I was quite a shy child – not chronically, but I tended to blend into the background.
BEN WHISHAWI was quite a shy child – not chronically, but I tended to blend into the background.
BEN WHISHAWI don’t have any ambition to make lots of money or win an Oscar or anything like that. It’s not about that for me.
BEN WHISHAWI always feel I am in the dark. You are never finished… it is not as if you can look back and think: ah… I know what I am talking about. You are only as good as your last job and are always struggling and striving and you never quite get to where you want to be.
BEN WHISHAWI reckon domesticated cats have a pretty good life.
BEN WHISHAWI can be shy, but I’m not really. I try to be better at overcoming these things people have said.
BEN WHISHAWThe thing I love about acting is that you can bring something very personal into the open and at the same time remain hidden because you’re always playing a character in a story that someone else has imagined. You’re always protected.
BEN WHISHAWThe thing about acting is that it’s fairly random. At the end of the day you take what drifts past you or what’s given to you.
BEN WHISHAWMy intuition comes up with better stuff than my head, I think.
BEN WHISHAWDustin Hoffman also never does the same thing twice which is totally stimulating because you’re always getting something new from him. You never really know what he’s going to do next, so you have to be on your toes.
BEN WHISHAWEven today, England is a very repressed, repressive country, and there’s pressure to be kind of a certain way, so people do things that ultimately make them sad.
BEN WHISHAWI would have loved to have been a painter or a sculptor. I’m still fascinated by those things.
BEN WHISHAWWhat I notice about people who are gifted in filmmaking is that they’re great thinkers. They engage with big ideas and they engage with people.
BEN WHISHAWI’ve been out to LA a couple of times but, over there, the Grenouille in me always comes to the surface. I feel completely terrified, totally flummoxed, like I don’t understand what the hell is going on. I’ve no desire at all to go back there.
BEN WHISHAWWe are so mired in the complexity of our reactions to other people that when you come across someone who is asocial, there is a simplicity that is refreshing.
BEN WHISHAWMy favorite Bond films are the really early ones, the first ones in fact, like ‘Dr. No’ and ‘From Russia with Love.’
BEN WHISHAWI love the characters I’ve had the opportunity to play.
BEN WHISHAW