- The things I wish someone had said to me before,
I wish I'd known.
One is that it was okay to be frightened,
two was that drugs are the enemy of art
and three, pay your taxes, moron.
Those are three things that I would have benefited from.
And the other thing was,
was just realizing that I could do stuff,
even while my head was attacking me
and telling me and inventing me as somebody who couldn't.
That was a big thing. - Yeah.
- I always remember you saying something,
that I took with me for a long time
and have taken into doing plays,
since that point, was you talked a lot about
or at least on occasion, about that sort of invisible line
between being off stage and being on stage.
And I really remember that,
that trying to make that line disappear, basically,
so that you walk on the stage
and it's not like, "And now I am presenting something!"
It's like you just walk on the stage
and you just carry the same energy,
the same thought into performance, which I think is-
- Brilliant. - Yeah.
I was thinking about that with him,
when I was doing "The Seagull" here with Judi Dench
and lots of other great actors
and I was very, very, again, very, very nervous.
And I remember I would be on my best behavior,
I'd walk on stage and be on my best behavior.
I'd stand up straight.
You know, like, "Why are you standing up straight?
Did everybody stand up straight in 1893?"
And I'd speak slightly differently
and I'd go, "Why are you talking funny?"
And it's like when people do Shakespeare,
then suddenly they're all standing rather well,
or something, and they've got great hair and doing whatever-
you know, that kind of thing.
And I used to be scratching my head in the wings
and I'd think, and then I'd stop scratching my head
and I'd go, "Right, okay!"
And then I'd think, "Why are you stopping
scratching your head? Scratch your head!"
So I'd walk on scratching my head,
which wasn't particularly radical,
(all laughing) but it got me through,
it got me from there to there.
Well, you have to be self-conscious,
because otherwise you can't go to work.
It's like a woman came up to me in the street a while back
and said, "I saw you in a play and I really liked it."
And I said, "Thanks very much."
She said, "I'm trying to be an actress."
So I said, "How's that going?"
She said, "Well, my drama teacher's
a little angry with me currently."
And I was like, "Really?"
And I said, "Why?"
She said, "Well, you know, because of the feelings."
I said, "The feelings?"
She said, "Yeah, you know, the feelings."
I was like, "What feelings would they be?"
She said, "Well, you know,
he thinks that I'm not feeling stuff."
I said, "Well, you saw me in a play?"
She said, "Yeah."
I said, "You enjoyed it?"
She said, "I thought it was great."
I said, "Well, I can sort of almost guarantee,
I don't know when you saw it,
but I can guarantee I'm not feeling anything, I'm at work."
You know what I mean?
I've got quite a lot on my plate.
I've got two and a bit hours,
I've got to make love to a woman, eat chili con carne,
smoke cigarettes, hit the door knob
when the lighting went, on that lighting change,
otherwise we're buggered, you know, do all these things.
I mean, it might be occasionally that I might get...
Something might be triggered, but I'm busy!
You know what I mean?
- You also said that thing.
I remember saying, "Less is more."
And you went, "No, no, no, no!"
(all laughing)
- More is more. - More.
- Is more. (all laughing)
- And I remember that because, I remember,
another one is, "Get your hands over your head
as quickly as possible when you walk on set."
- Yeah, yeah, - Get them up.
- Yep. - Get them up.
- Yep, well I used to be so... I only did anything,
because I spent years standing on stage
having conversations with myself, saying, "Move your heart,
move your hand, put it in your pocket.
I can't move my hand, move over, I can't go over there.
Just walk there, I can't walk."
I'd be like that, I was completely paralyzed.
And then I worked out, and I worked out in a rehearsal,
if you did something, anything, that,
if you did that or that, quick, just something, anything,
that was better than standing there like that,
then you would feel terrible for less time.
- Any other myths that you want to bust, Bill?
- Myths? Well, we've done "feeling it".
The myth of, "If you don't have a full grasp of your lines,
you will be therefore better placed
to deliver them with spontaneity".
Give me a break.
- Hm-mm. - Yeah.
- Whoever snuck that into the language,
it's just another rationalization for not doing any work.
And if you don't do your lines, when does the work..?
Like, if an actor comes on and says,
"Can I get some sides, please?"
You know you're in trouble,
because sides meaning little bits of the script
that they give for that day's scenes.
And you think, well, when did the work take place then?
Is it going to happen now? You're going to be doing it now?