Q: Your co-star in The Last Station, Helen Mirren, is playing Prospero in Julie Taymor’s film version of The Tempest. Are there any female parts you’d like to play?
A: A very tacky, old Cleopatra! No, wait: the nurse in Romeo and Juliet! I think that is my dream, to play the nurse.
Q: Seriously, if asked to play the nurse, would you?
A: It depends who was playing the other parts, but if they were exciting actors? Yes, damn well I’d do it.
Q: You’ve been extremely busy over the past few years. Do you ever relax?
A: It’s a wonderful place to escape to, the theatre. I feel perhaps more relaxed there than I do in life. And strangely enough, I have just the same energy I always did, and I’m awfully ambitious still, I haven’t lost any of that.
Q: Because Prospero is often a career-capping role, you’ve said you intend to do something very quickly afterwards, to prove you’re not making an exit. So what’s next?
A: I’ve been offered the part of Salvador Dali, on film, and I’m dying to do it if they can raise the money. The more outrageous the part, the better I like it. Actually, I’m in a bit of a panic at the moment, there are several great comic characters I’d like to try. It’s got to be comic, I just want to get laughs from now on.
Q: Is it easier to get laughs than to make people cry?
A: I think it is easier, despite the famous line that dying is easy but comedy is terrifically hard. Making people cry is out of your hands. You can’t come into a performance with the intention of making people cry, because then you’re dead. Pathos is something totally inexplicable; you can’t play pathos, you have to own it. To simplify: if somebody cries a lot of real tears on the stage, it’s not going to be terribly moving. If you don’t cry, then the audience has a chance to cry.
Q: Would you consider doing something on TV? Like, say, an HBO series?
A: HBO is interesting. But a series? No, it just chains you down, you end your life in a series. I’d rather end my life in action, on the stage.
Q: Just keel over while doing a play?
A: Absolutely! It’s the way to go. I want to be very present at my own death, I want to know every second of it, every subtle change. It’ll be fascinating.
Q: Do you think people mellow with age?
A: Yes, I think they do, though I’m not sure about me. I think I have entered a sort of second childhood: I’m kind of giddy, having a good time. I don’t want to mellow too much, that would be rather dull.
Q: But aren’t you easier to work with now?
A: Oh, I’m a lot easier to work with. I’m a pushover, a sweetheart when it comes to my fellow players. I used to be a monster.
Q: What changed?
A: In that respect, I suppose I have mellowed. It was just too exhausting to go on being a prick.
