There is so much to do on a film set. It is an extraordinarily invigorating and wonderful place to be, when things are running well.
BEN KINGSLEYThere is so much to do on a film set. It is an extraordinarily invigorating and wonderful place to be, when things are running well.
BEN KINGSLEYYou cannot learn a lesson of profound forgiveness unless you understand what it is to be wounded and forgive that which has wounded you.
BEN KINGSLEYJohn Lennon and Ringo Starr liked my songs. I used to write songs and they heard me sing songs on stage in London.
BEN KINGSLEYAs an actor there’s no autonomy, unless you’re prepared to risk the possibility of starving.
BEN KINGSLEYIf I were to play somebody who ran a fish and chip shop, I would not work in a fish and chip shop for three months. Staring at chips is not going to help me in my performance.
BEN KINGSLEYI’ve met quite a number of people in my career, but I do have an extraordinary memory. And even though they may drift into the periphery of my memory, I can bring them right back when I need them.
BEN KINGSLEYFamily is family over the internet, over Skype, over the telephone. Love is love. You don’t have to actually go through some ritual to prove that you love somebody.
BEN KINGSLEYWell, it’s wonderful to be identified strongly with my work.
BEN KINGSLEYIf it’s a really well written villain, he probably has more layers than the archetypal good person. So that would be very attractive to an actor. No one chooses to be a villain; it’s usually a reaction to something else.
BEN KINGSLEYHamlet is an astonishing intelligence.
BEN KINGSLEYI think that most actors, and they’re a very strange lot actors, very strange people, but I think that they attempt to keep in touch with the child.
BEN KINGSLEYMy line-learning is very special. I like to learn the dialogue of the whole film before I arrive.
BEN KINGSLEYIf the director wishes to print it, then you have a series of choices, maybe millions of choices within that minute-and-a-half, or 80 seconds, or 2 minutes or however long or short the take is, you have all those choices committed to celluloid. I find that absolutely thrilling.
BEN KINGSLEYThe trick is to try and justify every word on the page and make sure my character is the man who would say that.
BEN KINGSLEYYou don’t go to a town to present the play and have applause at the end of it, but that’s benign conquest. It’s a glorious way of exploring other landscapes and other cultures in a very life-affirming way.
BEN KINGSLEYHopefully, as I get older in the business, I make my choices more accurately, and I perhaps know from either the script or the first meeting that it isn’t going to work.
BEN KINGSLEY