Jonathan Pryce
Why did it take so long to get you back on Broadway?
Interesting question. There's been talk about a lot of things over the intervening years, but the timing has never been right. I was here for a year last time when my children were quite small. They're older now, my sons are taller than me, and I felt I could leave home again for a while. It's always been a case of looking for the right thing.
How were you enticed to do Dirty Rotten Scoundrels?
John Lithgow has been a great friend of mine since we did Comedians in 1976. I came here to see him simply because I wanted to see a friend's new show, and I loved it. I went back to London, and a couple of months later they asked if I would take over from John.
When you saw it, were you thinking, "This is a part I want to play"?
John and I had dinner afterward and he talked about how much fun he was having, but I didn't go away thinking that I'd like to do it. When they asked me, my first response was that I would have to see it again to see if I could envision myself in the part. And the answer was yes. It wasn't just my role, it was looking at how good everyone else in the show was, especially Norbert [Leo Butz, a 2005 Tony winner as Freddy Benson]. That's really what clinched it for me—the idea of working with Norbert.
It's a huge coup that you agreed to be a replacement. Have you ever done that?
Never. I've been replaced! [Laughs.] A few years ago, going into a show to replace somebody wasn't the thing to do. There used to be a stigma attached to it. But I don't feel that at all now, especially with this piece. There was a line in Comedians where the old comedian looked at the young pupil and said, "You remind me of me when I was your age." Norbert's not quite as young as I was then, but he did remind me of the kind of zany, anarchic approach to theater that I used to have in spades when I was much younger. And it's quite nice thinking I can let him do all of the super-physical zany stuff and just stand back a little.
This show is going to be a workout for you, too!
I see that now. It's as physical as anything I've ever done.
A lot of people think of you as a fairly proper actor.
They don't know me. [Laughs.]
Have you been working directly with Jack O'Brien?
What do you enjoy about acting in a musical?
How so?
Talk about jumping into the deep end—Miss Saigon as your very first musical!
Is that true?
…with your wife, Kate Fahy, no less. It must have been like couples therapy.
Do you feel as comfortable in a musical as you do in a play?
Could you see yourself doing Oliver! or My Fair Lady in New York?
What happened to the idea of you starring in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on Broadway?
I believe The Goat—which on the surface is a play about a successful architect who wrecks his marriage and his career because he falls in love with a goat named Sylvia—may have been more popular in London than it was here, even though it won the Tony for Best Play. It was a big hit for you, wasn't it?
Did you meet Albee for the first time when you did the benefit reading of Virginia Woolf with Uta Hagen, Matthew Broderick, and Mia Farrow?
Did he come to London to see The Goat?
You have been working with a Who's Who of young Hollywood in the past few years, from Hilary Swank and Adrien Brody The Affair of the Necklace, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley Pirates of the Caribbean, Matt Damon and Heath Ledger The Brothers Grimm and Colin Farrell The New World.
Did you have any idea that Pirates of the Caribbean would be such a huge success?
During filming, what did you think of Johnny Depp's Oscar-nominated performance? I've read that the "suits" were doubtful about it.
You've become an in-demand supporting actor in all kinds of movies. Are you comfortable doing these smaller parts, rather than leading roles?
You played a professor in a comedy TV pilot last year. Would your family want to move to L.A.?
What's the secret of your 30-year relationship with your wife? You met as very young actors in Liverpool, right?
Really?
That's lovely. Your kids never bugged you to get married?
I hear you. But seriously, neither of you has ever turned to the other and said, "Let's have a wedding"?
See Jonathan Pryce in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street. Click for tickets and more information.
Fortunately [director] Jack O'Brien had a hint from other people what I can be like. The show is a little gross at times but it's done with so much wit and good spirits that it's not offensive. It's hugely enjoyable.
Yes, and his comments and observations are very astute. You look at a show like this and think, "It's thrown together." It looks as if everyone is just having a good time. But a great deal of thought has gone into it. Jack's very smart.
I do them every five or six years, and it's always like going into therapy.
There's a great release that comes through singing. I came to musicals fairly late in life; Miss Saigon was the first one I ever did. Theater wasn't exactly a chore, but I had just done Macbeth and Uncle Vanya, and going into something like Miss Saigon, which was completely sung through, was a whole new discipline that I enjoyed learning. It's a much more cooperative event than a straight play.
Yeah, but I'm glad it was my first, because it made me love musicals. I did it for two years between London and New York, and I loved it. A lot of times when you do a straight play, you're waiting for it to end.
Well, yes. There's only so much grieving you can do or whatever. I did Edward Albee's The Goat in London…
Well, we're still together. [Laughs.] That one was a joy to do because it's such a wonderful, wonderful play. All the pain and agony you go through onstage, you really feel you've achieved something by the end of the evening. To do it with Kate was a wonderful experience.
Yeah. If a musical is good, you're a bit more protected in a way. It's shared—you and the orchestra and the other performers. It's a bit of a weight off your shoulders in a way, sharing music with people.
Oliver! was never going to come here. My Fair Lady is coming, but not with me. Strangely enough, I had to make a decision between Scoundrels and My Fair Lady. They don't coincide, but I didn't want to do this for six or seven months, take a short break, and then do nine months of My Fair Lady. I wanted to do this one. Of course, I loved My Fair Lady; it's probably the best experience I've had in terms of a musical that goes between dialogue and songs.
After I had done a rehearsed reading of it here with Uta Hagen, which was an extraordinary experience, the talk of my doing a full production began. Then they sent me The Goat, which I thought was brilliant; immediately, I wanted to do it. Unfortunately, they wanted to go into rehearsals for Virginia Woolf almost straightaway after that. And I thought, I can't go from The Goat to Virginia Woolf. I'll be out of my mind! I said I'd do it if they'd wait a little, but Edward had waited long enough. I'm sorry I didn't do Virginia Woolf here, but I'm glad it was a great success.
It was, and I think it may be something to do with the different sensibilities about animals and goats. [Laughs.] I don't know how the American audience perceived it, but in London, it was generally seen as being about something beyond a goat. I finished reading the play and the last thing I was thinking about was a man and a goat. It's about everything to do with life and relationships and loyalty and betrayal—it's an extraordinary piece. Even when I was doing it, I never had an image of a goat in my mind. It would be a wonderful subject for an opera. You could put music to it.
Yes, and I'm sure you know he's a man of few words, which is rather unnerving. He doesn't say much, but I always thought that if he didn't like something, he would say even less.
He did, and that was very unnerving. He came to a run-through about a week before we were due to open, just him and the director in the room, and when we got to the end of the play, he didn't say anything. He came over to me, looked at the dead goat on the floor, and said, "Well, the goat was good." Great! Thanks! [Laughs.] But it developed from there. On the first night, when we came offstage, Edward greeted us at our dressing rooms holding a silver tray and four glasses of champagne. He loved it.
And none of them do theater! I think Keira has been intending to do something, but they don't let her off the island. They're doing parts two and three [of Pirates of the Caribbean] back to back. I started last Easter and I've still got bits to do.
None at all. I did it almost by accident. I was going to do a wonderful, fairly low-budget art film, and it was cancelled the day I got sent the script for Pirates. I thought, "Oh god, a pirate film." [Laughs.] I was quite snobby about it, but I decided I might as well do it since my other film had been cancelled and I could have a nice time in the Caribbean. It was great to do. Gore Verbinski is a wonderful director who likes actors, and even in the midst of all that chaos, he finds time to rehearse.
It wasn't just the suits! My first day on set with him… [Laughs.] Other actors can say, quite cruelly at times, "Are you really going to do it like that?" That's what I wanted to say to him: "Is that it?" But the more he did, the more he got into it. It's a great performance.
Not really, no. More than with any of this latest crop, I spent a lot of time talking to River Phoenix about theater. I was working with him at the time he died [in 1993] on the film Dark Blood, in the desert in Utah. He was in awe of the theater and wanted to try it. The actors you mentioned seem to go from film to film, so I don't know if their interest lies that way.
I'm quite happy. They talk about the time in an actress's life when leading roles ebb away; it happens to actors, too. There's a time when the leading roles are yours because you're young and that's what they're looking for. Sadly, the leading roles are getting younger and younger. But in between those pop-up supporting roles, I get bigger ones. I made a film in Budapest last summer with leading roles for the more mature actor, The Moon and the Stars, with Fred Molina and Catherine McCormack. And I can do whatever I want in the theater.
I fell into that by accident, for Jerry Bruckheimer's company. He came up to me in the Caribbean and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It's a gamble, because if a pilot doesn't work or doesn't get picked up, you've had fun for a couple of weeks and can take your pay packet home. If it works…we really didn't think that part through. [Laughs.] But Jerry said he would make it comfortable for me to go back and forth to England. It was quite a good pilot but fell through the cracks.
Yes, it's our 34th year together. The secret is we never got married.
It's much easier to call her my wife. But it's a 30-plus-year love affair.
No, it's never been an issue. They've grown up in a very secure family situation, as have many of their friends. We were a group of friends who had children around the same time, and many of the couples weren't married. Some have gotten married in later life. It would pay me to get married, because there are all kinds of inequitable inheritance things and tax things if you're not married. But if it ain't broke…
No, but we have a very nice Christmas party every year!