Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor known for his stage Hamlet and film roles as a Nazi, a count, and a Quiz Show cheat.
On the island
Eight records
He always used to speak about Kathleen Ferrier, and how how moved he was by her singing, and how how tragic it was that she died of throat cancer.
I remember buying it in WH Smith in Salisbury after school. I felt like I had bought something slightly illicit.
Requiem in D minor, K. 626: Benedictus
Ileana Cotrubaș, Helen Watts, Robert Tear, John Shirley-Quirk
I think I must have bought it once in a record shop, but I played it a lot and in my first and only motor car.
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
On my travels I've taken I've always have carried the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, played, all of them by Alfred Brendel, so they've become, if you like, a sort of talisman or a s a safety net when one is feeling a bit bruised, battered or just needs to put one's mind into another place.
When My Sugar Walks Down the Street
Gene Austin, Jimmy McHugh, Irving Mills
Because the character I play, Count Olmashi, the English patient, has a private obsession with with uh jazz music or swing music or dance band music of that time, thirties, forties, Saul sent me a whole batch of C D's of different artists. And I played this a lot um during the filming.
Fidelio, Op. 72: Mir ist so wunderbarFavourite
Martha came to me when we were discussing what music we should use and she said, I just want to use this piece of Beethoven, this Fidelio, I think it's wonderful and I said, Oh my god, that's I kn I know, I th this piece is extraordinary.
Anthony Newley, Leslie Bricusse
This is about feeling good. It's Nina Simone and uh Feeling good?
St Matthew Passion, BWV 244: Mache dich, mein Herze, rein
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter
One of the a ge a wonderful gesture that he made was to give me some music, some of which is in the film, but he this this piece of music is not in the film. I know it's one of it's been one of his choices on this same programme. Coincidentally, it's also mine.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:31Was Schindler's list the big break, the one that made you bankable, as they say?
Yes, I suppose it must have been. Uh I um had in fact done one television film playing T E Lawrence and a version of Wuthering Heights which didn't go down particularly well. And i I think at that time I I had thought I'd blown it. That's it. It's not I'm going to go back to the theatre and… It's not gonna work for me on film. Then I was asked to meet Stephen.
Presenter asks
2:06Why would [Steven Spielberg] think of you for [Amon Göth]? I mean, were you amazed?
I I don't I knew when I knew that he had spook I actually I I suppose the connection I made was I knew he had seen me play this Heathcliff, which which wasn't great, but I think I played Heathcliff in a particularly violent and quite sadistic way, and that's what I believe that's that's what I what I believe Heathcliff is Heathcliff is actually.
Presenter asks
6:34What was [your mother] like?
Well, as a mother primarily ex ex extraordinarily. Loving and giving and able to encourage. Her children all as individuals.
The keepsakes
The book
Marcel Proust
Well, I've just in fact, next week, I'm starting a a a very unusual B B C programme about Proust based on a book that I had not heard of until I was asked to do this by Alain de Botanc on How Proust Can Change Your Life. And because I'm going to be. In fact playing Proust in this. I think I would take all rechef de tempes du in English.
Presenter asks
19:51How did working for Redford as a director, in the end, work out differently from working for Spielberg? How do they compare?
Well the obvious difference is that Redford is Robert Redford's an actor. I love working with both of them, but they I mean, Steven Spielberg comes with an extraordinary at his fingertips knowledge of the technical. Aspects of filming… Whereas I felt… With Robert Redford, that was less in the forefront of his mind. He really wanted to find ways of teasing out of the actors sort of different nuances of performance.
Presenter asks
21:47Why did you want to make this film [Onegin]? This has really been a passion, hasn't it?
Yes, it's been a sort of quiet passion that's that's sort of obsessed myself and my sister Martha, who is who's directed it. I first read Eugene and Yeegan by Pushk Alexander Pushkin. I didn't know the opera. I read it when I was at drama school. and became just intrigued by this character, Oneegin.
Presenter asks
26:11Do you despite all this great success in films, do you find it more thrilling still the stage?
Well the process f I think for an actor is more a bit more pure in that the process of filmmaking is very chopped up. After a while I th you you you long I've longed to to have that sort of open that open run, if you like of rehearsing and then then playing, playing playing a part right through. And getting that instant reaction from the audience which is there.
“I like the hideawayness of it. I've often thought that I feel more secure in a part than I do in everyday life.”
“I think sometimes some will say, wear this coat or put on this uniform, put on this S S uniform. And it was a very peculiar, unsettling feeling that the costume made you feel powerful and strong. And that was very disturbing.”
“I think I'm probably naturally a bit over anxious and a a worrier. Yes, it's it's not a help. Being anxious is can be a hindrance, I think.”
“I don't think acting I don't think acting is at all intellectual activity. In fact, going back to what we were saying, I think more and more it's a it's a physical thing.”