Transcripts For BBCNEWS HARDtalk 20170830

Of the uss enterprise or as professor Charles Xavier of x men. But, after 17 years in hollywood, Patrick Stewart turned his back on it, to return to england and to venues like this, londons young vic, to his first love, shakespeare and the theatre. In his latest role, he is even playing shakespeare. So why choose small audiences in venues like this over the glamour of hollywood . Sir Patrick Stewart, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you. Now, in this latest role of yours, which is a production of edward bonds play bingo, you are playing shakespeare himself. It is the third time in 20 years you have played this role. Why is it so important to you . Its technically, i think, the fourth time. I saw it when it was first done at the royal court theatre. Actually it was a second production withjohn gielgud actually it was a second production with john gielgud and actually it was a second production withjohn gielgud and arthur lowe in the two leading roles. And it thrilled me. And, even though i was much too young, i fancied the role of shakespeare. And then the Royal Shakespeare mounted it in 1979, and i played a much toojuvenile thats a flattering term, but i was shakespeare. Then we brought it to london, to the warehouse, as it then was. And there are some projects that never leave your system. Its like a virus that you cant get rid of and bingo was one of those in the very best sense. On the fac of it it is not a flattering portrait of shakespeare in the final years of his life. And one presumes that he is a hero of yours. Well, the fact is, if he had not lived, i would have been out of work most of my life. I got to spend years and years and yea rs i got to spend years and years and years back in the 60s and 70s with the Royal Shakespeare Company Performing him. Over that the Royal Shakespeare Company Performing him. Overthat time, and i think ive done 28 of the 37 plays, and some of them more than once, you get a feeling for the writer. I have an instinct about bits that i dont think are shakespeare. Its like a chemical reaction, this isnt him. It is like act one of titus andronicus, absolutely not shakespeare. The moment actually begins an error on comes on. The moment actually begins an error on comes on. Here we are, i know who this is so you said its not a flattering portrait. But its not unflattering either, because edward is asking the question, what must it have been like for the man who had had, eventually in his career, phenomenalsuccess, including considerable wealth coming his way, to have become in his lifetime a national figure, and who had written the sonnets and as you like it ad king lear and Twelfth Night and then turned away from it all. Gone back to this market town in warwickshire, to live in the big house that he bought in stratford upon avon. Second largest house for several yea rs. What was going on . One of the facts that we know about shakespeare, he signed a document during this time. And this is one detail that edward has constructed a view of who shakespeare might have been at that time, around this document. And the significance of the document, it protected shakespeares wealth, and it was damaging to those who were poor around him. The question is, is it enough . And the answer is. It would seem the answer is no. Each audience member will have to make their mind up. The man who said. Your looped and windowed raggedness protect you from seasons such as these, signed a document that brought misery, poverty, deprivation to large numbers of people in stratford upon avon, in his hometown. And edward bond carries in the play, on the one hand, the great humanist poet, and on the other hand, the selfish tory. That i suppose goes to the heart of it. It combines your loves. Its theatre, its shakespeare and it is political, and you are a deeply political man. Its been unavoidable, all my life. Where i grew up, how i grew up, what my parents were subject to, our living conditions, my fathers history and background. Two years ago, during the election, when i was working in chichester, doing bingo at the chichester festival theatre, it was during the election, it was pre election, because i could not be campaigning in my own constituency, burmondsey, i offered myself to the local labour constituencies along the south coast of england, to campaign. Well, you can imagine the nature of that campaigning for a labour candidate. And one of the tory candidates, im sure intentionally pejoratively, described me as a tribal socialist. It was meant to be rude, and i took it as a great compliment. Because it was my experience of the world, and the experience of my parents in that world, that made me a labour party supporter. And youve said when you are in a room full of conservatives you feel uncomfortable, you do not know how to behave. Yes, that is very true. It is ingrained in some way. Its like republicans in the united states, i have the same reaction to them. Can we go to the us . Well come back to your politics. Many people watching and listening to this will know you not as the shakespearean actor, for which you have been remarkably successful, but asjean luc picard. I wonder, when you made the decision to give up what you were doing in the uk, go to hollywood, and take on a role which, if you think about it at the time, American Television wasn;t as good as it is now, star trek was rather Old Fashioned and out of date. You decide to take this role. I wonder if a little bit of you, we all know how successful its been since,. If a bit of you felt you were selling out . Not for a moment. Id never taken the prospect of this job seriously. Id been auditioning for it for six months, and finally it came down to myself and an unknown other actor. Neverfor one moment did i think they would ever cast me. I got these free trips to california every now and again. I was working here. I was in this space when i went to do my second audition. We were going to transfer the production i was doing then into the west end. My agent in california, who had never negotiated a job for me before because it had never arisen. I was not an actor looking for hollywood work. I think today its a little bit different for a lot of actors. The focus so much is film and television, and not theatre for a lot of actors. But my agent, and everyone else i consulted in hollywood, reassured me that i need not fear the six Year Contract i had to sign, because not only would the series never make it to six years, it would be unlikely to make it through the first season. Everyone said you cannot revive an iconic series, it is impossible. Make some money for the first time in your life, get a suntan, go home. So in a sense you were selling out, because you did not expect it to be any good, you didnt expect it go anywhere. That does not sound like selling out to me. My commitment. I made my commitment on the back of the fact it was going to be a failure. Then i could come back here and carry on doing whos afraid of Virginia Woolf . It was anything but a failure, it was hugely successful. One of my producers, one of my champions, not everyone in paramount wanted this bald middle aged shakespearean in their series, said to me, this weekend more people will see you act than have seen you in your entire career to date, which was 27 years. And boy did they like you you were suddenly voted the sexiest man on the planet at one point. Yes. I hate to sound rude, but was it surprising to you . It was gobstopping. Not only that, but i was put on the cover of tv guide with cindy crawford. She won for the women. It seemed to me absurd, it still does. I will not deny that it was pleasant, and i wont deny that it attracted some attention that id never attracted before. You said you never expected to be the lead, you had grown up not expecting lead roles but wanting to act. And of course, all youve had since is lead roles. Yes, i was the wrong shape, the wrong background, the way i talked, i lost my hair when i was 19. I had none of the obvious qualifications to be a leading man. And even today, it occasionally takes me by surprise. Dont get me wrong, i love being a leading man, and more than anything else, i love leading a company. Ive always been a company actor. To help manage, design and support the way a group of creative people work has become a real pleasure for me. So you pick up these other hollywood roles, the likes of professor Charles Xavier in x men, another hugely phenomenalfilm series, and yet you have given it up after 17 years. You turned your back on it. I loved my life in los angeles. I had a very, very pleasant life. Friends and family were horrified when they found out i was leaving, because i had become a cheap vacation touch for all of them. But i could not do the work. The work in my heart, id always wanted to do, which was really english classical theatre with the best group of actors i could find with some clever directors. Thats all i ever wanted to do right at the very beginning. And for years i satisfactorily fulfilled that dream by working for the Royal Shakespeare company. Occasionally in leading roles but quite often as a supporting actor. Id never even seen myself as a leading actor. Although id done some interesting theatre work in new york, in washington, in los angeles, it was not in a context that i could truly enjoy. The context was here, in london, in the uk. So i sold up, burnt my boat and came back. Nothing happened for quite a long time, alarmingly so. Then the Royal Shakespeare Company Opened their doors. Greg dorren asked me to play antony in antony and cleopatra. It led to six, seven of the grandest yea rs of it led to six, seven of the grandest years of my life. Did you think youd made a mistake . Yes. Press nights always start late, because we cannot get you people in quickly. On the press night of antony and cleopatra, i was the first person, its not that way in the play, but anthony came off first. So i was standing in the wings for what seemed like 20 minutes, waiting for the show to begin. What i started to do is write the reviews in my head. Basically the reviews were, who the hell does he think he is . Coming back after 17 years and walking into a leading role . No, get some time in, patrick. Those were the kind of reviews i was thinking about. So, when you saw the actual reviews, that must have been a moment . The great thrill was to be working with Harriet Walter on the stage of the swan theatre with greg dorren and a Great Company in antony and cleopatra. Then the reviews were a lovely icing on that cake. You have since been knighted for your services to acting. You are a knight of the british empire, and you are still a lifelong socialist, is there a contradiction in that . I see no contradiction at all. That sir doesnt set you apart . I work quite hard to not let it. I look on it as an acknowledgement of my work, and of british theatre. I got an obe 11 years ago, 12 years ago, and it was the same with that. Im joining a group of artists, performers who i have admired all of my life, some of them friends. And i feel that this honour not only enhances me but it enhances the acting profession. Do you believe that . It doesnt matter what i believe. It is actually true. It sounds like a line, but its true. I want to ask you, you were campaigning for the labour party. There have been quite a few changes since then. You spend a lot of time in the states. Al gore said that if he had listened to your advice, he perhaps would have ended up in the white house. You have said in the past that if gordon brown had asked you, you would have advised him on presentation. What advice would you give to ed milliband . Al gore is very sweet to have said that. Im not a citizen of the us so i could not vote for al, and i could not even actively campaign on his behalf. It would have been suspect, having a, you know, resident alien doing that. But the result of the 2000 election was devastating. As was the one that followed it too. Yes, if asked, i would be very happy to give any advice that i could give to any politician who i admire and respect. And thats certainly the case with ed. What advice would you give him . I campaigned for his brother during the leadership campaign. David was somebody i supported very actively. Can you advise somebody like. Could you give advice on presentation that makes a difference . I feel like i could. Look how successful it was for maggie thatcher. One of the thing you have talked about is your support for the charity, refuge. It campaigns against Domestic Violence and supports its victims. You have written very movingly about why you did that. Thats because of your own experiences when you were young. You said. We should paint the picture, i suppose. You were in a home with your mother, father and brother, and you said, i knew exactly when the shouting was done and when a hand was about to be raised. I also knew when to insert a small body between a fist and her face, a skill no child should ever have to learn, which is a remarkable statement. It was the reality of some of the time when i was growing up. And so, when i was invited by refuge to become a patron, i could do it without hesitation, because i do it for my mother. Because i could not help her very much then. I was not able to. Now, im able to give some support and encouragement to women like my mother, because Domestic Violence continues to be a massive unspoken of problem around the world. Here in all societies, and all classes, and all economic backgrounds, it doesnt make a difference. People think of Domestic Violence, well, it happens in council estates. No, not at all. It happens everywhere. It is this silent crime because people are ashamed to speak about it. I was ashamed. I was ashamed every monday morning when i went to school because i knew people knew what had been happening. And it was it was shaming. They knew because of the noise coming from your house . Yeah. We were a very tight community. We lived in what was called a one up, one down, one room upstairs, one room downstairs. It was impossible to live privately. I shared a room with my brother. We had a partitioned off room. It would have been part of my parents bedroom. Did you really insert yourself between your mother and your father to stop him hitting her . Sometimes. And did he hit you as a result . No, never. Never. It would work, what i would do. It was as though. My father was an extraordinary man. 1945 regimental sargeant major of the parachute regiment. A superstar who came out of the war, out of the military into semi skilled work. What a fall. And he was frustrated, angry and bitter. And at weekends, he drank. And it was the alcohol that made the difference. Youre talking about it now in your campaign for refuge, but you have said that experiences are destructive. In my adult life i have struggled to overcome the bad lessons of my fathers behaviour. This corrosive example of male responsibility. What did you mean by that . I can best answer that by making a metaphor. As an actor, there was a one set a set of emotions that i always struggled with. And for years and years and years i faked. And that was anger. I knew so well how much of it lay inside me. And could, with little provocation, emerge. And so, as an actor, i kept that side of me sealed, lidded. Shut down. And so i faked it. I faked it for years. I became quite good at faking it. I dont do that any more. One of the nice things about california was that i got some excellent therapy. You can get it here in london, too. But i did. So all of this got worked out. Over years and years of working with therapists. And ifound it was possible to express a murderous rage, fury, hostility, all of those things, and nothing bad would happen. But in my own life i have had to restrain myself sometimes, because the response of violence, which is a choice that men make, it can be controlled. It was always a choice for me and i was always able, most of the time, to make the right choice, which is do nothing. Have the feelings, and do nothing about them. You also said that one oppressive aspect was as a result of this the experience of loneliness, which seems. You mentioned it a few times in various comments youve made, which seems surprising. Even though neighbours would at times help, and my brother, who was five years older than me, so he could be absent at times from some of this, because he was older. I felt utterly isolated, especially during those minutes, sometimes as long as an hour, of monitoring the temperature of the room. Then i think i felt loneliest off all, because there was nobody else to do it. Its ghastly that any child should be in that position, and they are today. So, talking about it is the only thing to do. And campaigning, as refuge does, to get Domestic Violence taken far more seriously, by the courts, by the police. In my house, i heard a policeman say, it takes two to make an argument. Wrong wrong, policeman. Only one. If you are an unhappy, violent man, as my father became. But, you know, the other great thing about my father is that i finally came to acknowledge that he is in everything i do. When i played macbeth, for a year, just three years ago, the very last thing i would do would be to put on my military cap, take my ak47 in my hand and look in the mirror and nod to my father. Because there he was, looking straight back at me. I had a little moustache, just like he is. It was a long time before i understood why i wore the moustache. Why should macbeth have a moustache . cause its dad. Thats why. Sir Patrick Stewart, thank you for coming on hardtalk. Im happy to be here. Hello there. We are moving into the last day of august. But in some places, yesterday, it felt like september had already arrived. Because there was a lot of cloud, there was some rain around, and temperatures across some southeastern areas only got up to 13 degrees. But further north and west, the day brought brighter skies and some spells of sunshine. Just a few showers. That is the sort of weather that we will take with us into thursday. The cloud has now been chased away to the east. Got some clear skies following on behind, with just a few shower clouds. During the day ahead, and mixture of sunshine and showers. Showers heavy from the word go in western areas. Then extending eastwards as the day goes on. Bright or sunny spells between the downpours. So, lets take a closer look at ii 00pm in the afternoon. Across the west of england, some showers. Sunny spells in between. Temperatures 16 or 17 degrees. Some showers stretching across the southeastern into east anglia. But a big improvement in temperatures here. 20 degrees in london, 19 in ipswich. Some showers into the midlands and North Eastern england. Some of the showers could contain the odd rumble of thunder. Scotland, said spells and showers. 14 degrees in aberdeen, 17 in glasgow. For northern ireland, some distance a break between the showers. I think some places will avoid the showers and stay dry all day long. A similar story for wales. Sunny spells, the odd downpour coming along, here or there. Some showers will be heavy, but will fade away as we go through the evening. Through the night and into the early hours of friday, we will see some fog and a chilly night. Towns and cities 9 12, but in rural areas, one, two, three, four degrees. A cool start if you are out and about friday morning. But the prospects of friday are promising. Still the chance of a shower, particular to the east, but many will stay dry. As we go through the weekend, it is not bad news, especially if you like dry weather. This area of High Pressure will give us a fine start to the weekend. Weather systems, youll notice, out west, will not make much progress into eastern parts, so even on sunday, eastern areas of scotland, Eastern England should stay dry, with some sunshine. A fine saturday, a chilly saturday night, but then cloud and rain and strong winds working in from the west on sunday. Welcome to newsday on the bbc. Im Sharanjit Leyl in singapore. The headlines. President trump warns talking to north korea is not the answer. So, what comes next in this nuclear stand off . As the number killed by Tropical Storm harvey rises in texas, monsoon rains are affecting millions of people across south asia. Im Babita Sharma in london. Also in the programme 20 years on from the death of princess diana, her sons make a poignant appearance at a Memorial Garden dedicated to their mother. And the long walk forjustice. We meet the man crossing the entire breadth of australia for indigenous rights. Live from our studios in singapore and