| Why
a new Frankenstein?
Jonny Lee Miller: It came from Danny and
Nick [Dear]. As far as they’re concerned no one has
ever really tried to tell the story from the creature’s
point of view. Obviously Boris Karloff and his wonderful portrayal
is what sticks in peoples minds. However that film takes the
voice away from the creature, which is contrary to the book,
which has whole passages narrated by the creature.
When did the concept of two actors come about?
Benedict Cumberbatch: Danny mentioned it
as a possibility in our first meeting. I said I would only
be interested if that was going to happen. I think it makes
such perfect symmetry to the piece, and it balances out the
workload.
JLM: Victor and the creature only have two
big scenes together in the play. It doesn’t feel like
that, but that’s the reality of it. There are these
two great scenes that you have together that are always fantastic
to play, which ever way round you play them, so it's not a
competition for us, in either of the parts. It’s a fascinating
question of support and encouragements. Being there, it’s
nice to have it both ways around, and not get too exhausted
or bogged down by one or the other parts. You get to see the
play inside-out, really.
BC: Alternating the roles has been done
a few times, but it’s been a while, "True West"
did it [on Broadway in 2000, with John C. Reilly and Philip
Seymour Hoffman], Gielgud and Olivier did it as Mercutio and
Romeo [at the New Theatre in 1935], but it is an unusual thing
to do. Any chance to do it for actors, it’s just a gift.
It just keeps everything fresh, it keeps people on their toes.
It’s certainly interesting, but are there difficulties
as well?
BC: It's tough, our bodies are all in pain.
It’s a fascinating, sort of crippling ourselves doing
this. I’ve spent time in X-ray today; I’ve got
my hips coming out of joint, my wrist are developing into
ankles, 'cause of work I do at the beginning. We’ve
had all sorts of injuries, back problems and neck problems.
It’s a hard show to do, but it’s also been wonderful.
Thank God I like Johnny Lee Miller.
JLM: To be able to stand back during rehearsals,
when it was daily and all the time we were switching it around,
to be able to stand back and watch another actor do the work
you’ve just been working on—once you get over
the initial weirdness of that—it’s fascinating,
because you get to see things that you think are working,
and things that aren’t working.
We were very generous, open-minded and open-hearted, me and
Benedict, in not being precious. We’d ask, “I
like this that you’re doing, can I take that?”
And then you pick and choose. You try not to use the other
person’s ideas too much, but it inevitably happens,
because you realise that they’re right, you know? So
that’s been an amazing thing, to sit and watch—and
I’m not sure that all actors—could do that. It
took us a long long time, 'cause you’re working on two
parts, it takes a lot longer to feel comfortable with them,
but we had that time.
How important was it to Danny Boyle and Nick Dear
to be faithful to the original source?
JLM: The book was important, but not exactly.
Our version does away with a large chunk of the beginning
of the book and just wants to tell the story from the creature’s
point of view. [We all] felt that you could say much more
by telling his story.
Was there been a moment when you realised, “ah,
this double cast experiment works?” A sort of “It’s
Alive!” moment?
JLM: No. We’re not made to be watching
it. We are the performers of the piece, it's ours to inhabit.
What I do know is that I feel I bleed some of the creature
into Victor, quite a lot, Victor being the parent really in
my view, but it’s difficult to say from an audience
perspective. We can only gauge how we’re doing from
their reaction, and that’s seems to have been quite
positive.
Given how theatrical this production is, is it hubris
on the order of Frankenstein's for the National Theatre to
try and put live theatre in cinemas?
JLM: It’s a strange one. I’m
highly suspicious of it. You know this production is designed
to grab to by the hair in the theatre, and there’s a
whole other layer of people now technically involved in getting
that for the cinema audience. It’s a tricky one, because
we’re playing to the Olivier theatre every night and
we’re trying to make our performances hit the back of
this enormous space. And it's staged in a way so that you
can see everything that’s going on all the time. When
you step inside that with cameras and stuff, I hope it translates
as much as it ever could.
BC: It will probably change the focus, slightly, but it will
be near as damn the same experience as you get seeing in the
cinema I‘ve never seen one, so I don’t really
know what I’m talking about; I’m just getting
ready to do one… It’s all been a bit of a blur,
probably will be nerve wracking on a very unusual scale. [But]
you have to treat it like any other show. It’s live
theatre. Anything can happen.
Have you watched any of the production on tape yet?
JLM: No, they don’t let us watch them.
But we did have monitors in the wings, so we’ve seen
a little bit here and there. I’ll probably wait until
everything’s said and done before watching anything,
because I’m highly susceptible to paranoia.
After playing both roles, who’s more of a monster:
the scientist or his creation?
B.C.: I think it shifts. The obvious thing
to say is that the creator is the monster, or that “Victor
is a bit of a dick”. But I think that denigrates it,
makes it too two-dimensional. I think Johnny and I started
playing Victor as a villain, it takes away from the innocent
child and the tragedy of his youth. With the creature, he
hates what he has to do, and he does know what he’s
done. He knows there’s no going back. How much is it
nature, how much is it nurture?
With this show, some will go out saying, “Ooh, Victor
he’s so nasty”. But audiences come away being
moved by both plights, by the fact that both men can only
meet their ends by their mutual destruction. That’s
what makes a complete evening out of it. |
