Empire Australasia – July 2019

encouraging, but if he wasn’t getting what he wanted he would
keep going. He never pussy-footed around. Also, I was a young
actor. When you’ve been around a bit, you’re treated a bit more
with kid gloves. Steven was perfectly lovely but it was always
honest. There was a sort of urgency of getting what he wanted.

His line about you was that he saw a “sexual evil” in you...
I know! Yeah, he said that. [Shrugs]

That was swiftly followed by Quiz Show, another deeply
complicated role and one that seems very relevant
these days.
They came back-to-back. I had days off on Schindler’s List and
I went to audition for Robert Redford in New York, still
carrying a bit of a tummy because I’d put on weight for [Goeth],
and with my Nazi haircut. And I was offered this great role and
went straight to New York to start shooting. No turnaround; it
was quite a dizzying time. The American [accent] was anxious-
making because I’d never really played American. I haven’t
seen the film for a long time but people like it, don’t they?

Oh, definitely. What do you remember of Redford’s directing
style, as a fellow actor-turned-director?
Bob was very charming. He’d pushed for me to play the part
and he knew how nervous I might be. The other actors were
very sweet but initially like, “Who is this English guy we’ve never
heard of ?” American entertainment was much more overtly
competitive and I was sensitive to the fact that I had to prove
myself somehow. But Redford was very, very supportive.
He would give me all kinds of takes, and the moment I was
about to sign off, he’d tell me what to do. That’s my memory
of it. But his screen technique is phenomenal. I just saw The Old
Man & The Gun, and a bit like a great [stage] actor knows how
a theatre is, he knows how a camera is on his face. He knows
how a little look for a moment can work, and it’s filled with
interior [life], because he carries a lot
of complexity, I think. Spielberg was
a director going, “Not that: this,” and
this was an actor teaching and
encouraging another actor.

So where does your own directing style fall
between those two?
I like to think that I can support other
actors. Actors like encouragement, but
they like honesty. You like to be told,
“It’s better if you go in this direction.”
Of course, every actor’s different. Like
Chulpan Khamatova, who plays my
wife in The White Crow, she comes on set
and you don’t have to really direct. You
offer up little thoughts and suggestions,
but really you just let her go.

What’s your preparation process as an
actor? For something like The English
Patient, do you read the novel or stick to
the script?
I read the novel; I love Michael’s [Ondaatje]
writing. But Anthony [Minghella] took
Michael’s story and made it something
rather different. When I first read the book
I imagined something much more austere.
The film I imagined is not so romantic.

It’s quite bleak, with a sense of terrible loss. There is that

in the film, but the book had more shadow.

Was it disappointing, then, to have a more romantic film result?

It was not disappointing remotely, no. I think the film’s terrific.

It’s just not the film you would imagine from reading that book,

I would argue. I think Anthony would tell you [the same]... It’s

probably quite healthy, if a novel is your source, that you’re not

just going to illustrate the novel, that it’s a leaping-off point for

something that has to exist as a film.

Does something like Skyfall or Spectre feel lighter than much of

your other work? A chance to wear a bespoke suit and fire a gun

and be M?

Well, yes, and I liked what Sam Mendes was doing. Sam’s a very

intelligent guy and I felt we were on the same wavelength about

the kind of M I was trying to be. I think Sam was giving a little

bit more substance where he could, without detracting from the

things a Bond fan wants to see. And Judi Dench [had] brought

a kind of tough commitment to that part, and her presence —

and Daniel, coming in with a real seriousness — took the

franchise somewhere else. What I saw in Daniel’s Bond is that

he’s gone back to the tougher essence that Fleming creates. Sam’s

a similar generation to me, and the films of our youth were those

first Sean Connery ones, dealing more with the legacy of Bond

on the page. But this is a very long-winded way of saying that

alongside it being fun to be in a bespoke suit, you want the

scenes to be real and convincing like any proper drama. There

are scenes in Skyfall and Spectre where I

believe that Bond is a man today. There’s

a wonderful pleasure in the Roger Moore

films but they all feel tongue-in-cheek.

But you’ve done tongue-in-cheek yourself,

brilliantly, in Hail, Caesar! and The Grand

Budapest Hotel and so on. Why did it take

so long to try comedy?

It wasn’t me waiting! It was people

suddenly scratching their heads and

going, “Maybe this could work.” I think

Martin McDonagh got some humour out

of me in In Bruges, which is a lot to do

Left, top to bottom:

Chilling but magnetic

as Amon Goeth in

1993’s Schindler’s List;

In Anthony Minghella’s

romantic take on The

English Patient (1996);

Exercising his comic

side in The Grand

Budapest Hotel (2014);

In 2016’s Hail, Caesar!

with Alden Ehrenreich.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: ROLL NECK: JOHN SMEDLEY. BLAZER: GIVENCHY. HERE: DOUBLE-BREASTED BRUSHED WOOL SUIT: GIEVES & HAWKES. ROLL NECK: PRINGLE OF SCOTLAND. ADDITIONAL IMAGERY: ALAMY.