Word: hamlets
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...Harvard Crimson: So then what's your response? Hamlet, as far as roles are concerned is the brass ring for many actors. When someone calls offering the role of Hamlet, what...
...Well, I wasn't interested in playing Hamlet just for the sake of playing [him]. It wouldn't really interest me. But Michael had a real idea for the production as a whole, and that's what kind of excited me, to be a part of a production. You don't really want to just see "this person" say those lines. You want to be part of a production and that's what was so exciting about it, the rest of the cast. Shakespeare draws so many interesting people. Basically, your reaction is just to say "yes". What was really...
...What you're saying about "warrants" a production, that's what is so amazing about Shakespeare, the ideas and the themes, they're still so relevant. As a performer what's interesting is to think "if Hamlet were alive today, who would he be?". Let's say he's the son of the CEO of Time Warner, you've got millions of dollars at your hands, and everyone wants you to go into big business. The metaphor is very easily adaptable. In Denmark, Hamlet's being shoved into war, they want him to lead a country into a battle...
...then James Dean appears on television during the "O what rogue and peasant slave am I" speech". Where did the impetus to turn Hamlet into a filmmaker come from...
...came naturally. Writing the adaptation was the easiest part, because the play just seemed to yield. It felt like a good fit with contemporary reality. It was simply a matter of having your eyes open, and being sensitive to all the parallels and metaphors. To that inventory of Hamlet-like figures, Ethan added Kurt Cobain, someone who seems to embody the voided promise, someone who was brilliant, and ran off the rails. Someone who was marred and tormented. It's not hard to find Hamlet in contemporary reality. The play is called "Hamlet", but it's actually about a series...