Antony Sher

I can feel the power of the words doing the work. Must trust language more.

As a gay Jewish white South African, I belong to quite a lot of minority groups. You constantly have to question who you are, what you are and whether you have the courage to be who you are.

I have a Woody Allen Jewish attitude to life: that it's all going to be disastrous. That it hasn't all been that way is simply down to some random quirk of fate.

Reading Shakespeare is sometimes like looking through a window into a dark room. You don't see in. You see nothing but a reflection of yourself unable to see in. An unflattering image of yourself blind.

I__ having my lunch when I hear a familiar hoarse shout, __y Tony!_ I whip round, damaging my neck further, to see Michael Gambon in the lunch queue. _Gambon tells me the story of Olivier auditioning him at the Old Vic in 1962. His audition speech was from Richard III. __ee, Tone, I was thick as two short planks then and I didn__ know he__ had a rather notable success in the part. I was just shitting myself about meeting the Great Man. He sussed how green I was and started farting around.__s reported by Gambon, their conversation went like this:Olivier: __hat are you going to do for me?__ambon: __ichard the Third.__livier: __s that so. Which part?__ambon: __ichard the Third.__livier: __es, but which part?__ambon: __ichard the Third.__livier: __es, I understand that, but which part?__ambon: __ichard the Third.__livier: __ut which character? Catesby? Ratcliffe? Buckingham__ a good part __ambon: __h I see, beg your pardon, no, Richard the Third.__livier: __hat, the King? Richard?__ambon: _ _ the Third, yeah.__livier: __ou__e got a fucking cheek, haven__ you?__ambon: __eg your pardon?__livier: __ever mind, which part are you going to do?__ambon: __ichard the Third.__livier: __on__ start that again. Which speech?__ambon: __h I see, beg your pardon, __as every woman in this humour woo__.___livier: __ight. Whenever you__e ready.__ambon: _ __as ever woman in this humour woo__ __ __livier: __ait. Stop. You__e too close. Go further away. I need to see the whole shape, get the full perspective.__ambon: __h I see, beg your pardon _ Gambon continues, __o I go over to the far end of the room, Tone, thinking that I__e already made an almighty tit of myself, so how do I save the day? Well I see this pillar and I decide to swing round it and start the speech with a sort of dramatic punch. But as I do this my ring catches on a screw and half my sodding hand gets left behind. I think to myself, __ow I mustn__ let this throw me since he__ already got me down as a bit of an arsehole_, so I plough on _ __as ever woman in this humour woo__ ____livier: __ait. Stop. What__ the blood?__ambon: __othing, nothing, just a little gash, I do beg your pardon __ nurse had to be called and he suffered the indignity of being given first aid with the greatest actor in the world passing the bandages. At last it was done.Gambon: __hall I start again?__livier: __o. I think I__e got a fair idea how you__e going to do it. You__ better get along now. We__l let you know.__ambon went back to the engineering factory in Islington where he was working. At four that afternoon he was bent over his lathe, working as best as he could with a heavily bandaged hand, when he was called to the phone. It was the Old Vic.__t__ not easy talking on the phone, Tone. One, there__ the noise of the machinery. Two, I have to keep my voice down __ause I__ cockney at work and posh with theatre people. But they offer me a job, spear-carrying, starting immediately. I go back to my work-bench, heart beating in my chest, pack my tool-case, start to go. The foreman comes up, says, __y, where you off to?_ ____e got bad news,_ I say, ____e got to go._ He says, __hy are you taking your tool box?_ I say, __ can__ tell you, it__ very bad news, might need it._ And I never went back there, Tone. Home on the bus, heart still thumping away. A whole new world ahead. We tend to forget what it felt like in the beginning.

Ciss says, 'People have less emotions than actors think they have. For much of the time we hide our emotions, we haven't time for emotions. Our brains work so much faster than our emotions.