The Times Magazine - UK (2020-10-17)

(Antfer) #1

CHILLI MEDIA, SHUTTERSTOCK


The Times Magazine 7

Leicester-born actor Richard Armitage, 49, made his name
playing Lucas North in the BBC drama Spooks and – despite
being 6ft 2in – the dwarf prince Thorin Oakenshield in
The Hobbit. Most recently he played Astrov in Chekhov’s
Uncle Vanya in the West End. He lives in New York.

Actors are quite well prepared for lockdown. When I left
drama school, I had nearly 18 months of not working and
me wondering: how do I get up every day and feel like
I’m actually a human being that has a vocation?
I’m quite a socially distant person by nature. If I walk past
a busy bar, I run a mile. If I walk into a restaurant and
it’s empty, I think, oh, thank God, I can sit in the corner.
I much prefer small groups of people or one on one.
I can never understand it when actors have reputations
for being difficult. What is there to be difficult about? You
are driven around, you are wrapped in cotton wool, and
you’re complaining? Go and work at Amazon, packing
boxes. Because I’ve done that. I’ve pulled pints in a bar.
Actors really don’t have anything to complain about.
I haven’t decided against having a family – I think there’s
always ways and means. But I also feel like, at 49, is it
fair? I wouldn’t be able to run round the football pitch.
Maybe I’ll start with a little dog.
The best way to get a job is to book and pay for a holiday
that is non-refundable. You will immediately get it.
I’m an optimist, and I get that from my mum. She always
made the best of a bad situation, while my dad is a bit of
a pessimist. He was a nuclear engineer, so we used to go
on sightseeing holidays to all the British nuclear power
stations. But he is fit as a fiddle at 82, plays golf several
times a week and walks faster than me.
I haven’t done very many live chat shows and that’s not by
accident. I can’t just sit on your sofa and be funny – it’s
not in my toolkit. When you’re standing at a premiere
with your face on a massive screen in front of 1,000 fans
and they put a microphone in your hand and it’s being
beamed into two screens and you’re having to talk about
your experience on The Hobbit, I’m not equipped for that.
I lived in squalor for so long as a student and I refuse to
go back there. I’m fastidious about organising where
I live. When I get home, before I even go to the loo,
I unpack my suitcase and put it back in the wardrobe.
To be faced with a pandemic that is so unknown has put
us in a vulnerable place that we’ve never experienced
in our lives. It’s given Uncle Vanya a whole new meaning.
Most of the words that come out of my character’s
mouth – he’s a doctor – are about the environment
and sickness.
When you’re younger, all you can see is the
destination. As you get past a certain age
you start to realise the destination’s never
going to come. The destination is death,
in fact. So it’s the journey, for all its ups
and downs, that you have to enjoy. n

Uncle Vanya will be screened in cinemas
throughout the UK from October 27
(unclevanyacinema.com)

What I’ve learnt Richard Armitage


INTERVIEW Jane Mulkerrins
PORTRAIT Dan Kennedy

Richard Armitage, 49;
left, in The Hobbit
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