Everyone is talking about this and january 31 is approaching and you have to get there if you can. What is it about the royal family . I do a Morning Television show. All are fascinated by every generation. What is it . Why do we like royalty . It becomes increasingly unreal in the modern world. These people exist as a scene in the play where people come to the palace and say why is this still here . If you are in london and you happen to see the horse carts going down the mountain it is like a fairy show. It is fantastic. Charlie was interesting is the drama and all that has happened to the royal family is so fascinating. The whole of the diana tsonga was lived out in public and our play touches on that area. The one area the whole diana saga was lived out in public and our play touches on that area. You could not have made that story up. Charlie you play such an interesting figure. How would you describe your relationship to her . [laughter] i think in the play, she is clearly a wife who loves her husband and that is really the dominant thing and im sure that that is true in real life. That is the motor engine for maybe all of the unraveling of the Charles Diana marriage and all of the things that happened with that love affair that began between charles and camilla when they were young that and do her through her separate marriage, his separate marriage and i do think that what people are fascinated by the royal family is its the one overlap, you cannot identify with the Prime Minister or the president quite the same, they are not the family unit that what they have in the royals is a family like and unlike your own. I would say its the academy of what they call blended families when you have inlaws and outlaws and stepdaughters and its very interesting i think for people to watch that playing itself out on a public stage with magazines and now social media outlets. Is charles perceived differently in america . You can probably answer that better than me charlie. Theres not a great sense of him here. Thats kind of what i feel. There is no sense of the role that he plays or what i know about his passion for architecture and where he has been outspoken hes been very influential in terms of drawing in england. He does sometimes three things per day. What is it about the man that you know . I only meant him once. Its pretty good. Im impressed by the fact that people tell me over the last six years hes been learning russian or arabic because he feels the axis of arab axis of power is changing and he wants to be able to communicate. He spends at least a moment every day of his life thinking how can i prepare for what will come to me. We cannot have any conversation without talking that the queen doesnt have anybody who doesnt like her except antiroyalists. And think anyone could begrudge the way she has taken her duties over the next extended. Of time. She has taken on beauty with such consistent dignity and devotion. Over such a considerable. Of time and tim mentioned that maybe the Queen Elizabeth the second is gots anointed. I think the world was an extraordinarily different place when Queen Elizabeth became the queen. Homosexuality was illegal. We were not governed in the trade Union Movement was huge. Modern life has changed so extraordinarily under her reign. She has been such a firm fixture. When she does finally go, i think that it will be very interesting to see what will happen because the next one off will be the first of a new age. Prime ministers comment go but the queen stays. Prime ministers, and go, but the queen stays. In the second world war, the royal family particularly was phenomenally important to the country and give a sense of support and dignity and went up there and visited the areas that had been blitzed. They try to become involved and my mother she was just like one of our family, one of our family. Its extraordinary that representation because the queen and the mother they have to be a figurehead for the entire nation and their subjects. As times change underneath them the queen very rarely expresses opinions. With the Scottish Independence thing she refused to get involved. The monarch has to represent the country when homosexuality is illegal but also when it is legal. If she had expressed an opinion one way or another she wouldve immediately tied herself in a not that she wouldve been unable to get out of. Thats which is just managed to embody so effortlessly. Diana introduced that she wanted to enlarge that notion into the queen of hearts thing which is a big area that i will be interested in what william does, the real rinse william ok i will do it. The fact that he chose his mothers Engagement Ring that a fact that he clearly reveres and loves his mother and i think it would be very interesting to see what he does introduce because she is an icon but very airbrushed out of recent history. Its very much the queen, the tight royal family on the balcony, i would say that she was the joker in the pack in terms of wanting that continuity. A lot of this is about the king, king charles. What is the playwright done for us here . Hes taken a bunch of commonly held popular perceptions of who these people are and created the situation. When you read the play to begin with you think this is quite amusing and quite clever for about 10 minutes and thats when you think something needs to happen and thats when he is first seed with the primary stir that charles is somehow interested in defending the freedom of the press and thats a great dramatic view. From that point on you think, this is an just pastiche, this is a play. Charlie American Theater audiences have some appreciation for the king and the queen cousin of what happened in broadway with helen mirren and meeting with a series of Prime Ministers. It is a fascinating relationship. I remember tony blair talking about when he first came in to see Queen Elizabeth because he was telling exactly what you will do as Prime Minister because you are in the presence of the queen. How good a father was Prince Charles to Prince William . When i was chatting to them on the phone yesterday [laughter] charlie does that form an attitude about how you portray him . It does. From my research, i was quite surprised to discover its on a popular view in the press because it is not media friendly that the two boys have a terrific relationship with their father. I think people like to imagine that they were their mothers children and their mother was cruelly ripped from them and their father is cold and attached and the humbling guy who cares more about architecture than his family. But i dont think thats true. I think from all the impressions ive got and from everything ive read, they are a very close family, charles has been a terrifically supportive and loving father. They love and adore him as anybody would with their father. I think the drama belongs on the stage and in the tabloids. The reality is that this is this kids dad. They love him and he loves them and they are in a very unique position. Charlie there something every day about what happened to them that they are royalty. They were brought up british and dont know any other way. They are born into it. If youre born a tiger you grow up a tiger. What influence does camilla have on him today and what influence much you have on him as king . I dont know about influence so much as i think of her as an enabler, a source of confidence. I always feel in the used to do what i look at the interaction between charles and his own parents that there is a little boy adored by his dad and i agree with you charles. I think he was never quite mothered in the way that probably little boys need to be and i think that camilla is a great mothering figure in that way thats a maternal thing men can be maternal, the unconditional love thing. She was good for him and probably good for his relationship with the boys. But you probably the one person who can say to him you have to be better. I think its probably very accurate. I do think she could influence him as far as her interests or policy. The issue of conflict being the press but i think charles will have difficulty. The environment which is a huge thing for him, suppose that fracking writes come up i can imagine him he would find it very hard. What can you do . It could be tricky. This is what Mike Bartlett told the wall street journal. He told that kate is a hugely huge kate and camilla are huge outside but are strongly invested in getting things their own way. I think kates privilege and her angle as an outsider who grew up as a middleclass daughter but i think her grandmother apparently had almost a replica buggy to replicate like the one in the papers to the royal family. They grew up with their fantasy with their curtains and their memorabilia and i mentioned that what she is invested in is what the queen means to the common people. In the play when things start to get very shaky for the royal family in the family is trying to get lost in their own neuroses i always picture her with this 50th anniversary plate in there and educate, that is something she can keep in mind. Charlie by all appearances, she has done a terrific job. Thats the best way of saying it because that is the job. Charlie the job is to appear well. She has produced a male heir and a little girl. That is pretty good. How would king charles be different from Queen Elizabeth . He has said that he wants to be handson. We have the black spider letters, his writing is apparently very spidery and he writes letters lobbying for his position and this has caused some stress. As the Prime Minister says, you are not elected, you have no right to do this. But i think he will want to be involved. If hes come to see the play, he might be careful about how he does that. Which is an interesting question. Has he seen it . I think it would be a formal evening. I think it would be an uncomfortable evening about the way the monarchy might go. So he has had a chance to see it . He said plenty of chances. I mean in terms of people videotaping it. Of the photoshop a wonderful picture of the queen and charles on the sofa. What is your per trail of him, what do you want him to come away with . Is pictured as a man of principle. One of my lines early on is such a brilliant play, i say my life has been lingering for the throne. Its just hanging around waiting. I even imagine sometimes that his mother if mother was dead and i was in charge. He could be in his 80s by the time he comes. Knowing what you know about the life of a royal, would you have found any satisfaction in that kind of life . No. For me it seems like a nightmare. I wrote on instagram, if you play kate for long enough at what point are you kate. My son wrote back and said you get to come home and three weeks, kate can never go home. I thought, i am that kind of personality that would find that very frightening. Im up here and im never going back down. I think that would be the majority opinion, but my sense is that william can do a lot of things. I did not think about the royal family much before this. I devoted a huge sense of respect for the monarchy and particularly our monarchy that is so specific. You are 14 years old or 15 years old and her mother dies in this horrific dissection, the grace with which a young adolescent dealt with that in the public eye it is extraordinary. I would be in the desert sucking peyote out of the baked bean trin. He was a Helicopter Rescue pilot, he now pilots and air ambulance in norfolk. I dont know anyone else whom i would want to represent me as my monarch. Cannot imagine a better person. Charlie dont you want to go see this now . [laughter] here is the play, king charles the third. Thank you all. Mark strong is here. In 1950s brooklyn, he played in the american dream, irrational love, and the trail betrayal. Ben brantley of the New York Times wrote, its the most powerful performance youre likely to see this year. They attacked us. In 1998, by sea. From the air in 2001. They murdered 3000 of our citizens in cold blood. They have slaughtered our deployed and what have we done about it . Congratulations. My warmest welcome to his majesty service. If you speak a word of what i am about to show you, you will be executed for high treason. You will lie to your friends, your family, and everyone you meet about what it is you do. I will return from the grave to fulfill englands destiny. Listen to the rabble outside. Listen to the fear. I will use that as a weapon to control them and the world. Hes traveling in beirut, its dangerous to travel. I want you to take them from this hotel, drug him, put him in the front of a car. It is good to have you back in town. Charlie i am pleased to have mark strong at this table for the first time. It is a pleasure, welcome. Tell me how this began for you. I got a call having not done a play for 12 years. Charlie you began in theater. I did a lot of training in the Royal Shakespeare company. Charlie so you had not been on stage for 12 years because you had interesting film roles . Or Something Else . I think that i had done so much theater and it was a kind of genre i was familiar with and contemporaries of mine were making films and doing films. It was a world i realized i could have access to. Its very hard not to continue with that. Charlie so you got a call and someone says i have an offer that you cannot refuse . David lamb had asked to see me and he sent me a view from the bridge. It was in a pile of film scripts i had been looking at. Charlie what spoke to you . It is hard to say why a character speaks to you because it is instinctive. Is something that i felt and i knew who this guy was and i knew how i wanted to play him. I knew from what i had read what kind of a guy i thought he is. And i read about it. Had never seen the play. I read at university and looked into it. I read something a little bit different. Charlie you are in almost every scene . How hard is it to do that . It is exhilarating and incredibly exhausting and difficult. Once you are in it, it grabs you by the throat. Just before the play starts i feel like, how will we climb the mountain again . Every performance i think, we are in the middle again . By the end, we have performed the play. Charlie have all of your aspirations for acting been fulfilled . Not yet. There is still a way to go. Charlie in terms of character or professional achievement . Learning. With every new play and every new job in every new director, you learn something new. Something else comes about. Just when you think you know how to do it, you challenge yourself and Something Else happens. I want to keep that happening. Charlie you did television and then you said, no more television. Having done theater and trained for the theater, thats kind of a club. When you are in theater they offer you other place. If tv comes along, you get lots of offers and television. I spent 10 years doing theater and then 10 years doing television. Then movies came calling. People saw the movies and said, we like that guy. I was suddenly in the movie club. You do not tend to move between them in the beginning. After this, i am off to do a movie and i would love to do another play. I see myself as a character actor. I love taking things on that are not me. Anything that moves me away from myself. When i started out acting, those are the parts i gravitated to. I did not know how i would play myself and be a lover and a hero. The u. K. And america have very different attitudes to the characters. Here, you revere the hero. We have richard the third. What is been for you the thing that you come on to that makes you as good as you are . I just see that my job is to believe and create truth. When you watch people and believe they are connected to what they are doing and believe what they are doing is riveting or fascinating think about documentaries about reallife events, there is something riveting. If you create that friction that is the best thing. We had a teacher who said, imagine that it says on the front of the stage, wrote look here dont look here. Charlie in this role of eddie carbone, did you go to the docks . I felt him instinctively. I went down to have a look. Its very bleak on the water. It is wonderful to look back to manhattan there is a line were he says i want to be a no Lawyers Office in new york. I always used to point when we were in london i did not know what and then i went there and looked and there are the buildings. It prodded all into focus brought it all into focus. We will be there until february 21. Another five weeks. Charlie back in a moment. Charlie this is the highly charlie this is the highly anticipated sequel to the 2001 cult film and owen wilson returns as Derek Zoolander and hansel. Two male models forced into exile as the worlds most Beautiful People are systematically assassinated. He was once the worlds most famous male model. Even his looks were household names. Magnum. Blue steel. That was a long, long time ago. Old . We were a joke out there. I guess fashion has changed. Are you a male model or a female model . I think he is asking, do you have a hot dog or a bun . I need your help. I trust her. They are killing the worlds most Beautiful People. All of them died with your signature look. We need to infiltrate the world of high fashion. Hey handsome. What the hell is your problem . Cannot understand a word you are saying. [laughter] toss me the knife. You got it. There is only one criminal mastermind who could be behind this. Prison changed me. I am bad to the core. Where is my latte . How am i supposed to stop him . You are Derek Zoolander. You stuck the chinese throwing star with a look. Magnum, now yo0u have this jon the writer director and star of the film, ben stiller. I wish you had shown more of the movie. [laughter] thats such a little taste. I also have justin throw and nicholas stoler. Nick and i do have a long history on this movie. We go way back in terms of the sequel because we wrote the draft together in 2005. It didnt make it, charlie. Comedy is a long hard process. [laughter] we started working on it, we did the movie in 2001. I dont know if you could even call it a hit. It happened. It came out and thats what it did. For a short. Of time. It did ok. Charlie on the dvd world exploded. That is how old the