And that's all for today …
helizsct asks:
Do you find parallels between the characters you play – ie Stella and Hedda? Both are destructive in their own way. Do you ever draw on your experiences playing other characters with whom you can see similarities?
I've never put those two together before, but that's quite observant! While I don't consider myself 'Method' as such I do feel that acting, for me, is about taking all of my life experience and using that to find a way to understand somebody new, and I believe it's always possible – and in that respect, all of the characters I've played before, all the women I've been, they all contribute to understanding the one who comes next, even though I try to avoid doing the same thing twice, or hewing too closely to something I've already done. Having done Hedda now for three months I actually have found a bit of Lucille Sharpe in her, a certain unacknowledged desperation that I think they share.
georges1 asks:
What was it like doing Hamlet with Ben Whishaw? You were both so young but have both really succeeded since, did you have any idea you'd both go on to have the careers you do?
No! God no. We were both so green, and a bit overwhelmed, and never in a million years could've guessed we'd both still be working as much as we are now. Hoped, maybe, but not known. But it was wonderful, he's completely lovely and even 13 years (!!) later I'm still in awe of what he did in that production. Shakespeare's never easy, not least when you're practically a child playing one of his most iconic roles. I should say, Al Weaver was wonderful as well, he did Mondays and matinees for Ben and was just great.
Kevin Spacey also likes to remind everybody on set that he 'discovered' me. Sure, Kevin...
Updated
Neil Patrick Harris and I had to get pretty familiar, pretty quickly
mattyjj asks:
Did you know Neil Patrick Harris before you started working on Gone Girl? And given how graphic your big scene together was, how did you go about establishing a rapport and an ease that made it possible?
I did not know Neil before we started, but I was a fan. And as an actor you have to get used to getting familiar with people really quickly, it's just part of the job, but it's definitely easier when the person's as affable and lovely as Neil. We were actually tasked with rehearsing THAT scene, if you can believe it, by ourselves for several hours, because it had to be really precise (if you've seen the film, you know why). We even recorded it to show Fincher some options, somewhere Neil's got very creepy video of us dry humping on a bed on an empty sound stage. Needless to say by the time the day came to do it for real, we were pretty comfortable with each other and could have a laugh while they were hosing us down to clean us up for the dozenth take...
Ephram asks:
What is it like working with Ivo van Hove on Hedda?
Amazing. I've learned so much from him, it's been a wonderful experience. We didn't have much time to pull everything together, we had only three weeks of rehearsals, off book and in costume from day one, and leading up to it I was really terrified, because Hedda's so complex and I didn't know if I had it in me to pull that off with so little preparation. But it was really suited to Ivo, he doesn't psychologise and doesn't think too much, he's all about the characters expressing themselves physically and spontaneously – for example, "you're now going to smash up all the flowers on stage and staple them to the walls". And that's been really liberating for me, and made it less scary to tackle something so big in so short a time.
What comedians would you most like to work with who you haven't already?
I love John Oliver, I would love for him to ask me to do one of his pre-taped bits.
I'm also a really big Monty Python fan, working with any of the remaining Pythons would be brilliant. And I love the Christopher Guest mockumentaries, I don't know that I'd be any good at it but I'd love to try one of those.
Updated
ArtieFufk1n asks:
With the likes of Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Fargo, etc, do you think American TV drama is currently superior to what we are producing in the UK?
Not superior, just different – apples and oranges. They tend to favour high-concept, and will throw the necessary money at it to give it an honest try, which is why they end up with such a surplus of amazing haute television that's playing on a higher level on average, but I don't think it's across the board 'superior' creatively or in execution.
SirDogsy asks:
It's a great testament to your acting skills that when you're playing as big a personality as Amy we aren't distracted by you having played someone as good and kind as Jane Bennet, and vice versa. Some actors don’t have the talent to pull that off. How hard was it to perfect your American accent, and did you keep it up between takes?
Accents are well hard! I think Matthew Rhys said 50% of acting is thinking about your accent all the time. And that's the sort of thing that makes me understand why people will go Method, because it's probably easier to really get a handle on an accent or dialect if you're using it all the time, on set and off. I'm not that way, but I'm not really a parrot either, some people like to just hear the lines and repeat in order to learn it, but I like to study it and listen to it and figure out what my version of that is. For example, I've just done a film where I play someone German and have to speak it as well, and my German's not great but I tried to listen to native speakers speaking both English and German and figure out the tone and the cadence and learn it all together, so I got a sense of the nuance of it rather than just repeating the lines in another language and trying to echo the right accent while doing it.
tomford50 asks:
Who was your favourite Spice Girl?
Ginger! I'm stupid patriotic, she sold me with the damn Union Jack dress.
ainsisoisje asks:
If you couldn’t act, what would your alternative career be?
Realistically, I probably would've ended up an academic like my mum. But I also think I'd enjoy being some level of professional in the fitness business.
Thanks for following along! Let's do it again sometime. Back to work... au revoir!