PHOTOGRAPHS: ALLSTAR, CORBIS, REX FEATURES, STEVE CARTY/YOUNG VIC PRESS
Life has given us many weighty
questions to mull over. Alongside
“Why are we here?”, “What happens
after we die?” and “Why were there only
two series of Fawlty Towers?” comes
the conundrum posed by William
Shakespeare — “To be, or not to be?”
The existential dilemma — essentially,
should you live actively, or passively — is
at the heart of the bard’s greatest ever
play, Hamlet — the titular role of which is
widely seen as the toughest ever written.
With Michael Sheen about to take it on
at London’s Young Vic, ShortList spoke
to some of the biggest stars who’ve
undergone their trade’s stiffest challenge
in attempting to bring the prince to life…
Sir Ben Kingsley
Royal Shakespeare
Company, Stratford
Upon Avon, 1975
“Simply put, if I hadn’t played
Hamlet at the RSC in 1975, I would never
have played Gandhi [in the 1982 film].
People who saw my stage performance
were directly responsible for me getting
the part. And, crucially, I would’ve been
ill-equipped to play Gandhi without 15
years of classical training and the
consequent role of Hamlet, which still
stands as the finest moment of my career.
“I already had experience working
with acting giants at the RSC and I had
an acquaintance with the muscularity
of Shakespeare’s language, but when
offered the role I initially believed it to be
impossible. I thought, ‘Why me?’ But that
question reflected Hamlet himself when
he asks the gods if they’re testing him,
as Shakespeare, in his extraordinary
writing, understood that an actor needed
to be tested.
“The pressure is continual. It’s only
when Hamlet is dead and you’re carried off
stage by your fellow actors that the feeling
of being the prince fades. When I left the
role I knew that there was a piece of
elastic in me that had been stretched and
had not shrunk back to its original shape.
“It was a terrible loss when I let Hamlet
go, but playing him wasn’t a question of
pride — that would be like being proud
of my DNA. It’s more gratitude.”
Kingsley stars in Hugo, at cinemas
later this year
Ben Whishaw
The Old Vic,
London, 2004
“For me, playing
Hamlet was
career-defining. It was my first
big role and also enormously
special to perform it at The Old
Vic, where you can really feel the
ghosts of Hamlet’s past.
“What defined my own Hamlet
was the fact that the cast was
fresh out of college. Our director,
Trevor Nunn, emphasised every line that
references youth, so it became a story
about the fragility of that youth pitted
against the bankruptcy of older generations.
“PLAYING HAMLET IS LIKE BEING IN A HALL
OF MIRRORS — NO MATTER WHAT PEOPLE
DO, THEY WILL ALWAYS SEE THEMSELVES”
Imogen Stubbs was Gertrude,
the mother to Ben Whishaw’s Hamlet
in The Old Vic’s 2004 staging
“Trevor demanded a lot from me
emotionally. Our rehearsals were
emotional before they were intellectual.
I remember going onstage on the first night
and opening my mouth to say Hamlet’s first
soliloquy and having to fight to get the
words out. At the interval, Trevor knocked
on my dressing room door and said, ‘Great
first half,’ before giving me some notes
ahead of Hamlet’s famous scene with his
mother in the second act. ‘Make sure you
destroy her,’ he wrote.
“Hamlet is special because you can’t
hide anything of yourself in the role. It
magnifies your qualities. Even though
Hamlet himself is probably suffering from
depression, I found it very beautiful to play
him. I always ended the evening feeling
very alive, very uplifted.”
Whishaw will be appearing in the BBC’s
Richard II in 2012
Ethan Hawke
Michael Almereyda’s
big-screen
version, 2000
“There’s a scene in Hamlet
where an inquisitive Polonius, the king’s
consulate whom Hamlet distrusts, enquires
as to what the distracted prince is reading.
Hamlet replies: ‘Words, words, words.’ I’ll
always remember hearing that line and
thinking that this
is a person
so expressive
that even
Shakespeare’s
best isn’t enough
for him.
“My Hamlet
appeared in a
modern Hollywood
retelling in 2000 where he’s born into a
corporate dynasty entitled the Denmark
Corporation. I was happy to play him as
a younger man because the only thing
I knew I could offer the role of Hamlet that
many others couldn’t was youth.
“The director and I rehearsed for
months ahead of shooting. Other actors
such as Bill Murray and Julia Stiles
rehearsed separately because there are so
many different ways in which people can
approach Shakespeare; especially because
we were all Americans, not RSC graduates.
“Our adaptation was largely focused on
making the play relevant in a modern
context. We used surveillance and CCTV
for the spooky elements and when Hamlet
sees his father’s ghost, for example.
“The worry in productions of Hamlet
is that you end up seeing the actor’s
interpretation rather than the director’s.
You must work together, and see what they
see. Having a shared responsibility takes
the weight off your shoulders.”
Michael Sheen is facing up to
the role in The Young Vic’s
upcoming production
Hawke stars in Total Recall, at cinemas
late 2012
John Simm
The Crucible,
Sheffield, 2010
“In 2009, I got a call to say
I’d be playing Hamlet. I was
walking around in a dream after that — the
only experience I can liken it to is having a
baby or getting married. You have this aura
about you for around two weeks and you
can’t quite believe it.
“Despite having a year to prepare, I’d
have a copy of Hamlet with me at all times.
Even if you think you know it all, never stop
reading it. That’s how it seeps into you.
“Once all the lines were in my head
I could treat the stage like a playground.
Not on press night, though, which was
Ethan Hawke’s portrayal
of Hamlet was set
in modern-day New York
terrifying. I walked out and looked into Sir
Ian McKellen’s eyes before my ‘To be, or
not to be’ speech. I was staring at Gandalf.
“There was a rival Hamlet on in London
at The National Theatre at the same time,
which we knew would be lauded while
we’d be the ugly stepbrother. But we were
very proud of our adaptation. We were the
northern Hamlet and we liked that.
“It was physically and mentally
exhausting, I lost about a stone doing it,
yet wanted to take a month off and do it
again afterwards. It’s undeniably the
greatest role an actor can play.”
Simm stars in Mad Dogs series 2, which will
air on Sky1 in early 2012
Michael Sheen
The Young Vic,
London, from
28 October
“Hamlet is the most
dangerous play that exists. It’s an
exploration of what it is to be human
and asks the biggest questions, such as
whether or not you take personal revenge
on those who wrong you or leave it up
to society instead. That’s something I’ll be
asking in my performance.
“I’ve never really worried about the
Shakespearian language. A lot of actors
can get quite nervous about the language
and supposed rules of it, but I’ve always
felt comfortable. To me it’s an expression
of how we feel and think and you’ve got
to give yourself to it.
“The grief of Hamlet is a path I’m
exploring. His line, ‘The lady doth protest
too much, methinks,’ about how a person
remonstrating to excess is covering
something up, is a big clue in terms of
how his complicated grieving process
has changed his perceptions of things.
“What some adaptations tend to forget
is that it’s a play that takes place in a
haunted castle. There are all kinds of levels
of haunting. It’s unsettling, especially for the
lead. Playing Hamlet is like being in a hall of
mirrors — no matter what people do,
they will always see themselves.”
Hamlet is playing at The Young Vic from
28 Oct—21 Jan 2012; tickets from £10;
youngvic.org
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