Ian McDiarmid
Are you working on your Tony speech yet?
What a question! The whole process has been completely fascinating to me because I've never worked in an American theater before, let alone on Broadway, so I'm in a state of high-octane excitement. It's wonderful to find that people really like the play and, even better, that it is being recognized as the great work of art it always was. We're very pleased for ourselves, of course, but we're happiest of all for Brian Friel, who at the ripe age of 77 deserves to have his moment.
How do you feel about being placed in the featured actor category for the Tonys?
I didn't even know I was. But I don't mind that at all. These things [awards] are add-ons; it's nice to get nominated and nice to win, but if you don't, it's a very small part of things, and I'm sure the others in this company [Fiennes and Cherry Jones as his wife, Grace] would say that. too. It's nice when we get it, but we don't live for it. All we live for is doing the show every night.
So you weren't consulted about avoiding competition with Ralph Fiennes, even though you won a Best Actor award for your performance as Teddy in London?
No one introduced that conversation whatsoever. You're the first person who has mentioned it. But whatever they do is fine with me.
What's been fun about exploring Teddy again, five years after doing it in London?
Did you know the play before you and Jonathan Kent revived it at the Almeida?
Do you consider it Friel's masterpiece?
You must get sick of questions about the challenge of doing a monologue.
That's interesting, because there's a popular notion that American audiences don't have a big attention span.
Many people feel that American audiences are more receptive to British plays and actors than British audiences are to Americans. Would you agree?
What does Ralph bring to this part?
Are you surprised that he has stayed so loyal to the theater, even after becoming a movie star?
Who picked Cherry Jones to play the Frank's wife, Grace?
She's not using a British accent. That's okay with everybody?
For 11 years, you maintained an acting career while running a major theater company in London….
What did you enjoy most about being a producer and director?
Did your master's degree in clinical psychology from the University of St. Andrews come in handy?
I have to ask how Star Wars changed your life.
You truly understand what it's like to rule an empire!
Are there any parts you'd like to play on the stage?
How about Shakespeare?
I often ask British actors if they feel Americans aren't as good at performing Shakespeare, and no one will take my bait.
Have you seen Jonathan Pryce in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels? I don't believe the part you played in the movie is in the show.
No, the police chief is sort of his assistant.
Okay, back to the Tonys—you've got to wrangle a free tuxedo…
Prada might be nice.
Who's going to be your date?
See Faith Healer at the Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street. Click for tickets and more information.
I just love him. I almost feel that he's on Broadway rather than me, and he's having such a nice time [laughs]. That character would never get near a major American theater, and he would love it so. I'm very happy to have brought him here; he loves talking to these audiences because they seem to like him and understand him and want to listen to him.
Oh, I feel completely refreshed by doing it here. We're in a larger theater than I've ever done played it in, a very good, proper theater with great acoustics. The other locations were the Gate Theater in Dublin, which is a terrific building but a conversion, and before that, an old bus station in King's Cross in London. It was atmospheric, but Teddy and I feel at home in a theater. And I'm very happy that American audiences understand the dense London accent that he needs to be performed in.
Yes, I actually auditioned for the first London production, which had the late, great Patrick McGee and Helen Mirren. I went up for Teddy and the director was very kind; he said "You'll be a very good Teddy in 20 years' time." Well, in 20 years' time I did get the opportunity to play it. It had always been in my mind as a part I wanted to do. This [revival] has been great for Brian because the play has returned to Broadway in triumph after having been initially
misunderstood.
Yes. And that's saying something, because he has written some marvelous plays. This is a major work of art. It's got so much texture and so many reverberations because it's about the nature of the artist—what we do, what we know about it and what we don't—and that's why it's always a little scary. One of our jobs is to translate our fears and our nerves into something substantial—what we call art.
Well, the terrific thing here is that the audiences want to be engaged with it, which was not always the case back home. You feel the energy the minute you go on, and it's wonderful. I rather suspected that would be the case; I've been in New York audiences and watched our productions from the Almeida here, and I've listened to them listening. When I went to see Cherry [Jones] in Doubt, the quality of silence in that auditorium was almost scary. You know the old cliché about being on the edge of their seats? I looked around and people were on the edge of their seats. I thought, "God, will they listen to Faith Healer like that?" Well, they are.
I don't find that at all. I was astonished when Ralph [Fiennes] did Richard II and Coriolanus at BAM. People were chasing after all the ironies in the references in Coriolanus in a way that they weren't in London. Ralph has also said, "You'll love these audiences, they're extraordinary," because he's played Hamlet here. They come with a certain kind of energy and want to be engaged rather than [an attitude of] "Show us what you can do."
I think that's too big a generalization. It depends on the play and the actor. Snce I'm making my American debut, I don't have enough practical experience to answer that. At the Almeida, we were lucky enough to get great American actors. Kevin Spacey is probably the most notable, and our audiences loved it. And English actors love American actors. By and large, [Americans] get closer to the reality of the person, I think, than our traditions and techniques allow us to. We've gotten better at that, but we learn from you.
I suppose the greatest quality is the capacity for contradiction. It's not always recognized as a virtue in an actor, but I think it's absolutely essential. You think one thing one minute, and he can immediately turn you over so you think another thing. He loves playing a wide range of parts, but he particularly likes playing characters who exist in a kind of shadow, a twilight world. He seems to excel at that. He's not remotely interested in being sympathetic; he's interested in taking people into areas they don't normally want to enter.
Well, he's a proper actor.
No, it's in his blood. He can't do without it.
When the play was done in Ireland there was some talk of Cherry doing it but she wasn't available. Since we had a great British actor and me, we thought, "Do you think we can get a great American actress to play that part?" The minute you start using that phrase, Cherry Jones's name immediately comes up. Cherry read the play and loved it and met with Jon and said, "I want to do it." So how lucky were we? All of the actors I've worked with have brought their own individual qualities to it, but she has brought an additional tragic level to the piece. I know Brian thinks that, too. When we heard her do it in the rehearsal room, Ralph and I were completely knocked out. We feel really fortunate.
Yes, it's not an area she find particularly interesting, and it doesn't worry me at all. I'm a Scot playing a Londoner, and I daresay many Londoners would criticize the odd word here and there. Ralph is an Englishman playing someone who comes from Limerick. There's a strong Irishness in Cherry's performance, but Grace is Anglo-Irish and that means in a sense it's up for grabs. Brian said it's not important; what's important is the believability of their relationship.
Well I mainly maintained it at that theater. [laughs] I could choose the parts. If we did Faith Healer, I could say, "I'd like to play Teddy."
Standing in the back and watching actors act whenever I wanted to. I could just pop in and see a bit of something. That was absolutely the best thing.
Oh, that was just me marking time while building up the courage to take the plunge [into theater]. It hasn't done me any harm. It was a case of taking a deep breath and saying, "You might as well do this thing you want to do, or you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life.
Well, it gave me a bit more money, and that's nice. And everyone on the street seems to know who I am. Sometimes that's not so good, but by and large it's entirely manageable. I loved doing those movies; I'm very fond of George Lucas.
I know, I know! I got to play being 120 years old when I was 30 and then my own age. It was wonderfully peculiar and bizarre and enormous fun to play the creator of the darkest villain in screen history. You were talking about awards earlier; the one that's given me the most pleasure so far was an award from the magazine Total Film for "Villain of the Year." Last year, they gave it to George Bush because of Michael Moore's film. And I said, "I'd happily stand down for Tony Blair." So far, he hasn't made a movie but it's only a matter of time!
I don't have a handy list, but there's an Ibsen play I'd like to do next year, John Gabriel Borkman. He couldn't be more different than this. I saw a recent production of The Wild Duck at the Donmar Warehouse directed by my friend Michael Grandage and I dropped a hint.
My greatest joy so far was playing Prospero in The Tempest, with Jonathan as director. I would like to do that one again. And yes, as you can probably imagine, there's another old gentleman, a not-very-well-behaved king, that I have my sights set on. Edward Bond, an absurdly neglected British playwright, wrote a version of the story called Lear, which I did last year. That's given me a taste for the real thing, but frankly there are too many Lears about, so I'll wait.
…directed by Jonathan! I'd love to have seen that.
I don't think it's true. They don't get as many opportunities to do it. There are so many hang-ups about Shakespeare that I'd like to help dispel—it's much easier than you think. He happens to write in blank verse, which is by and large the way we speak. There are a lot of unnecessary barriers that are easily blown down. But again, it's down to opportunity: How many chances do you get to play the parts in the American theater—or in the English theater, for that matter?
I don't know, because we're on the same performance schedule so I can't see it. I was Michael Caine's butler. Does Jonathan have a butler?
Well if they do a special performance I'll be there. I did get to see The Pajama Game on Sunday night, which was delightful.
I'll be phoning you about that. You can advise me.
Really? Line them up for me.
God, these questions! I don't know. They can fight over me!