Interview

Simon Callow

by Phil Willmott
27/10/2005

It's impossible to dislike Simon Callow. I climbed the stairs to his dressing room at the Palace Theatre, where's he's starring as the flamboyant villain Count Fosco in the Woman in White, expecting to meet a very grand man of the theatre. In fact he's smaller then you imagine and so friendly, so completely charming and fascinating that I could have happily chatted to him for hours.

It's a very spacious and comfortable dressing room with lots of family photographs and favourite things scattered around. Callow, one of our most respected actors, biographers and directors sat half-dressed, popping so many cough sweets that I was tempted to tell him off for risking an upset stomach.

Q: Did you know the show (The Woman in White) before you were asked to join?

A: Oh yes, they asked me to play Fosco right at the very beginning. So I knew lots of the material.

Q: Although Michael Crawford first played your role.

A: Oh yes, he was wonderful. Quite the right person to create the part.

Q: You didn't fancy it?

A: I was too scared of the singing.

Q: Is singing so difficult? If you have the kind of vocal technique that can bring detail and colour to text isn't singing an extension of that?

A: It's a very different skill. With singing you have to exactly match what you're doing vocally to external factors of pitch and rhythm. That's what I found so scary.

Q: Didn't you sing in the film of Phantom Of The Opera?

A: Yes but they give you an earpiece and you just copy what they're playing to you. But it did give me a bit more confidence so that when I heard that Anthony Andrews was leaving this role I asked whether I could finally accept the challenge.

Q: Was it as tricky as you feared?

A: Well everybody in the rehearsal room was so helpful and supportive but then when you finally get on stage you have to somehow fit what you've rehearsed in with the orchestra in front of you and get used to the amazing sound design.

Q: How do you mean?

A: Well the sound system is so brilliantly designed that you can speak very softly on stage and it sounds great from the auditorium. The trouble I had was this means the other actors speak so quietly that I can't always hear them.

Q: You've played Count Fosco before haven't you? On TV.

A: Yes, I had another look at it the other day. For some reason I decided to play him with a beard and no accent. I'm not sure why. And I think we also tried to rationalize the character motivations too much. I've really enjoyed being able to accept and enjoy the Victorian Melodrama style this time.

Q: How would you define Melodrama in this context?

A: Well, you have the freedom to just play an out and out villain, to just allow him to enjoy his own wickedness. You don't have to worry about how he got that way and the personal implications of his actions because that's not the writers concern. The villain is just one, delicious ingredient, to push the story along.

Q: And you're sticking with villains because when you finish the run here you're off to Richmond to play Abanazer in Aladdin. Are you looking forward to it?

A: Oh yes, I'm very interested in the fact that he's an Egyptian magician. Our show opens in a temple at Thebes.

Q: I've seen the set designs they're very beautiful. I'm working for Ambassadors new Pantomime division too. I think they're really going to inject some class into the industry. Some really good actors have been tempted to follow in Sir Ian McKellern's footsteps and try Pantomime.

A: Actually this'll be my second Abanazer. I first played him at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln. For some reason we opened on Boxing Day. The designer did a runner leaving us with a huge quantity of orange fabric and not much else so I remember spending Christmas day sewing.

Q: Fosco seems a very sensual person, with a great lust for life. I can't help feeling our heroine would actually have rather a good life if she gave in and married him.

A: They're not a bad match at all. They're both outsiders. Both have enquiring minds and a terrific energy.

Q: If he wasn't so enormous... how's the fat suit?

A: Oh that was a choice of Michael Crawford's, all that padding and layers of fat around the chin. I don't do that. I just give myself a little bit more of a belly and build up the nose a bit.

Q: Why did he choose to do that fat suit stuff, do you know? It just seemed to restrict him. The make up dominated everything he did.

A: I don't know, But I really enjoyed his performance. Maybe he thought it would highlight the beautiful voice, he did sing it wonderfully. Actually Andrew (Lloyd Webber) has suggested I speak some of my performance to the music rather then singing it. Apparently that's the way a lot of it was originally intended.

Q: It's very expensive for two people to see your show. By the time you factor in travel, dinner and a baby sitter it costs about the same as a cheap week's holiday in Spain. What do you get for your money, Is it worth it?

A: Oh yes, you get one of Andrew's best scores, he's really at home with this style of show and period, and the most technologically advanced set. I've never seen anything like it; it almost has the feel of 30'3 and 40's Hollywood. You get a very exciting plot with all kinds of modern day resonance in the way it shows women's lives.

Q: Forgive my impudence in asking this but this winter you're giving us your Count Fosco, then your Uncle Abanazer. When do we get your King Lear, your Prospero? Don't you want to play those great classical roles?

A: I'd love to but the fact is no one ever asks me. I've only every played three Shakespeare parts in my career.

Q: I suppose I think of you as a classical actor because of your book describing your time at the RSC.

A: Yes, there's a picture of me as Orlando on the front isn't there? Well, not King Lear but I'd certainly love to play Prospero, maybe Antonio in the Merchant of Venice, that's the interesting part, not shylock and to maybe have another go at Falstaff and Titus Andronicus which I have played. It can't be for a while though. After Pantomime at Richmond I'm going to be touring in a Theatre Royal Bath production of Noel Coward's Present Laughter which will then come into the West End.