From our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Mark rollins is here. He won a tony award mark ry lance is here. He is one to 20 wars. He is back on broadway laying the leads in two shakespeare plays. He is king richard and richard the third and olivier and 12th twelfthlivia in night. Inprovided a master class shakespearean acting. I am pleased to have him at the table for the first time. Welcome. Thanks, charlie. How did this happen . These two plays coming here for you to show your stuff . How did it happen . It took a few years. The set and clothing designers and the musical director and the kind of core players, people that worked with me a lot when i was artistic director of the globe. In my tenure is finished, i immediately set about wanting to suppose, carrying on the core workable we did which i hope was a rigorous attempt to explore what i call original playing up practices. But we know from shakespeares date. What we know from shakespeares day. It took a long time. We had to figure a way to mount to productions. Elizabethan spent their money on what they were on their backs. Wore on their backs. What was your term in production . Original playing practices. There should be not only an intellectual inquiry into how the plays might have originally ,een played and what conditions but there should be a laboratory where you can explore with a live audience. Hes that the last 25 years of his life the building the Globe Theatre and died in 1993. I became artistic director in 1995. His thinking about the globe was the inspiration for me. He demanded three things very, therell the role very, research, and he thought he fought very hard for the building to be thatched. All kinds of old building technique. The premise would be we were more inside of shakespeares head if we did that . More about thern reason he broke the plays and the way he wrote them. He wrote the plays and the way he wrote them. We would be able to look at the time it takes, how fast they speak and play. Would they play it two hours . Would it take a longer time in indoor playing houses . Actor, the space is remarkable because there is no lighting. It is daylight. They only played in the afternoon. Greatare twowhopping pillars. There is no way you will be able to stand where someone wont see you, but everyone will hear you like a bell. The fact that they went to the globe, they wouldve said i want to hear julius caesar. They never said they went to see a play, they want to hear it. Immediately demanded a lot more iately demanded a lot more on my part. 10 years as the director of the globe. Lastu had to give a lecture about shakespeare, what would you want us to know . It may not be the deepest answer, but you cannot you will never get to the bottom of his sense of humor and wit. It is well known that one of the great things he is really good at doing is marrying opposites, juxtaposing opposing sounds. Hot, eyes, cold fire ice, cold, fire. Juxtaposing tragedy and comedy. His deep sense of humor, even in the tragic moments, it still staggers me. I dont generally find it myself. I find it in a performance with the audience. The audience tells you what is humorous . I have come to feel that there is a collective thing that happens when a whole lot of people focus on this maybe religions know this, but it can theatre happen at the address as well. If you have a whole audience focused on one thing, it feels that each of our individual minds are a couple of something more we are together focused on something, as if the internet is just a manifestation of something that exists naturally. There is a collective consciousness in the room. The coalescing of everything is much larger than some of the sum of the then the individual parts. Globe,icularly in the which is a circular building, obviously. That collective experience of playing there for 10 years really awakened us to even more, the sense of humor is the thing hope i say that i would would take a long time before the universe destroys that. Here is what Brent Ben Brantley says. A celestial comedy, and richard play,ird, a grizzly share a theme, it is that all the characters are in, some way, not what they seem. Does that resonate with you . Yeah. This is the thing about the original clothing. The clothing of the. The clothing of the period. It was illegal to wear certain colors on the street. You could be killed on the spot or wearing purple, for example. Was it royal . Yeah. You on the street, you would have to bow to some people. You could tell who was coming by the color what level of society they were and you have to be careful careful. The aristocrats didnt want to wear the same close so they gave them to the players. So they had remarkable close. More remarkable that a man playing a woman was a common man tending to be 18. Standing to be a king. He could be in deep trouble outside the theater for playing an aristocrat. Thethis thing about theater, this was probably not a particularly wonderful material. On the outside would be slashed. The beautiful, very expensive gold silk which would be more as my house as an actor, that would show through underneath. They loved layers. They love hiding and revealing. I suppose that would be the next thing i say about shakespeare. If you want to enjoy it or if you want to make shakespeare plays, try and understand his deep love of hiding and revealing. Fors it harder to prepare olivia that for richard . It is not such a comfortable place to go. Olivia starts in deep grief, of course. Comfortable place to go . Of that kind of feeling i was reading this article by mike tyson about his childhood the other day. List andes of his being picked on as a kid in a kind of thing you can imagine that someone with richards even though chase here made more of richards his ability to they were, his spine was like that. Even though shakespeare made more of richards disability than it was, his spine was like that. Create imagine it would a skeptical nature of god and conscious. Be rejectedg would on him because of that. Yeah. It is a sociopathic mind, isnt it . Theres a certain amount of fun playing him. The something odd when you have to come out and give the first speech. Especially when it is a rather famous speech. That is hard. You have to push through a lot of false expectations and just think actually, all i am coming out to do is wait for my brother clarence to come by. I might as well talk to you about what is coming on going on. Out withnight, you go some fearful thoughts in your mind . By that time, no i will start half an hour before i lly will immerse myself up myself into the thinking of the character. I think with the character wants, needs, the way he his attention ranges. Your him by the time you hit the stage . Yeah. Or her . Yeah. That is what you want to see. You want to be in the room with richard the third. What is the craft of doing that . I dont know. I dont know. It is your life. Yeah, it is my life. Lets people talk about it and write oaks about it. Books about it. The read those books . To be honest, i have not. I think they are very good and can be very helpful. Do not read him because you have other things you want to we want to read or i read them when i was a drama student and things like that. I prefer talking to people about acting. Actors posture the conversation about acting about . Why did that work . Why didnt it work . Really . Is fascinating. It is a way for me to get inside the performer to understand how they see it. I think they do it a little differently. My particular fate was to be born before there was even theater with a love to be someone i really was. Before because you were alone . I have a great brother and sister. It would take part in the games as well. You chose to do that. You chose to pick your own companions. Not only that but rather than play baseball or foot all to play star trek or voyage of the bottom of the sea, this person wrote and reminded me that i am her son. I mustve been l, i was i tonk she was referring Robert F Kennedys funeral. I think i was more six or seven. When the funeral took place the funeral would have been acted out the entire dash around we acted out the funeral around the grounds the whole weekend. Bead some need to maybe witnessed, to act things out, to experience them. Twelfth night and olivia, how do you get inside a womans head . She is a woman, you know. She has different physical qualities than a man. Think what happens when you play a woman when you are a man is that your father or mother comes out quite a bit. I know when my mother came to hear or see me play cleopatra or olivia, two women that i played at the globe [laughter] she was a little quiet about it or it it. How quiet . My mother has plat past, god bless her. There are a lot of things that i feel about that side of me comes out. Not that i focus on it, but it comes out. Like any male character, she has certain things that she is longing for and certain obstacles that are preventing her your interest in shakespeare goes back to high school. It does. I skipped the rest of the parts and just played hamlet. [laughter] you have since played hamlet, romeo, macbeth, olivia. I think i have been in 52 productions of plays by shakespeare or his contemporaries. Milton. People at the time any better training for an actor . I would think so. Theyre much finer actors than me. No. To get your teeth into shakespearean characters. Bestat the past possible training for an actor . Likes no, i wouldnt say that. I am not of the opinion that shakespeare should be loved by everyone. Or, because of the range it can give you an opportunity to dictate into understanding human nature, therefore understanding acting, therefore a larger ability to inhabit different characters . It depends on how you approach it, doesnt it . You and i could get a same set of paints that picasso used. I dont think we would come up with the same thing he did. It does not come from the paint. It comes from the head. It comes from your life and how the way in which you deal with the shakespeare material. I dont know that robert rich and Robert Mitchum or spencer brandorando actually gives one of the best shakespearean performances that i have ever heard as mark antony. You get a fantastic performance from gielgud as caches. Why is he so good for you . Because he is so present. I totally believe that those words had never been said before and he absolutely needs to convince ed convince friends, romans, countrymen that convince people that these words had never been said before and i had just thought them . Yeah. Im thinking them up as i speak. Im stepping off to say watering about a glass of , and an ion up with the table, and then the glass of water. The tone of speaker changes. We organize these things are naturally when we are making up and not the trick of acting, but the skill of acting is to make it seemed every time that you just thought it up. It is not something that you memorize, it is something that comes from who you are and you just thought of it. Our director, tim carol, has a wonderful phrase touches phrase which is played to win. I dont want to see them doing a demonstration of the best tennis game ever that they rehearsed for six months and then he flips herein dice there. Andnt them flips here dives there. I want to see them try to beat each other. When youre playing richard, i wanted ditch i want to pull them down into the ditch with me. I will do everything with what is written to convince my brother that i love them, to commence my other theres something you are trying to achieve, really trying to do it. As the word said, it is a play. That you foundid more humor in richard the third then belong there. They might all say that. I tend to find what i have been iii that ihard find more apparent villainy that i would ever spend time for. The danger with that is that if you dont give him someone that is charismatic and has a sense of humor than the other actors have to play a bit stupid and it diminishes the play. Though i have never met i have met sociopaths and psychopaths, but they have been in institutions. The ones i have met have always seemed to be very gentle, humorous, incredibly intelligent people. The nurses or the doctors who were with us at the time said, yes, but dont stay in a room on your own with them. Alone . T stay in a room i, i think the humor think the humor is a very effective way of disarming people whether i do too much of it or not, that is up to the audience to decide. I have used about that myself. I have views about that myself. It is about disarming the audience and bringing the audience in, too. To senses audience something is happened, there needs to be a pleading moment of confusion. I have been to some place where a lot has happened, and to feel that no one was ever really confused, none of the actors, you know. Even when a single cell grows into two, there must be a moment of confusion even at a cellular level. Certainly in human endeavors, and my life, i spent a lot of times confused especially at great importance. Confused about the consequences, confused about the right path to take. Most plays are about that kind of thing. You want to feel you are in the presence of, not always in the presence of people that know what they are doing but in the presence of people who are considering different options. Wasnt brando graded that kind of acting . Great at that kind of acting . It would be a long time when he considered many different ways of how he asked for a sip of coffee. And he might just take it. Just because it is written in one way doesnt mean there arent many other ways that the character might speak or do the next thing they are going to do. Has acting been all that you thought it would be . It has been much more than i thought it would be, much more. Ink i was really just was living in milwaukee at the time when i was 18. I just wanted to make a living. I thought i would be happy if i could make a living in this thing and i joy that i enjoy. That would be fantastic. Stephen fry is here. He is a lot. He is interviewed steve jobs for time magazine, has been to prison, and thought he would dedicate his life to studying shakespeare. He is currently playing malvolio in Twelfth Night. How is it to be on broadway with this remarkable production . It is remarkable not just speakingf the greatest actor in the world, mark rylance plays richard the third i am not in richard ii. What you think that . Is not a charisma that he has that is, to other actors. It is just quite something. It the cap he described olivia. He said i have just seen the greatest stage actor. He was a nobody. He wanted to be a film student. They said to him, why . I said, i dont know. It is something he gives off. You can train to have it. Aboutre is a famous story olivia having a remarkable performance. It was Roddy Mcdowell who went backstage and thought that this was a moment of a great performance. He was there and had his hands in his head and was sobbing. Why . It was remarkable. He said, yes, but i dont know why. It will not be as remarkable tomorrow. Is that like sports. There is one day where the racket in your hand and the ball floats just inbounds and you can time it and you are in the right place. Other days, no matter how hard you concentrate you cant hit it or it it it. It started in london. It did. We have had to bring it in slightly. The globe is like your table of table. It is like the wooden oak. You have half of it, as it were, is people standing. It is the art in there called the groundlings. They would not have paid a penny in the day. S werewere tears tier the aristocracy would have sat and watch. It is more or less the same now. Xcept people queue in line for a long time for the standing up seats as they love it. The relationship you have with your audience is utterly unique. There is nothing like it. You realize that every soliloquy is a conversation. It is an allmale cast . It is known as an original practices cast. Every single element of the play , as far as we scholastically know, absolutely as it wouldve been in shakespeares day. Wasow that Twelfth Night performed in doors. It was in a whole that the lawyers use. We dont all look like because he has not changed since those days. Hall lookswhat the like because it has not changed since those days. During the hour of daylight, you can use the globe and outdoor theater. Happily but you have the whole half of the rest of the year to keep your actors from starvation. You go to lawyers halls, oxford and cambridge colleges, the houses of nobilitys and you play you play there. This new one was clearly written for an indoor theater. You can sort of tell. It is not to say it is a difficult play. It is a whole areas, combustion was it is a hilarious farce. Did you want to be a shakespearean scholar . It is kind of true. It was the thing i was best that at university. I found it easiest to write on shakespeare. I love reading on the plays and performing them at cambridge. I thought i would do a thesis, a doctoral thesis on shakespeare and quietly group in the corner of a college somewhere. As one of my contemporaries has become the greatest shakespeares scholar in the world, jonathan bates. Talk about the part malvolio . Am i saying that right . It is said that american southern english is closer to shakespearean english. Malvolio means ill will. There is an it means he is ill disposed. Ill will. There is an anagram at closetion because it is to olivia. Malvolio. Oliviahe steward to because she is in morning. Her father and brother died. She has the steward, malvolio. She has an uncle, toby, who is a drinker. She has a chambermaid who is very charming. She is a she has a full that tells a thing she does not like to hear, like king lear had. Wail, seven years you will wear a veil and not look at the face of man or it a shipwreck happens with a twin brother and sister. They both think the other drowned. The sister comes up with see oh, my, and she says, brother drowned, what will i do . a la get back to where i come from . How will i get back to where i come from . She has a trunk of close, but they are her brothers clothes, but they are her brothers clothes. Bolivias olivia starts to fall in love with her because she is dressing up like a brother. She doesnt know, but we know it is actually a girl. The language is very strong. It is often used by those who push the erotic nature of shakespeares place. They talk about the pure love of and a never meet until the farcical moment, and they are on the stage at the same time, looking identical, and the she says, how come you dont know . Says, how have you not made divisions of yourself . And apple left and twain an le clevfft in twain and it means a viola can marry sebastian, and the girl can married the duke. Meanwhile, i have terrible tricks played on me because i am a shade of things to come. Im a puritan, or there is a moment where i am described as a puritan. There is a moment where mariah rightly describes me, that devil, he is a puritan. I am very pleased with myself and i assume everyone adores me. They played is very cruel trick on me by leaving a letter around which looks as if it is a secret letter from olivia to me that says that she loves me and telling me to wear particular yellowg including stockings, cross bartered, and to smile all the time. Gartered. She is not in the mood for people smiling when she is grieving for people, her late