking," he says, "but the gate was always swinging in the breeze before I got to the door. I was the lead in Interview With The Vampire, until Tom Cruise decided he was interested. I was in The Wings Of The Dove with Uma Thurman, until that got cancelled. I...
There was a moment in the mid-1990s when Rufus Sewell's international stardom was assured. Before his 30th birthday, he had starred in two hugely successful TV adaptations, of Middlemarch and Cold Comfort Farm, and taken a lead role in the original production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, alongside Felicity Kendal and Bill Nighy. He would clearly become stupidly famous. But then he… didn't.
"People talk about opportunity knocking," he says, "but the gate was always swinging in the breeze before I got to the door. I was the lead in Interview With The Vampire, until Tom Cruise decided he was interested. I was in The Wings Of The Dove with Uma Thurman, until that got cancelled. I...
- 3/30/2013
- by Liese Spencer
- The Guardian - Film News
Talking to Empire Online to promote the release of Danny Boyle's Trance, James McAvoy has talked more about returning as Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men: Days of Future Past. While he doesn't reveal too much about Bryan Singer's highly anticipated X-Men: First Class sequel, it makes for a pretty fun watch, and the Scottish actor does let slip that he has already been fitted for some outfits appropriate to the era that the movie is set in and that he begins shooting as soon as his stint doing Macbeth on stage comes to an end. McAvoy also clears up his earlier - and apparently incorrect - claims that Alan Cumming will return for X-Men: Days of Future Past as Nightcrawler. Starring: James McAvoy as Charles Xavier Michael Fassbender as Magneto Nicholas Hoult as Beast Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique Hugh Jackman as Wolverine Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier...
- 3/20/2013
- ComicBookMovie.com
Having been away from the limelight for a couple of years, we’re now entering what can only be described as a James McAvoy season in British cinema, as he takes on leading roles in Welcome to the Punch, Trance and Filth in the coming months. As the former hits our screens this weekend, we were fortunate to sit down and discuss the project with the Scottish performer.
McAvoy plays Max, a cop desperately searching for answers to a large conspiracy he seems to be apart of, coming face to face with his bitter adversary Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong – see our interview with Mark here) in the process.
McAvoy discusses the socio-political themes to Welcome to the Punch, his relationship with the press, and also his work on the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, where he can compare Macbeth related anecdotes with other members of the cast; as he...
McAvoy plays Max, a cop desperately searching for answers to a large conspiracy he seems to be apart of, coming face to face with his bitter adversary Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong – see our interview with Mark here) in the process.
McAvoy discusses the socio-political themes to Welcome to the Punch, his relationship with the press, and also his work on the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, where he can compare Macbeth related anecdotes with other members of the cast; as he...
- 3/14/2013
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Plenty of gay actors have convinced the world otherwise, so why not let one play Fifty Shades of Grey's Christian Grey?
I have two words for Bret Easton Ellis, who yesterday claimed that a gay actor shouldn't play the part of lady-spanker Christian Grey in the adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey: Rock Hudson.
Hudson was a man so gay he had a mini, monogrammed man-bag to house his amyl nitrate (I know this because his former lover Armistead Maupin told me). And yet, on-screen, Hudson glistened with heterosexuality. He defined the mid-20th-century romantic lead. In pictures such as Giant and Magnificent Obsession, he made a generation of postwar women swoon and fantasise; they were convinced of his rock solid straightness. When he died of Aids in 1985, many were more shocked that he was gay than he was dead.
But Ellis described the casting of gay TV...
I have two words for Bret Easton Ellis, who yesterday claimed that a gay actor shouldn't play the part of lady-spanker Christian Grey in the adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey: Rock Hudson.
Hudson was a man so gay he had a mini, monogrammed man-bag to house his amyl nitrate (I know this because his former lover Armistead Maupin told me). And yet, on-screen, Hudson glistened with heterosexuality. He defined the mid-20th-century romantic lead. In pictures such as Giant and Magnificent Obsession, he made a generation of postwar women swoon and fantasise; they were convinced of his rock solid straightness. When he died of Aids in 1985, many were more shocked that he was gay than he was dead.
But Ellis described the casting of gay TV...
- 8/8/2012
- by Patrick Strudwick
- The Guardian - Film News
Dame Judi Dench, who played Ophelia in Hamlet in 1957, on what Shakespeare means to her
Shakespeare really understood women. The emotions, twists and turns that Cleopatra goes through are phenomenal.
I remember the first time I saw Shakespeare as if it were the week before last. I was seven and I was taken to see Macbeth at my brother's school; he played Duncan. He said: "What bloody man is that?" I thought it was a very, very racy line because he said "bloody".
I missed my graduation ceremony so I could go and see Sir Laurence in Titus Andronicus three days running.
I made my professional debut as Ophelia in 1957. I didn't know enough to be daunted by it at the time. I learnt an incredible amount from it. My notices were certainly daunting. You learn from them – you learn very soon. You just have to grit your teeth and...
Shakespeare really understood women. The emotions, twists and turns that Cleopatra goes through are phenomenal.
I remember the first time I saw Shakespeare as if it were the week before last. I was seven and I was taken to see Macbeth at my brother's school; he played Duncan. He said: "What bloody man is that?" I thought it was a very, very racy line because he said "bloody".
I missed my graduation ceremony so I could go and see Sir Laurence in Titus Andronicus three days running.
I made my professional debut as Ophelia in 1957. I didn't know enough to be daunted by it at the time. I learnt an incredible amount from it. My notices were certainly daunting. You learn from them – you learn very soon. You just have to grit your teeth and...
- 6/30/2012
- by Alice Fisher
- The Guardian - Film News
Sir Ian McKellen, who played Coriolanus at the National Theatre in 1984, on what Shakespeare means to him
As a 45-year-old Coriolanus at the National Theatre, I worked hard to grow a credible warrior's body.
The fighting area was a sand pit. Some of the audience sat on the stage among the actors. There were problems! Irene Worth as my mother was one of the answers.
I grew up in postwar Wigan, in a theatre-going family, so it didn't seem odd that my big sister Jean should take me to my first Shakespeare when I was only seven years old. It was Macbeth at the local amateur Little Theatre. Seven decades on, I can still see the dried-up rhododendron branches through which Macduff's soldiers unconvincingly impersonated Birnam Wood.
By the time I was 12 I'd made my Shakespearean debut as Malvolio in Twelfth Night at Bolton School. Theatre-going was my hobby; acting was a by-product.
As a 45-year-old Coriolanus at the National Theatre, I worked hard to grow a credible warrior's body.
The fighting area was a sand pit. Some of the audience sat on the stage among the actors. There were problems! Irene Worth as my mother was one of the answers.
I grew up in postwar Wigan, in a theatre-going family, so it didn't seem odd that my big sister Jean should take me to my first Shakespeare when I was only seven years old. It was Macbeth at the local amateur Little Theatre. Seven decades on, I can still see the dried-up rhododendron branches through which Macduff's soldiers unconvincingly impersonated Birnam Wood.
By the time I was 12 I'd made my Shakespearean debut as Malvolio in Twelfth Night at Bolton School. Theatre-going was my hobby; acting was a by-product.
- 6/30/2012
- by Megan Conner
- The Guardian - Film News
For Christopher Eccleston, small is always beautiful, whether it be TV thriller Blackout or Greek tragedy Antigone on the stage. He reveals why making films just doesn't compare
He strides across the polished tiled floor, past imposing columns and heavy, intricately carved doors. Outside, the Manchester winds are furiously buffeting the redbrick walls of this grand, turn-of-the-last-century university hall. There seems nowhere more appropriate to meet Christopher Eccleston: he has a face to fit buildings like this, an on-screen intensity that is the match of the architecture. But even so, his latest TV role looks set to stretch him: an unflinching, uncomfortable, three-hour examination of addiction and corruption, in which Eccleston goes from rock bottom to hero, as Manchester politician Daniel Demoys.
Written by Bill Gallagher, who adapted Lark Rise to Candleford for the small screen, Blackout puts alcoholism under the microscope in the course of its three episodes.
He strides across the polished tiled floor, past imposing columns and heavy, intricately carved doors. Outside, the Manchester winds are furiously buffeting the redbrick walls of this grand, turn-of-the-last-century university hall. There seems nowhere more appropriate to meet Christopher Eccleston: he has a face to fit buildings like this, an on-screen intensity that is the match of the architecture. But even so, his latest TV role looks set to stretch him: an unflinching, uncomfortable, three-hour examination of addiction and corruption, in which Eccleston goes from rock bottom to hero, as Manchester politician Daniel Demoys.
Written by Bill Gallagher, who adapted Lark Rise to Candleford for the small screen, Blackout puts alcoholism under the microscope in the course of its three episodes.
- 6/27/2012
- by Vicky Frost
- The Guardian - Film News
While "Thor" will move on without him, Brit multi-hyphenate Sir Kenneth Branagh (yep, he was knighted this week) has certainly been kicking around plenty of other directorial efforts, including an adaptation of Henning Mankell's "Italian Shoes" with Anthony Hopkins and Dame Judi Dench, "The Guernsey Liteary And Potato Peel Pie Society" with Kate Winslet and an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" as well as recently boarding the long-gestating Jack Ryan reboot with Chris Pine.
On top of all this, though, Branagh is evidently working on a project much closer to home; a Belfast-set semi-autobiographical political drama based his own childhood experiences on the brink of The Troubles, an erratic time of political unrest in Britain. "What's always appealed to me was to tell a story about my own experience: a generational thing about my time in Belfast, a particular slice of dockside, working-class, Protestant life. I have an almost photographic...
On top of all this, though, Branagh is evidently working on a project much closer to home; a Belfast-set semi-autobiographical political drama based his own childhood experiences on the brink of The Troubles, an erratic time of political unrest in Britain. "What's always appealed to me was to tell a story about my own experience: a generational thing about my time in Belfast, a particular slice of dockside, working-class, Protestant life. I have an almost photographic...
- 6/20/2012
- by Simon Dang
- The Playlist
London, Feb 27: Dame Judi Dench, whose acting career spans more than 50 years, has admitted that she hates to see herself acting on the big screen.
Despite her success, the 77-year-old stalwart of British film cannot bare to watch herself on screen immediately after a filming role.
"It's better for me as time goes by. I watch my performance after I've forgotten all about it, because otherwise I get fixated and my judgment goes too," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.
One character the 'Macbeth' star may have to get used to watching, however, is 007's spy boss M.
Dench was recently spotted back on the set of the new James Bond movie 'Skyfall' and the actress looked happy to be back.
"There are some.
Despite her success, the 77-year-old stalwart of British film cannot bare to watch herself on screen immediately after a filming role.
"It's better for me as time goes by. I watch my performance after I've forgotten all about it, because otherwise I get fixated and my judgment goes too," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.
One character the 'Macbeth' star may have to get used to watching, however, is 007's spy boss M.
Dench was recently spotted back on the set of the new James Bond movie 'Skyfall' and the actress looked happy to be back.
"There are some.
- 2/27/2012
- by Lohit Reddy
- RealBollywood.com
I feel that we are most influenced by great performances when we are young. Of course we continue to be blown away by great work as we mature, but it's when we're young that we are making the big discoveries. As we grow older, the road narrows inevitably, and our perceptions become more nuanced. I could say Irene Worth in David Hare's "The Bay at Nice," Al Pacino in "The Merchant of Venice," Maggie Smith in Ingmar Bergman's production of "Hedda Gabler," Alan Rickman in "John Gabriel Borkman," Susan Sarandon in "Thelma & Louise"—try to imagine a woman whom that performance has not inspired!—and Ian McKellen in "Macbeth" are all great performances I've seen over the years.But thinking more deeply about it, I'd have to say that Peter Brook's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which I saw when I was about 20, had a great impact on me.
- 2/26/2012
- by help@backstage.com ()
- backstage.com
Actor whose unpredictability never undermined his electrifying talent
Nicol Williamson, whose death of oesophageal cancer at the age of 73 has been announced, was arguably the most electrifying actor of his generation, but one whose career flickered and faded like a faulty light fitting. Tall and wiry, with a rasping scowl of a voice, a battered baby face and a mop of unruly curls, he was the best modern Hamlet since John Gielgud, and certainly the angriest, though he scuppered his own performance at the Round House, north London, in 1969, by apologising to the audience and walking off the stage. The experience was recycled in a 1991 Broadway comedy called I Hate Hamlet, in which he proved his point and fell out badly with his co-star.
Williamson's greatest performance was as the dissolute and disintegrating lawyer Bill Maitland in John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence at the Royal Court theatre in 1964. It was...
Nicol Williamson, whose death of oesophageal cancer at the age of 73 has been announced, was arguably the most electrifying actor of his generation, but one whose career flickered and faded like a faulty light fitting. Tall and wiry, with a rasping scowl of a voice, a battered baby face and a mop of unruly curls, he was the best modern Hamlet since John Gielgud, and certainly the angriest, though he scuppered his own performance at the Round House, north London, in 1969, by apologising to the audience and walking off the stage. The experience was recycled in a 1991 Broadway comedy called I Hate Hamlet, in which he proved his point and fell out badly with his co-star.
Williamson's greatest performance was as the dissolute and disintegrating lawyer Bill Maitland in John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence at the Royal Court theatre in 1964. It was...
- 1/27/2012
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
London - There's a Hollywood cast for Britain's Whatsonstage theater awards, with James Earl Jones, Jude Law and Kevin Spacey competing for best actor in a play.
Jones is nominated for "Driving Miss Daisy," Law for "Anna Christie" and Spacey for "Richard III," alongside Benedict Cumberbatch for "Frankenstein," James Corden for "One Man, Two Guvnors" and David Tennant for "Much Ado About Nothing."
The prizes, run by theater website whatonstage.com, are decided by public vote.
Best actress contenders announced Friday include Vanessa Redgrave for "Driving Miss Daisy" and Kristin Scott Thomas for "Betrayal."
In the musical categories, there are multiple nominations for the movie-inspired romance "Ghost" and Roald Dahl-based "Matilda."
Winners will be announced Feb. 19. See below for the full list of nominees.
Watch previews of some of the nominated plays:
The Full List Of 2011/12 Nominations
Best Actress in a Play
Eve Best – Much Ado About Nothing at...
Jones is nominated for "Driving Miss Daisy," Law for "Anna Christie" and Spacey for "Richard III," alongside Benedict Cumberbatch for "Frankenstein," James Corden for "One Man, Two Guvnors" and David Tennant for "Much Ado About Nothing."
The prizes, run by theater website whatonstage.com, are decided by public vote.
Best actress contenders announced Friday include Vanessa Redgrave for "Driving Miss Daisy" and Kristin Scott Thomas for "Betrayal."
In the musical categories, there are multiple nominations for the movie-inspired romance "Ghost" and Roald Dahl-based "Matilda."
Winners will be announced Feb. 19. See below for the full list of nominees.
Watch previews of some of the nominated plays:
The Full List Of 2011/12 Nominations
Best Actress in a Play
Eve Best – Much Ado About Nothing at...
- 12/2/2011
- by AP/The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
After 50 years playing everything from Gandalf to gangsters, the beloved 'national institution' explains why acting keeps him sane
Next week, it will be 50 years since Sir Ian McKellen first walked out on stage, at the Belgrade theatre in Coventry. "I couldn't believe my luck," he says when I ask him what it felt like. "I had done a lot of theatre-going when I was a kid, which is how I got interested but I had never thought, really, that I would be an actor, it was the sort of thing I would say to adults to stop them asking what I wanted to be when I grew up." Getting a scholarship to Cambridge was what did it, he says. "There were all these people – Derek Jacobi, David Frost, Trevor Nunn – and they were going to go into the theatre. I thought, frankly if they are good enough, I am."
We...
Next week, it will be 50 years since Sir Ian McKellen first walked out on stage, at the Belgrade theatre in Coventry. "I couldn't believe my luck," he says when I ask him what it felt like. "I had done a lot of theatre-going when I was a kid, which is how I got interested but I had never thought, really, that I would be an actor, it was the sort of thing I would say to adults to stop them asking what I wanted to be when I grew up." Getting a scholarship to Cambridge was what did it, he says. "There were all these people – Derek Jacobi, David Frost, Trevor Nunn – and they were going to go into the theatre. I thought, frankly if they are good enough, I am."
We...
- 8/25/2011
- by Emine Saner
- The Guardian - Film News
A striking stage presence for more than 60 years and a familiar face on TV
Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.
The role remained one of her favourites,...
Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.
The role remained one of her favourites,...
- 7/27/2011
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
The RSC's legendary voice coach Cicely Berry has taught everyone from Sean Connery to Samuel L Jackson. But can she fix Laura Barnett's diction?
Cicely Berry is not impressed. I'm sitting on the floor, with my back against her legs, jiggling up and down while attempting to perform the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy from Macbeth. The last time I said these words aloud, I was about 12 years old and wearing a school uniform. And I certainly wasn't bouncing up and down at the time.
"You're not moving enough!" says Berry, the Royal Shakespeare Company's voice director. I bounce harder. "That's better! Can you feel the resonance?" I can. My voice has grown deeper, the words shake the pit of my stomach. "Creeps in this petty pace from day to day!" Suddenly, I sound like a proper actor. Almost.
Professional actors do this sort of voice exercise all...
Cicely Berry is not impressed. I'm sitting on the floor, with my back against her legs, jiggling up and down while attempting to perform the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy from Macbeth. The last time I said these words aloud, I was about 12 years old and wearing a school uniform. And I certainly wasn't bouncing up and down at the time.
"You're not moving enough!" says Berry, the Royal Shakespeare Company's voice director. I bounce harder. "That's better! Can you feel the resonance?" I can. My voice has grown deeper, the words shake the pit of my stomach. "Creeps in this petty pace from day to day!" Suddenly, I sound like a proper actor. Almost.
Professional actors do this sort of voice exercise all...
- 7/24/2011
- by Laura Barnett
- The Guardian - Film News
Phil Penfold writes: I got to know the glorious Pete Postlethwaite (obituary, 4 January) as his "seaside landlord" when he and the RSC visited Tyneside in the early 1980s. Pete told me one night that as Banquo to Bob Peck's Macbeth, he had been "biding my time, leaning on a spear, when old Peck is emoting like buggery, and he gets to the line 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow'. There's this split second silence, and a Geordie voice in the stalls says: 'Eeee, that'll be Friday!'"
Years later, when I had moved to Doncaster and was writing the press pack for the movie Brassed Off, Pete and his co-stars were staying at a local hotel. One night I turned up to find no Pete: it turned out that, on a rare afternoon off, he had gone to Doncaster races, and had won a lot of cash on the horses.
Years later, when I had moved to Doncaster and was writing the press pack for the movie Brassed Off, Pete and his co-stars were staying at a local hotel. One night I turned up to find no Pete: it turned out that, on a rare afternoon off, he had gone to Doncaster races, and had won a lot of cash on the horses.
- 1/25/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Oscar-nominated British actor with a vast range who could move between comedy and tragedy with ease
The actor Pete Postlethwaite had a face that elicited many similes, among them "a stone archway" and "a bag of spanners". These unflattering descriptions, plus his tongue-twisting surname, would suggest an actor with a career limited to minor supporting roles. But Postlethwaite, who has died of cancer aged 64, played a vast range of characters, often leading roles, on stage, television and film.
He was at ease in switching the masks of tragedy and comedy. The working-class martinet father he played in Terence Davies's film Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), which Postlethwaite credited as his big break, can be seen as paradigmatic of his career. Postlethwaite powerfully conveyed the father's double-sided nature: at one moment he is tenderly kissing his children goodnight, the next he is ripping the tablecloth off in a rage.
Postlethwaite was...
The actor Pete Postlethwaite had a face that elicited many similes, among them "a stone archway" and "a bag of spanners". These unflattering descriptions, plus his tongue-twisting surname, would suggest an actor with a career limited to minor supporting roles. But Postlethwaite, who has died of cancer aged 64, played a vast range of characters, often leading roles, on stage, television and film.
He was at ease in switching the masks of tragedy and comedy. The working-class martinet father he played in Terence Davies's film Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), which Postlethwaite credited as his big break, can be seen as paradigmatic of his career. Postlethwaite powerfully conveyed the father's double-sided nature: at one moment he is tenderly kissing his children goodnight, the next he is ripping the tablecloth off in a rage.
Postlethwaite was...
- 1/4/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Though the economy was still in dire straits, Broadway carried on during the 2009-10 season, with visits from such high-voltage marquee names as Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Christopher Walken, Denzel Washington, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Liev Schreiber, and Scarlett Johansson. A little group called Green Day rocked Broadway's world with the stage adaptation of the band's hit album "American Idiot," Twyla Tharp paid tribute to Frank Sinatra in "Come Fly Away," and Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins formed a "Million Dollar Quartet." "Fela!," Bill T. Jones' combination dance party, concert, and musical biography, transferred to the Main Stem from its Off-Broadway run, as did Geoffrey Nauffts' tender and moving play "Next Fall." "Red" and "Time Stands Still" offered searing portraits of artists coping with crises, while Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room or the vibrator play" captured the repressive Victorian era. Broadway fare also...
- 5/27/2010
- backstage.com
For any actor overlooked and underappreciated in his or her early days, take heart. Patrick Stewart has tales for you. Bypassed by the Royal Shakespeare Company twice while a young actor, he finally won the chance to understudy there and became a core member years later. Through the help of others, through his own perseverance, he became the noted star of today, earning the admiration and respect of actors of all generations. But he started humbly—in life and as an actor. He eventually garnered supporting roles on television, diligently building a résumé of fascinating characters, from the darkly silent Karla in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" through the scheming Sejanus in "I, Claudius." Then came his leading roles, creating Captain Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," headlining his own series "Eleventh Hour," and playing Professor Xavier in the vast "X-Men" franchise. He has meanwhile been a gift to the theater,...
- 4/21/2010
- backstage.com
Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Williams, Miller—all these playwrights and many more wrote memorable roles that over time have become iconic. For example, when we think of Stanley, we think Brando. Certain lines, too, carry extra weight. You know the ones I mean: "Stelllllaaa!," "To be or not to be," and so on.Actors generally take one of two approaches to such roles. Either they "steal" from others' performances, stage or film, at some point during rehearsals or the run, or else they studiously avoid seeing anyone else in the role and try to erase their memories of others' performances from their mind. For some, though, the course they follow depends on the role itself."It seems everyone who's ever played Dottie Ottley has won a Tony," sighs Deborah Strang, who was in rehearsal for "Noises Off" at Los Angeles' A Noise Within when I called her. Judi Dench is one...
- 11/20/2009
- backstage.com
Sir Ian McKellen has revealed that he can't watch his own work because he is too critical of his performances. The award-winning actor said all he can hear and see are mistakes in both his films and on stage. He told the Daily Express: "It's no pleasure. I did see Macbeth and it's a little like looking at old snaps of yourself. I know it's (more)...
- 12/21/2008
- by By Sarah Rollo
- Digital Spy
Sir Ian McKellen hates watching his body of acting work - because he only notices mistakes he made in his performances.
The veteran star has appeared in numerous Shakespearean tragedies both on stage and screen, including Macbeth in 1979, Othello in 1990 and Richard III in 1995.
But McKellen insists he despises watching his past work.
He says, "It's no pleasure. I did see Macbeth and it's a little like looking at old snaps of yourself. I know it's good, but when I look at myself in it, all I can hear are lines and inflections I don't like.
"In Othello I speak too quickly. The performance is fine. The reading is fine. The execution is not.
"Richard III - terrific. But then, it was a film. More care goes into a film. It's different."...
The veteran star has appeared in numerous Shakespearean tragedies both on stage and screen, including Macbeth in 1979, Othello in 1990 and Richard III in 1995.
But McKellen insists he despises watching his past work.
He says, "It's no pleasure. I did see Macbeth and it's a little like looking at old snaps of yourself. I know it's good, but when I look at myself in it, all I can hear are lines and inflections I don't like.
"In Othello I speak too quickly. The performance is fine. The reading is fine. The execution is not.
"Richard III - terrific. But then, it was a film. More care goes into a film. It's different."...
- 12/19/2008
- WENN
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