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Interviews
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Simon Russell Beale - Write a Play for Me, Please Philip Fisher talks to one of our most highly regarded actors. There is one name that continually tops the list when theatre lovers play the perennial game of naming today's best actor. Whether you ask professionals, critics or theatre-goers, Simon Russell Beale comes out on top more often than anyone else. That is a wonderful achievement in the face of stiff competition and even more so for a man who by his own admission, does not win parts through physical beauty. Now in his forties, Russell Beale has lightish brown hair and beard, is below average height and might accept that losing a few pounds would do him no harm. On the plus side, he has a quiet charm, clear intelligence and great wit. If nothing else, this means that if you are ever asked who you would like to take with you to a desert island, he should get in ahead of George W Bush or Pamela Anderson and might give Olivier or Oscar Wilde a run for their money. The National Theatre's director is clearly a fan, although at the moment, it might be reasonable for the actor to wish that Nicholas Hytner had never heard his name. Russell Beale has had a great success with Sir David Hare's modern dress version of Bertolt Brecht's Life of Galileo in the title role but he stays on stage almost throughout the three-hour duration. He then added almost as large a part in Hytner's own new version of The Alchemist by Ben Jonson. This means that a typical day is likely to involve six hours of solid performance, or, as a variation, rehearsing for one play then performing in the other. Surprisingly, the star seems to bear no grudges and relishes the challenge. "It's been a hard couple of months, I hadn't worked out when I accepted both of the parts that I'd be rehearsing in the day and playing in the evening but now The Alchemist is on and done and dusted it's more civilised. I rather love that sort of challenge, its heavy but it's fun". The common link that he identifies between the two parts that he so expertly juggles as Face in The Alchemist and Galileo in Brecht's life of the scientist could not be more topical - "fraud". Another common characteristic between this pair is that they are to a degree unattractive. However, that has been a characteristic of a good number of the parts that Simon Russell Beale has played during his career. He sees greater parallels between Face and Mosca, the part that he played opposite Sir Michael Gambon in another National production of a play by Ben Jonson, Volpone. In each case, his character is "a sort of facilitator of the plot". He also enjoys the fact that "you never really know who Face is because he's acting the whole time" In January, he takes over in something completely different, becoming King Arthur in the Monty Python musical Spamalot, reprising a part that he played so successfully on Broadway at the beginning of this year. Of his experience in New York, he has no reservations at all. "I loved it. I did it partly because it was something so new and completely different for me - singing and dancing in a Broadway musical, I've never done anything like that, especially the dancing which, as you probably know, I'm absolutely terrible at. I decided to challenge myself and see what would happen". Russell Beale does not come from a typical stage family but, from a young age, began to think of the life of a thespian as the least one string to his bow. "I have acted since I was a child but never thought that I'd be an actor; it sort of crept up on me". He was lucky enough to have a very good English teacher, acted at school and is even happy to admit that aged 14, he distinguished himself playing Desdemona. After being awarded a first class degree in English at Cambridge, he had to decide what to do with his life. "I toyed with singing and I toyed with academia and I toyed with merchant banking but it was fairly obvious..." Regarding the actor's dreaded periods of 'resting', Russell Beale says, "I've been very, very lucky." After couple of months of searching around after making his decision to go on to the stage, a friend took over the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and invited him to appear in a series of short plays, after which he has never looked back. "It's funny, I've got such a blank face and I think I've been lucky in that people have been able to fit me into lots of different types of things as a character actor". One of his formative experiences as an actor was a stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the mid-Eighties. He was originally offered two years, which seemed like a long time to a young man bu, having jumped at the opportunity, stayed there for eight. "I had the most wonderful time in Stratford. It was very formative and a very important part of my life. They were very good because I started off as a comic actor and Terry Hands picked me out to do a Chekhov play, The Seagull and that changed the whole course of my life". The other highlight of his time in Stratford was meeting Sam Mendes with whom he has now done seven plays. Their first together was Troilus and Cressida for the RSC. "I wasn't to know that he was going to be such an extraordinarily important part of my life but we got on and he offered me Richard III. Then I came to the National to do Othello" (playing a very sinister Iago). He also starred in Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night for Mendes, both at the Donmar and in New York. "What can you say about Uncle Vanya? One of the greatest roles in one of the greatest plays ever written. I found Malvolio much more difficult, quite a puzzle. I'd love to do all four of the big Chekhovs but I think I've probably missed my chance as Andrey in The Three Sisters." Following his spell at the RSC, Russell Beale moved on to the UK's other big theatre company. "The National is now my second home. When Nick (Hytner) took over, he made me an associate which meant that there was a sort of blessing from above," he laughs. "It's the most amazing, amazing creative building. I love the architecture of the building and the sheer rate and passion of work". One of the high points of his career was when he played Hamlet at the National at the age of 40, "which is really the upper limit for which in retrospect I'm extremely grateful because I was a little bit more in control of what I can do. The response to it was unexpected and fantastic because it was a very gentle Hamlet and he was not the person that I thought he'd turn out when I went into the rehearsal room. He just turned out to be a sweet prince and that was quite risky. The fact that it was well received was amazing. It changed things in the way people saw me. It's just one of those parts that changes a person's life" His Macbeth at the Almeida was less well received and Russell Beale would like another go at it at some point. "I was fascinated by the fact that murder gives him this extraordinary voice. Until he murders the king he is difficult, taciturn man, and then suddenly something is released and what he produces is poetry of great beauty. I found that fascinating". As well as playing so many major classical roles, the actor enjoys his opportunities to work with modern playwrights as well. "I always get depressed when people assume that I only to Shakespeare," he chuckles. "The Philanthropist (by Christopher Hampton) is actually a great play. I thought, gosh this is an extraordinary thing to do to write a character like this at the centre of a play and for a young man to write so well about middle-age. I love this idea of the sheer chutzpah of someone saying I'm going to write a play about someone who doesn't like conflict. It's lovely when you do a modern play and it's even better than you imagine it to be". He has done remarkably little work on screen but has a great fondness for the character that he played in the TV adaptation of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. "I love Widmerpool - Kenneth - who is a fascinating character" he says fondly, reminiscing, "And I love the process." Surprisingly, very few screen opportunities have come his way but as he reflects, this is not too much of a disaster since "theatre is my great passion." He is booked in Spamalot for a six-month run but has nothing planned after that. However, he still has many ambitions. There are two Shakespearean roles that he would like to take on. Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing although as he confesses "I'm really scared of Benedick." And he adds, "I want to do Falstaff and again I'm really scared of him but I'm just five years too young for that". When an actor like this goes on record about wanting to play these parts, it can only be a matter of time before a director fulfils his dream. Simon Russell Beale finishes the interview by issuing a challenge to contemporary playwrights. "Write a play for me please". There must be a danger that he will get knocked down in the rush.
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