{"id":18832,"date":"2013-05-16T22:21:49","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T22:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=18832"},"modified":"2013-08-05T11:01:57","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T11:01:57","slug":"flashback-friday-ben-whishaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2013\/05\/16\/flashback-friday-ben-whishaw\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback Friday: Ben Whishaw"},"content":{"rendered":"
In this interview from the archives, a pre-fame Ben Whishaw talks Keats, Jane Campion and his unexpectedly “humiliating” cameo as a witch in His Dark Materials.<\/p>\n
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This interview was first published in Wonderland Nov\/Dec 2009.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Trailing his publicist across the outdoor terrace of a smart Toronto hotel, Ben Whishaw could easily be mistaken for the skinny, waifish frontman of a cool new indie band rather than one of Britain\u2019s finest young actors. The city\u2019s flashy film festival is in full swing and, with Whishaw embarking on the North American leg of his Bright Star tour (he plays celebrated 19th-century Romantic poet John Keats in Jane Campion\u2019s film), it\u2019s been established as our ideal meeting place.<\/p>\n The long-limbed actor greets me with a warm smile and light handshake, saying he just passed Terry Gilliam on his way in. Hair styled in dark, artful swoops, framing a face highlighted by intense, emotive eyes and near-flawless skin, Whishaw\u2019s more strikingly handsome in person than he appears on screen, although since he\u2019s usually portraying individuals locked in some degree of anguish, perhaps that\u2019s to be expected. He\u2019s wearing a dark leather jacket that tapers to stretchy rib-knit fabric around his wrists and neck, which he keeps zipped up to the very top during our hour-long conversation (it\u2019s not cold) like a protective shield.<\/p>\n Ordering black coffee, he\u2019s sedate and contained although he insists his life is ruled by nervous energy (and he does fiddle with a chocolate wrapping paper like a crinkly stress reliever). He\u2019s also convivial, thoughtful, grins a lot\u2026 and more than once deflects a query that might penetrate too far into his privacy. (When asked about his twin brother James, Whishaw tells me he \u201cdoes something with finance but he\u2019s on his own journey which I can\u2019t go into\u201d.) I get the sense that everything Ben Whishaw wants to reveal about himself lies on screen in his intuitive and often remarkable performances \u2013 and he\u2019d rather let them do all the talking.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old actor has already played several substantial and substantive roles. On stage, upon graduating from RADA in 2004, he waltzed straight into Trevor Nunn\u2019s Old Vic production of Hamlet, sparking critical raptures for his haunting performance; on film, he stepped into the global limelight as scent-obsessed killer Grenouille in Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer, before delivering his incarnation of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes\u2019s I\u2019m Not There and pouting aristocrat Sebastian Flyte in last year\u2019s Brideshead Revisited.<\/p>\n As Keats, Whishaw is a fragile, bedridden hero forging a romantic (and ultimately tragic) bond with Abbie Cornish\u2019s Fanny Brawne \u2013 literally the girl next door. It\u2019s another role that draws deeply from the well of Whishaw\u2019s sensual, compelling charisma \u2013 and although the actor admits he wanted more of the poet\u2019s passionate anger to come through, he ultimately embraced Campion\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n On the horizon he\u2019s playing wayward sprite Ariel in Julie Taymor\u2019s The Tempest and is waiting to hear whether Kill Your Darlings, a Beat-poets biopic (he\u2019s due to play Lucien Carr), finds its money. Taymor also approached Ben about playing Peter Parker in her Spider-Man musical on Broadway, but he declined claiming his singing voice wasn\u2019t strong enough \u2013 although you suspect it\u2019s not the sort of role he\u2019d ever relish playing. For now, though, there are several more Star turns to put in, as Whishaw prepares to head to New York and LA as soon as the Toronto gig finishes. \u201cI\u2019m doing a bit of a slog,\u201d he proclaims. \u201cBut it\u2019s all good…\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve spoken to actors who say that Jane Campion really puts you through the ringer before deciding if you\u2019re right for a role. Did she do that to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019d heard that too, that she\u2019d have to see you quite a few times before she\u2019d make up her mind. But I did one audition that was an hour long. I actually didn\u2019t think that I\u2019d got the part. I thought that Jane was much more interested in the actress I was auditioning opposite. So I just thought, \u201cOh, I\u2019m here really just to deliver lines.\u201d I decided that that\u2019s what was going on quite early on in the audition and then just relaxed because I thought, \u2018Okay, this is not gonna happen.\u2019 [Laughs] I was really surprised when it did…<\/p>\n So Abbie Cornish wasn\u2019t the actress you auditioned with…<\/strong><\/p>\n No, we got cast separately. You would have thought that Jane would want to see if there was the possibility of any chemistry between us. But she didn\u2019t. I think that says a lot about Jane. She has intuitions about people that are uncanny. If anything, she seemed to take pains to keep us apart for a long time. We only met on the first day of rehearsal.<\/p>\n Did you immerse yourself in Keats?<\/strong><\/p>\n I got interested even beyond the part. I read lots of things that were not of much relevance to the film but I just became very, very interested in him and in that period and how his work\u2019s been perceived through the ages. I had a desk piled with Keats\u2019 books of one kind or another.<\/p>\n Did you plough your way through his work?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, and some of them are, uh… He wrote this very strange piece called The Cap And The Bells not long before he died, which is very difficult to read! [Laughs] He was really sporadic. He\u2019d have a flash of some genius and then he\u2019d write something eccentrically bad, in my opinion. His best work seemed to be the stuff he dismissed himself, not thinking it was worth very much, and the work that he toiled over is the stuff that\u2019s sort of been forgotten.<\/p>\n What marked out the bad stuff?<\/strong><\/p>\n You can tell that he\u2019s trying to be a bit like Shakespeare. He\u2019s not being true to himself. That\u2019s my impression. But the amount he wrote in such a short life is utterly mind-boggling. He was living life at a real pitch. And he was surrounded by death. I\u2019m sure in some sub-conscious place he knew he wasn\u2019t going to live to be an old man.<\/p>\n What was your favourite Keats poem?<\/strong><\/p>\n The one I love best is Ode To A Nightingale. I was just looking at it again this morning because when I was at Cannes I got asked to recite poetry on the spot and I crumbled under the pressure. So I was in the shower this morning and I thought, \u201cI\u2019d better refresh some poetry\u201d. So I was re-reading Ode To A Nightingale and it seemed to be a different poem to the one I remember, you know? I think all great work does that \u2013 it changes as you change or you change with it, or whatever happens.<\/p>\n Do you always do heavy research into a character? Is it something you need to get under the skin of your character?<\/strong><\/p>\n It depends on what it is. Sometimes I like to go on pure instinct for something. Sometimes it\u2019s essential to get the facts right.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n What roles have you played on instinct alone? The killer in Perfume, perhaps?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, I guess. It\u2019s funny, research. People mean lots of different things by it. I started to do a part about fence builders [in Pawel Pawilkowski\u2019s abandoned The Restraint Of Beast] and we all went and became fence builders. That\u2019s one kind of research. But there\u2019s another kind where you can draw on anything to help you, like a painting or a piece of music… You open yourself up to everything and it\u2019s interesting what becomes useful to you in the portrayal.<\/p>\n Do you like directors to instruct you what to look at? <\/strong><\/p>\n I love that. Todd Haynes gave everyone quite specific material to look at and listen to on I\u2019m Not There. He gave me an audiotape of the San Francisco 65-66 interviews \u2013 God, Dylan was such a genius interviewee. But Todd\u2019s beautiful also because then he just left us to get on with it. We didn\u2019t rehearse at all; I just turned up and did it.<\/p>\n How was your experience of making Bright Star? <\/strong><\/p>\n Jane spent a lot of time just encouraging me to relax… [laughs] sort of stroking me and just sitting with me. \u2018Just nice and relaxed\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s what she kept saying to me.<\/p>\n Did you feel on edge?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have a fair amount of nervousness that sometimes is useful and sometimes is not. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s a nervous character \u2013 in the way that I\u2019m nervous, anyway \u2013 so it was getting rid of something that was blocking us.<\/p>\n Did you and Abbie keep your distance once you met?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, we did. Not intentionally. We were very supportive of each other and we\u2019d share cigarettes together. In rehearsal Jane wanted us to bring in a love offering every day, like a letter, a poem, a flower… we had to express our love for each other as often as we could through some sort of gift so that fostered an attitude between us. I\u2019ve still got a CD Abbie made me. But we were also pretty private and I think that was good. It\u2019s just the way it worked out but it wasn\u2019t complicated by anything else.<\/p>\n Does it depend on the character you\u2019re playing how close you get to your co-stars?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah. It depends on the other actor too.<\/p>\n Didn\u2019t you and Matthew Goode become good friends making Brideshead Revisited?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve not seen Matthew for a long time but, yeah, I am good friends with him.<\/p>\n What were you like making that film?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was pretty tense actually! [Laughs] It was one of those shoots where there seemed to be a lot against us. It was the wettest summer in England, ever. Then I was supposed to be in a motor car but they had to give the motor car back so that had to be cut. I remember it being quite fraught but not unhappy. Lots of fun with Emma Thompson. She\u2019s a great bringer-together-er of people. She\u2019s one of my strongest memories of making that film.<\/p>\n