1954 December 28
Mount Vernon, New York
Actor

I went to school a thousand feet from here and played Othello at 20, didn't know what I was doing. The long thousand feet.

At the Lincoln Center library, they had records of the plays. So they had Olivier's Othello. So I put the headphones on. 'Oh my Lord, .....' Ignorance is bliss. I figure: I'll sing it like this. Make it happen.

[Kenneth Branagh, directing Much Ado About Nothing] is in a sense trimming away a lot of the .. I don't want to say fat but it is a visual medium. So he's relying on his actors to communicate things that maybe on stage had to be verbally communicated. He's trying to make it a little simpler for the audiences to understand, ya know, so they don't go to sleep or even worse not show up. Trying to whet their appetite, I think, to the language and to the genius of Shakespeare so maybe they want to pick up a book; and I mean: in the States it's difficult enough to get people to read — period, but to read Shakespeare ya know unless you almost  have to. Or watch it. We're in a society where all we have is ax murderer movies: all that is kinda trash. For me it's a welcome change of pace to hopefully reach as many people as we possibly can ... You know, what good is it if nobody looks at it? I don't think he's trying to preach to the converted.

You have to meet Shakespeare where he lives. He's the best. He's the best writer, ya know. (That August Wilson fellow's not that bad either.) There's always a challenge and a chance that you take when you approach his throne.

Associated Plays: