[thanks Mary A.]

May 2002

Thanks to Kathy V

 Welcome to the Angelika Film Center. I’m Alison Bailes for IFC.

But first a Wilde trip to England in the company of Dame Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, and Reese Witherspoon, who acquits herself very nicely of a British accent.

The film is TIOBE, from the play by  Oscar Wilde, and even if you feel you know this material like the back of your hand, give it a go. You’ll be surprised and charmed.

(Various clips)

Rupert: It’s a very funny look at society and how on the one hand you pretend to be one thing and underneath you’re actually something else and I think that’s sort of the universal theme.

(Clip)

Alison: You’ve done the play on the stage.

R: Yes, I have.

A: So did you play Algernon?

R: Yes, I did.

A: So you’ve always done that role.

R: Um hum. It’s the best role in the play.

A: Well, you think so.

R: Well, it’s got the best laughs.

A: Yeah.

(Clip)

A: (to Colin) When I talked to Rupert I asked him why he wanted to play Algie. He said, well, it’s the better role. What’s your take on that?

Colin: It is. He’s right. There are a lot of apologists for Jack Worthing, and uh, and there are a lot of people who talk about how complex he is and it’s really what drives the play and that all may be true, but you know if you’re doing Oscar Wilde, you want the best lines. And there’s no question about it, Algie has the funniest lines. Now I’m afraid Jack’s doomed to be the um, certainly to be the more earnest of the two, and a little on the dull side, let’s face it.

(Clip)

A: Rupert Everett had played his part Algernon on stage.

C: Yes.

A: Have you also done this play?

C: No. I feel very unqualified for it. 

A: Judi Dench has done it on stage and practically the whole cast is coming to it with a lot of experience.

C: That’s right. Anna Massey, who plays Miss Prism, also played I think opposite Judi in that same production, so uh, and uh, our director Oliver Parker I think had played Jack Worthing as well. I mean you don’t even have to be an actor. I think the caterers have done it, you know, at school.

Um, perhaps it never appealed to me. These things go in cycles and I think this play probably has gone through a cycle of feeling rather fusty. And I think it’s …it’s…it’s due for a bit of a renaissance.

(Clip)

C: I think that if I tried to pitch this to a Hollywood producer I’d be thrown out immediately. I mean, so I’d start again about the guy who wants to be a double li…you know, and there’s another guy also wants to be Earnest…

A: So two people are pretending to be Earnest, in effect

C: Yyeesss, they are. Um and I suppose, I mean I think it’s the least narrative driven play that he wrote you know, there aren’t any profound conflicts lurking in this thing. It is willfully trivial.

(Clips)

A: This play especially, of all his works, has the most lines that people are going to recognize initially when you hear them. Does that make you job harder, as an actor, to deliver them with something new?

C: Yes, but it also makes it easier. It’s odd. I mean good language is just a help for an actor. When the source material is good, it feeds you with something that’s good. I mean it’s as simple as that. If what comes out of your mouth is intelligent and witty, it’s going to be an asset; however, you know, it’s your fault if it’s not right. You can’t blame the writer. This is tried and tested material.

(Clips)

End of interview.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.