and if not maybe it's a bit embarrassing
but actually a king is the king of the
King isn't he oh I don't know about that
I mean I think this guy is a human being
first as far as our story is concerned
he's a person who doesn't consider
himself a king he doesn't want it he
doesn't consider himself worthy of it
and it's largely a theme in the film you
know I found it quite interesting this
scene the King watching another powerful
speaker out of Hitler who had his
ability to manipulate the people - is
this a thing he's dreaming of to have
ability to speak like him I know I don't
think it's quite that I when he when he
sees this image I just think you know a
man who has just been crowned you know
even if he's not the actual head of the
government but a man who's has to speak
for the state and whose worst enemy is
the microphone and who believes that he
has absolutely no ability whatsoever
to communicate to one person let alone
the masses to see that prowess to see
the confidence and the the dynamism and
the flow and it's interesting that he
can't hear what's being said because
then you're just left with your
performance you're left with pure it's
just the rhetorical style he can't the
content is in that moment the content is
completely unavailable to him so that's
you know why he says I you know she said
what's she saying daddy says I don't
know but he seems to be saying it rather
well it's the way he's saying it that he
yes he would dream to be able to
communicate as fluently as that person
do you remember your very first fault
when you got the script when you read
the script
no I don't remember I'm never thinking
it was I really think it was a
fascinating story that was not an
obvious story there's a you know the the
wallace and edward story is often told
and is very well known and people know
something about George the sixth but he
died eight years before I was born
you know his wife was obviously much
better known because she lived so long
and made it into this millennium and I
knew that he had a stamina I knew he
didn't want the job and I knew it was
relatively sudden and I knew at least
part of what I was told my mother used
to talk about it sometimes that there
was great love and affection between him
and his daughters and that's all any I
didn't know that he had therapy I didn't
know that he had struggled as as badly
as this I don't know if the biggest
challenge in this movie was to create a
sort of stammer as an actor or how would
you what would you say it was one of the
challenges I mean I I certainly knew
that a great deal was at stake you know
my fear was that if the stammer was not
authentic we had no film I mean there
would just be nothing so there was there
was a certain amount of pressure to make
that as as visceral and as committed and
as personal as I could possibly manage
to do but that not everything hinged on
that I mean although everything did
hinge on that it also hinged on other
things you know Jeffrey was very
concerned that his character would be
full of nuances and little
contradictions and in it is you know the
danger would have been you know a lesser
actor might have gone for a kind of
stereotype who decides not to respect
the status of the man in front of him
Jeffrey felt he was
important he is a little bit starstruck
by the presence of the Duke of York that
his vulnerability as a man who wants to
act is there and he's full of real
compassion and respect and I I think
that you know that was something that
was that was brought to it it could have
gone wrong if we hadn't attended to it
I was afraid also of the danger of
sentimentality and I didn't want my
character ever to become self pitying
and it's difficult because you hear
information about his own damage and you
have to hear it from him without it's
being a kind of poor me you know so I
think it was very important that we had
enough humor to undercut that kind of
thing hmm how difficult is it for you
too many minimalize as an actor I
remember go as a Pearl Earring yeah it's
it's not outgoing how difficult is it
it's just your nature well I mean it
depends what the role is but I don't
think if it doesn't need demonstrating
don't demonstrate it's um you know it's
not about keeping things in for me it's
about not seeing the need to indicate
things to people you know Vermeer was a
very tricky one because we don't know
anything about him
we know everything about him except him
that's the extraordinary thing we know
all about his we know about his
household we know how he grew up we know
the names of all his children and his
wife we know things that were found in
his house we know about his neighbors I
mean there is extraordinary in there's
no description of him no quotes from him
no self portrait that we know to be a
self portrait so we he's a mystery and
he was written as a mystery in the book
and my I felt my job was to maintain the
mystery in the performance and not try
to explain him or give an
more away than the book had and Tracy
Chevalier visited the setting of the
writer and she said she agreed that it
was to do with preserving the enigma and
so I think it had to be kept he had to
be kept something at the Miss Qin all I
could play I can't learn to paint and I
certainly can't learn to paint like for
me but what I could try to do and what I
try to do in that film was as hard as I
could to try to see the world the way he
saw the world which is what a painter
does that's what he gives you you know I
could be there's a painting of a wall
and a good painter will make you feel
like you've seen the wall for the first
time and so just by looking at his
paintings it actually changed the way I
saw things and and then with Eduardo
Sarah's incredible camerawork to walk
into Vermeer Sudhir recreated and he lit
everything from outside you didn't see
any light so it was through the window
through the door maybe there was a hole
in the ceiling and to see to actually
walk into a Vermeer painting was
astonishing I loved a single man last
year and especially it's a drama but we
have these ironic things in it like this
suicide scene oh it's the style you're
acting to start to create this sense of
humor I think he's I always try to find
humor in a character I it's a compulsion
however serious or tragic historias I
don't think I've ever played a character
where I don't think there's something
about him that there's money or can
laugh at the world I think it's very
true - Christopher issue it and I think
it's very true - Tom Ford that there's
an ability to laugh at hopelessness it
can save us actually from hopelessness
and in George's very complex day among
the things that actually are bringing
him back to life having pronounced the
death sentence on himself there are all
these beautiful things the face of a
young man which on any other day might
just
a frizzy face today it's the most
beautiful face he ever saw the reddest
sunset he ever saw this is just his mind
saying goodbye to things and and
therefore they become they take on a
vibrance and if arrivals in freshness
that they've never had before and I
think you know other than you know the
night air in the back of his the garden
of his house humor the ability actually
to find himself ridiculous in that
moment is one of those enlivening things
I think maybe he doesn't notice it like
you you know he doesn't notice all these
other things are calling him back to
life
but that's humor also the scene is
supposed to be a kind of rehearsal I
mean I some people think he's actually
attempting to kill himself in that
moment he's he's making a plan for later
shall I do it on the steamer shall I do
it in the shower shall I do it and it is
absurd very math question seems to be
time for harvesting the globe now in
Britain no second nomination and
probably you get oscar half what are
your feelings about it i can only
comment on things that have already
happened let's talk about the nomination
second nomination and elope well it is
always a bit unreal to hear your name
called out you know you do it sounds
like someone else's name and I'm used to
hearing someone else's name and it's a
giddy experience making your way to the
stage and I'm not used to it and it
takes time to process when it's easier
in a way when it happens to somebody
else that you're rooting for because
there isn't any pressure in a way it's
it's it's less complicated the moment
when Tom Hooper won the Directors Guild
Award which was a surprise I think
everyone no one expected and I was
sitting next to him and we both just
jumped out of our seats and and that one
it was a bolt of joy immediately and the
same in the cast one is ensemble award
for the Screen Actors Guild I was
offstage
so I just made a speech and I came on
station it was the stage manager who
told me and that was great joy in that
as well because I knew that Jeffry and
having that and Anthony Andrews were
walking towards the stage so those are
some of the really great high points
these other have been incredible high
points too but I still can't quite
process it okay