You're constantly, constantly being judged. You get challenged, and it's good for you.
Not always comfortable, but you get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Sir Kenneth Branagh would frankly prefer it if you called him Ken.
The Northern Irish boy who has become synonymous with big Shakespearean productions
has had a lot of ups and downs.
He struggled to get into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts
only to be hailed at the age of 26 as the next Laurence Olivier.
Only to be slammed for a string of high profile flops...
Only to be nominated for multiple Oscars, and now he is back.
I'm Marc, lovely to meet you.
Thanks Marc, nice to see you.
So, much has been made of Murder on the Orient Express' cavalcade of stars.
But I think the one I was most fascinated by was an old mate of yours, which is Judi Dench.
Judi Dench gave an award out to you, not that long ago
and she revealed something that I'd like to give you right of reply to.
Apparently she hurt her ankle -
I fell down, and twisted my ankle.
And she was out on stage.
So I went on, and I did the whole performance, and at the end -
You spoke in her ear, and I'm just going to get the quote right.
Quite loudly in my ear, Kenneth Branagh said:
"Get off the stage, you limping bitch."
Get off the stage, you limping bitch.
Did you really say that to Judi Dench?
I think she was very obsessively self-concerned at that stage, and she heard what she wanted to hear.
Right.
She's always encouraged a fruitful bit of banter between us.
And she, actually I do remember of course, she was in terrible, terrible pain.
But she just got on and did it. The one thing she never wants actually is a sort of, is a fuss made.
So she was very, very embarrassed but it was just clear as anything that she was going to go on.
On Orient Express she was not only was she very helpful to everybody else
if anybody - why should they be, I don't know- if anybody was nervous about working with me she sorted that out
because she was so rude to me in front of everyone.
Wonderful.
Disrespectful, and took none of my notes. And she was also kind of Den Mother to everybody.
Avenger of the innocent, is that what they call you in the papers?
And you are innocent?
You're fun.
Very early on in your career, really when you were very, very young
there were lots of comparisons made to Laurence Olivier and of course, you played him.
And I'm wondering, at that time of your life when you were getting those comparisons
there was a lot of commentary around you.
Were you comfortable with the comparison?
It was unreal, you're not really equipped to have that level of scrutiny or expectation.
Expectation is a terrible thing, I think.
Maybe, maybe subliminally addressing this in a different way was producing more and more work.
Because you're conscious that you're being compared to somebody that had a whole lifetime's career.
Now is the winter of our discontent.
I just, as best I could, I got on with whatever I could get on with.
And I've no doubt got neurotic about plenty of it
but basically, the easy answer was one foot in front of the other.
As a performer, were you good at auditioning?
Came and went actually, to be perfectly honest.
Sometimes you would get all prepared, and then you'd just sort of blow it.
The atmosphere would go.
I remember walking into a room once, I'd gotten everything ready, I was going to blow them away
And he said, "Oh you're not the one we want at all."
Good start!
Good start.
Or an audition I went to, for something where it seemed to me there wasn't a part for me in this thing
But anyway they said no, they're dying to see you.
And again, walked in and thought well, I'll give it a go.
And as I walked in the director said
"There's nothing for you in this, but we thought we'd get you in to have a look at you."
You started to develop either a kind of enjoyment of the gladiatorial contest of it.
But sometimes none of that works out.
I don't know if I've told this story before, but years ago I read a script
I thought wow, this is just the most terrific, terrific script I've read ever. It was The Insider.
The Al Pacino, Russell Crowe.
In a fit of foolery I thought I could play the part that eventually Russell would play
Probably me and the rest of the world.
Anyway, I screamed and wrote and whatever and said, please, please, please would Michael Mann see me?
Would he even think of seeing me for this thing?
"Well, they think they're going to go to Russell."
Well I said, let me get in the door.
I remember it was a wonderful experience of complete and utter stone wall.
Michael Mann very sweetly had agreed to see me
but was about as interested in me playing that part as I am in eating this sofa.
And the course of the meeting was, can I read for you. I'd love to - can I read for you?
He said, "Don't you read for me."
I said, "But I can do it, I can do it in the accent."
And he said, "Really no. I don't think you're right for this part."
"But I think I could be really right!"
And so it went on, it was ten minutes, after which I must say I started laughing, I shook his hand
I said, "Thanks very much for the opportunity anyway."
And I rang my agent on the way out and said, "Well done to Russell, I think he's going to be brilliant in this part."
But you know, that's - at least I'd had a go, but it was never gonna happen.
When does it grind you down? Because there is a point at which that has to have an emotional impact.
I remember June 2000, Essex House Hotel, New York Central Park South
waking up, reading the review for our film of Love's Labour's Lost, it was a disaster.
It was the latest in a series of terrible reviews for it.
And that didn't feel very nice. That did feel like, oh!
At least at professional level, that was pretty you know,
if not ground down, I felt as though I'd been a few rounds in the creative ring
and I was going to have to sit out for a couple of rounds.
With something like that, you learn to mark your own scorecard.
Do you think it's a good film yourself? Yes you do.
Is it okay that other people don't like it? It's fine, you know.
You get to that position necessarily pretty quickly because the hurt or the wounds are just personal
Nobody gets hurt except you, and it's only sometimes it's just ego.
And sometimes you're sad that something you care about hasn't been shared by more people.
Sometimes it just takes a little while for you to get ready to get back on the horse.
But you do because that's what you've always done.
One of the things about being in a job where you're constantly, constantly being judged
and it's never gonna be that kind of slow, upward movement.
You'll hit blocks, there will be disappointments. You get challenged and it's good for you.
Not always comfortable, but you get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Ken, thanks so much.
- I really appreciate it. - Thank you so much.