NY Daily News interview - 28 October
Oct 28, 2007 13:43:31 GMT
Post by GreenEyesToo on Oct 28, 2007 13:43:31 GMT
Rufus Sewell stars in Tom Stoppard's 'Rock 'n' Roll'
By MARSHALL FINE
Sunday, October 28th 2007, 4:00 AM
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Tom Stoppard's play "Rock 'n' Roll" offers a short course in everything from Marxist theory to Czechoslovakian politics to the history of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd.
And that's just for the actors.
"It's like a complete history lesson, isn't it?" says Rufus Sewell. "There are so many references. In six months' time, hopefully I'll get them."
He laughs, but Sewell - who scooped up every actors' prize London offered during the play's 2006 British run - is kidding on the square. Returning to the play for a Broadway engagement that opens next Sunday, Sewell remembers the sense of confusion and awe he initially felt from Stoppard's richly textured script.
"When I first read it, as far as I was concerned, it was, 'Great speech blah-blah-blah, another great speech blah-blah-blah' ... and then a blind leap in the dark, with the hope that [director] Trevor Nunn would be able to explain it to me," says Sewell, his green eyes widening. "I knew I was in good hands because it was Tom Stoppard. But if it was all contingent on my thorough understanding of the various issues at the first read-through, I'd have been scared off."
"Rock 'n' Roll" focuses on two characters over a period from 1968 to 1990: Jan (Sewell), a young Czech scholar who returns to Prague after studying at Cambridge, and Max (Brian Cox), his mentor, a British scholar and devoted communist. Jan is a devoted fan of rock music (everything from the Beach Boys to Pink Floyd), but finds himself beaten down by a totalitarian government that equates personal freedom with subversion.
Originating the role in London brought Sewell back to the stage for the first time in several years. The play reunited Sewell with Stoppard and Nunn, who gave Sewell his breakthrough a decade ago in Stoppard's "Arcadia."
"Rupert was always brilliant from the word 'Go,'" Nunn says. "He understands how much of Tom's humanity is in this role. In different hands, the part could be more sober and monotonous. But Rupert has got this wonderful comic ability, which is very helpful because Tom does, too. Rupert finds tremendous variation in the character."
"Variation" is a watchword for Sewell's approach to his career. For some reason, his dark good looks earned him villain roles early on in his film career (in "A Knight's Tale," among others). While he has played more bad guys (in last year's "The Illusionist," for example), he has gone out of his way to avoid playing too many.
"If I want to affect a noticeable change in my career, a little willful unemployment is sometimes called for," says Sewell, who turns 40 this week. "I have to be serious enough about it that, if the only offer is to be a bad guy, I'd rather not work. I try to keep my life basic so that I can put my lack of money where my mouth is."
Which means that, despite the sums of cash involved, he has no plans to make the leap into American TV, unlike such countrymen as Jason Kidd ("Journeyman"), Anna Friel ("Pushing Daisies") and Damian Lewis ("Life"), who are putting on American accents for network TV shows this season.
"When I flick through the channels," Sewell says with a chuckle, "it's always amusing to see my actor friends from pubs in London dressed as American cops. ... Now, you get respected film actors doing TV and great film actors coming out of TV. So it's important not to get too grand, I suppose."
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www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/culture/2007/10/28/2007-10-28_rufus_sewell_stars_in_tom_stoppards_rock.html
I wonder if it was the journalist's or Trevor Nunn's mistake to call Our Man "Rupert"?
By MARSHALL FINE
Sunday, October 28th 2007, 4:00 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Stoppard's play "Rock 'n' Roll" offers a short course in everything from Marxist theory to Czechoslovakian politics to the history of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd.
And that's just for the actors.
"It's like a complete history lesson, isn't it?" says Rufus Sewell. "There are so many references. In six months' time, hopefully I'll get them."
He laughs, but Sewell - who scooped up every actors' prize London offered during the play's 2006 British run - is kidding on the square. Returning to the play for a Broadway engagement that opens next Sunday, Sewell remembers the sense of confusion and awe he initially felt from Stoppard's richly textured script.
"When I first read it, as far as I was concerned, it was, 'Great speech blah-blah-blah, another great speech blah-blah-blah' ... and then a blind leap in the dark, with the hope that [director] Trevor Nunn would be able to explain it to me," says Sewell, his green eyes widening. "I knew I was in good hands because it was Tom Stoppard. But if it was all contingent on my thorough understanding of the various issues at the first read-through, I'd have been scared off."
"Rock 'n' Roll" focuses on two characters over a period from 1968 to 1990: Jan (Sewell), a young Czech scholar who returns to Prague after studying at Cambridge, and Max (Brian Cox), his mentor, a British scholar and devoted communist. Jan is a devoted fan of rock music (everything from the Beach Boys to Pink Floyd), but finds himself beaten down by a totalitarian government that equates personal freedom with subversion.
Originating the role in London brought Sewell back to the stage for the first time in several years. The play reunited Sewell with Stoppard and Nunn, who gave Sewell his breakthrough a decade ago in Stoppard's "Arcadia."
"Rupert was always brilliant from the word 'Go,'" Nunn says. "He understands how much of Tom's humanity is in this role. In different hands, the part could be more sober and monotonous. But Rupert has got this wonderful comic ability, which is very helpful because Tom does, too. Rupert finds tremendous variation in the character."
"Variation" is a watchword for Sewell's approach to his career. For some reason, his dark good looks earned him villain roles early on in his film career (in "A Knight's Tale," among others). While he has played more bad guys (in last year's "The Illusionist," for example), he has gone out of his way to avoid playing too many.
"If I want to affect a noticeable change in my career, a little willful unemployment is sometimes called for," says Sewell, who turns 40 this week. "I have to be serious enough about it that, if the only offer is to be a bad guy, I'd rather not work. I try to keep my life basic so that I can put my lack of money where my mouth is."
Which means that, despite the sums of cash involved, he has no plans to make the leap into American TV, unlike such countrymen as Jason Kidd ("Journeyman"), Anna Friel ("Pushing Daisies") and Damian Lewis ("Life"), who are putting on American accents for network TV shows this season.
"When I flick through the channels," Sewell says with a chuckle, "it's always amusing to see my actor friends from pubs in London dressed as American cops. ... Now, you get respected film actors doing TV and great film actors coming out of TV. So it's important not to get too grand, I suppose."
*************************************************
www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/culture/2007/10/28/2007-10-28_rufus_sewell_stars_in_tom_stoppards_rock.html
I wonder if it was the journalist's or Trevor Nunn's mistake to call Our Man "Rupert"?
