[J.K. Rowling] gives you. She describes
the snake-like voice, I think. I had good
directors, culminating in David Yates who
brought the whole sequence of stories to
a fantastic conclusion. I trusted Mike
Newell, first, and then David. There’s a
sense of this spirit-monster-devil person,
and some really cool moments, I think.
Sometimes acting is an instinctive,
visceral, physical thing, which you’re not
thinking about in terms of an essay. You
put on a garment; you read a bit. Then
the director feeds you and you create
something. You have an inner monitor
which says, “This feels like it’s doing
something,” or, “This feels like it’s
a bit over-the-top, a bit hokey. So where
does it feel like there’s this weird, dark
entity that’s manipulating and moving
and watching?”Your other famously terrifying role
was Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List.
As a young actor, was that an
intimidating prospect?
That was my third film after Wuthering
Heights and a Peter Greenaway film
[The Baby Of Mâcon], neither of which
were critics’ favourites. Schindler’s List
was the first big thing. It read brilliantly
on the page, and working with Steven
[Spielberg], from day one, was thrilling.
I’ll never forget his energy. That’s
something I try to remember when I’m
behind the camera. Steven is quite vocal,
you’re very much aware of him, but he
has enthusiasm.He’s talked in the past about watching
Seinfeld nightly during production
to sort of decompress. Did you have
a similar escape valve?
I don’t remember feeling that so much.
I remember a very strong sense of
camaraderie among the cast. Some days
the recreation of certain scenes was quite
disturbing, but I remember thinking that,
to play Amon Goeth, I needed to step
back a bit from the human bit of yourself
that goes, “So horrible, can’t deal with
this.” If your brief is to play this person
who believed in this fascist, Nazi,
genocidal system — and it was full of
people who crossed that line into
believing that this was the best thing for
Germany — [you have] to get into that
zone. I remember thinking, “I’ve got to
try to be inside this man. If I’m always
stepping back... [it won’t work].” I don’t
know why I didn’t watch Seinfeld in the
evening. I think I practised my lines.Goeth is like a surly boy, especially
in those early scenes.
It seems so long ago. All I remember
ROLL NECK: JOHN SMEDLEY. BLAZER: GIVENCHY.is that Steven shot a lot [and] he was ❯