#central school of speech and drama

[safedistancefrombeingsmart]

London’s Central drama school axes audition fees to end elite grip on the arts

Martin–as a former graduate– chimes in. 🙂

“None of us want drama schools to be the preserve of the well off. Ideally, they are places where people from all backgrounds can come together and learn from each other,” said Freeman, a Central graduate and star of The Responder, Sherlock and The Office. “Without my grant from Richmond council many years ago, I would never have been able to enjoy my three years at Central. That seems to have become harder and harder in recent years; who knows how many young actors are lost to us, due to lack of funds. I hope this inspires others to follow suit in trying to make attending drama school fairer for all.”

[highly-flammable]

Charlie Vickers went to the Andrew Garfield school of acting. No, literally. They are from the same alma mater and it just makes so much sense. The insane ability to disappear into roles and the layers and layers in the performances - they are truly teaching something special in that place.

[speculativism]

NEW WRITING!!!!!!

[neil-gaiman]

hi neil! i’ve recently been accepted onto the writing for performance course at royal central school of speech and drama (london), and i’m petrified to have my writing scrutinised. i’ve always been ‘the writer’ - i currently attend a film school for sixth form and there aren’t many writers - so it’s going to be weird for me.

i know getting scrutinised is what will make me a better writer, but i’m still a little nervous about the thought of it. do you have any advice on how to receive criticism about writing without it feeling too personal?

thanks :)

When the actors at Central are getting criticised, they are being criticised for their performance and that’s them standing there doing something. You have it much easier. If someone criticises something you’ve written they aren’t criticising you.

Learn from them. Get good.

[theholmwoodfoundation]

THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION PILOT EPISODE CAST/CREW - PART ONE

REBECCA ROOT - MADDIE TOWNSEND/MINA HARKER

Rebecca trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for the National Theatre (UK and Ireland tour); Rathmines Road for Fishamble at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; Trans Scripts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Bear / The Proposal at the Young Vic; and Hamlet at the Gielgud Theatre and Athens International Festival. TV, Film and Video Game credits include Monsieur Spade, This Is Christmas, Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Heartstopper, Annika, The Rising, Sex Education, The Gallery, The Queen’s Gambit, Finding Alice, Creation Stories, Last Christmas, The Sisters Brothers, Colette, The Danish Girl, Flack, The Romanoffs, Moominvalley, Hank Zipzer, Boy Meets Girl, Doctors, Casualty, The Detectives, and Keeping Up Appearances.  Radio credits include Clare In The Community, Life Lines, The Hotel, and 1977 for BBC Radio 4. Guest appearances include Woman’s Hour, Front Row, Loose Ends, Saturday Live, and A Good Read.  She plays Tania Bell in the award-winning Doctor Who: Stranded audio dramas. Rebecca has also recorded numerous documentary narrations, audiobooks, and voice-overs. Rebecca is also a voice and speech coach, holding the MA in Voice Studies from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

SEAN CARLSEN - JEREMY LARKIN/ JONATHAN HARKER

Born in South Wales, Seán trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He has worked extensively in audio drama, television, theatre and film.  Seán is perhaps best known to Doctor Who fans as Narvin in the Doctor Who audio series Gallifrey and has appeared on TV in Doctor Who - The Christmas Invasion and Torchwood. Recent TV credits include Mudtown (BBCiplayer/S4C), Dal y Mellt (Netflix), His Dark Materials (BBC1), All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5), A Mother's Love (Channel 4) and Series 5 of Stella (Sky1).  Films include supporting leads in Boudica - Rise of the Warrior Queen, cult horror The Cleansing,  the lead in Forgotten Journeys and John Sheedy’s forthcoming film ‘Never Never Never’

SAM CLEMENS - ARTHUR JONES

Samuel Clemens trained at the Drama Centre London and is an award-winning director with over twenty years’ experience. Samuel has recently written and directed his debut feature film ‘The Waterhouse’ with Take The Shot Films & Featuristic Films and represented by Raven Banner Entertainment, which is due for release this coming year.  In addition, he has directed fourteen short films, winning awards all over the world including shorts ‘Surgery (multi-award winning), A Bad Day To Propose (Straight 8 winner 2021), Say No & Dress Rehearsal’. Samuel also directs critically acclaimed number one UK stage tours and fringe shows (Rose Theatre Kingston, Swansea Grand, Eastbourne, Yvonne Arnaud, Waterloo East Theatre) and commercials include clients JD Sports, Shell and Space NK. Samuel is also a regular producer and director for Big Finish Productions & Anderson Entertainment. He has cast, directed, produced and post supervised numerous productions of ‘Doctor Who – (BBC), The Avengers (Studio Canal), Thunderbirds, Stingray (Anderson Entertainment), Callan, Missy, Gallifrey’& Shilling & Sixpence Investigate’ and many more. Samuel has directed world class talent such as, Sir Roger Moore, Ben Miles, Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Alex Kingston, Frank Skinner, Rita Ora, Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley, Rufus Hound, David Warner, Celia Imrie, Samuel West, Youssef Kerkour, Sophie Aldred, Ian McNiece, Colin Baker, Olivia Poulet, Stephen Wight, Jade Anouka, Mimi Ndwendi, Michelle Gomez, Peter Davidson, Paul O’Grady and many more. Samuel is one of the founding members and directors at Take The Shot Films Ltd and is Head of Artistic Creation and Direction. Lastly, Samuel is a regular tutor at The London Film Academy, The Giles Foreman Centre for Acting & The Rose Youth Theatre and is a member of The Directors Guild UK. As for upcoming projects, Sam is currently in pre-production on his next feature film “On The Edge of Darkness”, which is based on his dad’s stage play “Strictly Murder”.

ATTILA PUSKAS - DRACULA

Attila Puskás is a native Hungarian Voice Actor born in Transylvania – Romania, so Romanian is in his bag of tricks too, but most of his work is done in English, in a Transatlantic Eastern European Accent, but is quite capable of Hungarian, Romanian and International Eastern European accents, plus Standard American. His voice range is Adult to Middle Aged (30-40+) due to his deep voice. Vocal styles can range from authoritive, brooding to calming and reassuring and much more. He’s most experienced in character work, like Animations and Games, but his skills encompass Commercials to Narration as well. He’s received training through classes and workshops, pushing him to the next level to achieve higher standards. Now on a journey to perfect these skills and put them to good use!

PART TWO: HERE

PART THREE: HERE

[maybe-boys-do-love]

The Trainee, full series review

As I reflect on The Trainee and our responses to it as an audience throughout its run I'm reminded of how easy it is to be cynical about life and media. We expect worst-case-scenarios, punishments, and villains. In fact, this kind of thinking offers our anxieties a sense of certainty and fulfillment: things are good or bad, people are competent authorities or incompetent assholes.

I saw so many of us waiting for the other shoe to drop during The Trainee. We looked for problems at Good Pick so that Ryan's tides could easily turn and he could become the hero. We predicted Joy or Judy or Jo (what's with all the J names??) would be revealed as some villain for their failures to properly mentor. Even up to the last episode, we expected Nine to receive some kind of legal action for plagiarizing concepts. But, as Toni Morrison wrote, "You have to be an adult to consciously, deliberately be good--and that's complicated." The Trainee was a show about being and becoming a good adult, and even rarer to see in our media, an adult who chooses goodness at work.

The series brought us so many situations that could've sparked drama or set off a firing process for one of the employees. Maybe you felt some of the problems should've been dealt with that way. The point of the series wasn't the consequences of actions, though. Each week, instead, the episodes restored the dignity of its characters so they could learn and grow and let others inspire them to move forward.

Jo's speech to the interns at their farewell party highlighted the central theme perfectly. "I remember the first day we met. I heard none of you were any good. I couldn't tell if three months later, you'd be any better. I just wanted you to find your own path and see your own worth." What kinds of grace and patience are we willing to give ourselves in order to seek out and work toward meaningful lives? And once we can offer this to ourselves how do we offer it to others?

The Trainee's philosophy forces you to review it differently. Did it have missteps or incongruities (grad school acceptance processes are apparently much faster in HK, for example)? Sure, but don't we all slip up here and there? I almost love The Trainee more for the quirky imperfections it holds within the compassionate light of its cinematic lens glares. Prepare for disappointment if you want passionate high-drama romance, but if you're feeling lost on your path in life and need a kind hand to comfort and guide you, I can't recommend a better internship than the one offered at Good Pick on The Trainee.

[lacasadelasmunecaspreciosas]

Fotos Martina García en Soho desnuda

Amar a morir, Rabia y Día naranja son las tres películas que Martina García estrena este año. Pero como cuando se trata de Martina mucho nunca es demasiado, le tenemos estas fotos para que se deleite.

Martina, Martina... ¿Qué se puede decir de Martina? Con esos ojos que tiene tal vez no sea necesario decir nada: todo lo que uno quisiera decir ya fue dicho por ellos. Y es que los ojos de Martina le dirán mucho más de lo que nosotros nunca podríamos, simplemente porque a esta mujer no se la puede definir fácilmente. ¿Inocente será la palabra, por su carita de niña buena? ¿O extravagante, como la describían algunos directores cuando llegaba a grabar vestida de gótica y de punk? ¿O tal vez intelectual, por haber estudiado Filosofía en la Universidad de la Sorbona y porque considera este hecho algo fundamental en su vida, de lo cual está muy orgullosa? Parecería que cada descripción que proponemos contradice a la anterior, pero en el caso de Martina es esta acumulación de opuestos la única forma de retratarla.La otra opción es describir a Martina desde su profesión, la actuación. Todos la recordamos en la novela Amor a la plancha, y en películas nacionales como Perder es cuestión de método, de Sergio Cabrera, o Satanás, de Andy Baiz, pero ella ha estado en el mundo de la actuación desde muchos años antes, cuando era apenas una niñita y salía en el programa infantil Los niños se toman el mundo. Martina estudió actuación con Paco Barrero en Bogotá, en The Central School of Speech and Drama en Londres, y con Juan Carlos Corazza en Madrid. Pues considera que, como en cualquier otra profesión, en la actuación hay mucho que aprender y es necesario prepararse, pero al mismo tiempo también está convencida de que es básico tener un don, que describe como mucha fuerza interior, valentía, criterio y extrema sensibilidad. Y como un bonus track, para terminar de entender a Martina, aquí está la respuesta que nos dio cuando le preguntamos que por qué había insistido en hacer estas fotos con un gatito: "La idea fue mía, lo pedí con insistencia, necesitaba un ser vivo y frágil para acercarme al desnudo con ternura e inocencia, y para que tuviera sentido".

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Scottish actor Angus Macfadyen born 21st September 1963 in Glasgow.

MacFadyen had a nomadic upbringing; thanks to his father’s job with the World Health Organization, he spent his childhood and adolescence in places no less diverse than Africa, Australia, France, the Philippines, Singapore, and Denmark. He went on to attend the University of Edinburgh and received theatrical training at the Central School of Speech and Drama. MacFadyen got his professional start on the Edinburgh stage, appearing in a number of productions at the famed Fringe Festival.

Breaking into television in the early ‘90s, Angus appeared in a number of series for the BBC, including an acclaimed adaptation of David Leavitt’s The Lost Language of Cranes. Following the critical and commercial success of Braveheart, the actor got a rudimentary dose of recognition across the Atlantic, but remained largely unknown outside of the U.K. He starred with Gabriel Byrne and Bill Campbell in the World War II drama The Brylcreem Boys in 1996, playing a German pilot being held captive in neutral Ireland. Until 1998, when he portrayed Peter Lawford in the made-for-cable The Rat Pack, MacFadyen’s other screen appearances tended to be in films that were widely ignored by audiences and critics alike.

He has played Orson Welles in Tim Robbins’ 1999 film, Cradle Will Rock, Philip in the BBC’s production of The Lost Language of Cranes, Dupont in Equilibrium and Jeff Denlon in the Saw series of films

Some of you might remember Angus in the excellent Takin’ Over the Asylum which also starred two great actors in Ken Stott and David Tennant. We last say him on the big screen in very underrated The Lost City of Z

Angus reprised his role of The Bruce last year in Robert the Bruce, among the co-stars, playing his wife Elizabeth de Burgh is Mhairi Calvey, who aged just 5 was ‘Young Murron’ in Braveheart. While I enjoyed the film, I thought that maybe the role of The Bruce was maybe better suited to a younger actor, but it was his “baby”, and he strived for years to get the film made.

He also appeared in the TV series Strange Angel, about a rocket scientist in 1940s Los Angeles is secretly the disciple of occultist Aleister Crowley, played by our man. I have yet to see this, but must look it up. The series was canceled after two seasons.

Angus is currently part of the Outlander cast playing a Redcoat Brigadier-General. He had a small part in the Kevin Costner film Horizon: An American Saga and was King Ferrel in The Last Redemption. Angus has a few other projects on the go.

[synderesis08]

Lara Parker was born Mary Lamar Rickey in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Memphis. She attended Central High School in Memphis, and won a scholarship to Vassar College. At Vassar, Lara began a major in philosophy, which she completed at Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), receiving her BA. She attended graduate school at the University of Iowa and completed all course work on a Masters in speech and drama. During the summer when Lara was supposed to write her thesis, she acted at the Millbrook Playhouse, in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, playing 5 leading roles in 6 weeks. Rather than returning to Iowa, she decided to try her luck in New York. During only her second week in the city, she was cast as Angelique, the witch, in the daytime horror serial, Dark Shadows (1966)

[ca-suffit]

https://www.tumblr.com/ca-suffit/759917664545243136/im-not-anon-so-i-can-send-you-this-but-if-you?source=share

This is very true. People often praise British actors for being trained or having a theatre background but the big drama schools have a connections monopoly and are also notoriously racist and anti working class. It is very hard to be successful in the upper echelons of acting in the UK and not have been to drama school, and even if you do as a poc you'll still start way at the bottom once you graduate Vs your white peers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52968493

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/06/drama-schools-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-anti-racism-statements

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/guildhall-drama-school-racism-report-b2393229.html this one is from just last year.

(post link)

thank u sm for sharing more info!!

[pers-books]

Pamela Salem 1944-2024

Friday, 23 February 2024 - Reported by Marcus

The actress Pamela Salem has died at the age of 80.

Pamela Salem appeared in three Doctor Who stories. In 1977 she played Toos in the acclaimed Fourth Doctor story The Robots of Death. Her voice was used as one of the voices of Xoanon in the previous story, The Face of Evil.   She returned to the series in 1988 playing Rachel Jensen alongside the Seventh Doctor in Remembrance of the Daleks. She later reprised her role as Jensen in the Big Finish audio spin-off series Counter-Measures and 1963: The Assassination Games. 

Pamela Salem was born in Bombay, India, and educated at Heidelberg University in Germany and later at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England.

Film work included the role of Miss Moneypenny in the 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again, starring Sean Connery. 

Other television appearances included parts in EastEnders, where she played mafia affiliate Joanne Francis, and as the evil witch Belor in ITV's Into the Labyrinth.

Other television guest appearances have included roles in the third episode of  Blake's 7, The Onedin Line, The Professionals, Howards' Way, Ever Decreasing Circles, Tripods and All Creatures Great and Small

She later moved to the United States where she continued her career in series such as Magnum, P.I., Party of Five, ER and The West Wing where she played a British prime minister.

[Source]

[jalwyn21]

Is it true that Joe’s exes still follow him? And that he’s in good terms all of them and Taylor made him unfollow one of them? 👀

Yup, Joe’s exes still follow him, some on instagram some on X, some on both. All but one.. 🙄 TS unfollowed him 🤭 So, yeah, it's safe to assume Joe is on good terms with all of them.. Don't think he's on good terms with TS though... 🤷‍♀️

To be fair I don't know if TS made him unfollow one of them, cause I don't know Joe personally 😅😅😅 but ... Back in 2020 Joe still followed her on insta, and during the first part of the lockdown he was stuck in California with TS. So, there was this online meeting with his former classmates from The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. Celebrating 5 years since graduation or something... idk.. The ex was on that online chat too..

The next day Joe unfollowed her on insta. 😹😹😹 A bit suspicious, don't you think? So, yeah, I just assumed TS didn't want him following an ex on insta and made him unfollow her ... 😹😹😹 Like, why else would he just unfollow her in 2020? 😹😹😹 But, I don't know, you decide... 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Do the girls back home follow you on instagram like I do? 😹😹😹😹😹

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal: Just Another Homeless Young Star

Article from the New York Times, 19 September 2004 (x)

By Ginger Thompson

MEXICO CITY - THE lunch rush has ended at a popular, upscale cafe, and one of the most attractive and acclaimed young movie actors in the world hobbles through the room of empty tables on crutches. He's so rumpled and heavily bundled up it looks as if he's spent the night on the street. Blushing and taking off his cap, he explains that he's just had hernia surgery. "I have been lifting heavy suitcases up and down a lot of stairs," he says. "I don't have my own place yet, so I stay with different friends." Unloading a big floppy satchel and laying his crutches on the floor, he shrugs, pulls off his jacket and takes a seat. Then, he makes eye contact. Gael García Bernal, it turns out, is a divine sight even in a post-operative state.

And if his life seems to be in a bit of disarray, his career is not. He's got two big films opening soon: The Motorcycle Diaries and Bad Education. Bad Education, which will be screened at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 9 and 10 before its commercial opening on Nov. 19, moved Mr. García into the coveted circle of Pedro Almodóvar (Mr. García had to learn to walk in high heels and wear mascara for his role as a drag queen). In Motorcycle Diaries, which arrives Friday, Mr. García plays the legendary revolutionary Che Guevara, who, as a young man on a long ride across South America, is awakened to the political injustices he fought to his death.

Mr. García isn't afraid of a fight. Unlike most young actors, he is driven by an agenda that goes beyond red carpets and glossy magazine covers: he has shown modern Mexico in all of its sometimes ugly, always complicated glory. The characters he has played cross lines, challenge taboos and reveal secrets, in a deeply Catholic country that prefers to keep public conversations polite. And his acting has helped bring international acclaim to films that are rescuing this country's stale movie industry.

At the same time, he's established himself well beyond the Mexican border, but he's not sure he wants to cross.

Hollywood can't get him to return calls. (He suggests they stop sending scripts with characters called, he says, "Chico From the Barrio.") He may be looking for his first grown-up apartment, but he's not going to be filling it with movie-star loot.

Mr. García blushes again. He explains that he's only 25, and he's been living a whirlwind. "I had a place when I was studying in London, but I couldn't pay for it, and so my solution was to stay with girlfriends," he says. "Then I began moving around so much I didn't need a place."

Those who know him say it's a rising star's way of keeping himself grounded, by not acquiring anything that cannot be stuffed into a backpack. Beyond Mr. García's smoldering good looks, there's a smart, well-read, cultured human being who rejects the superstar syndrome and has something to say. In a two-hour interview in Spanish, it becomes clear that roots mean more to Mr. García than roofs.

It's rainy season in Mexico City, and as the clouds roll in, the cafe turns dim. Mr. García's greenish-brownish-bluish eyes change with the light as he retraces his journey from Mexican soap operas to big, bold art films. He was born in Guadalajara, in the north of Mexico, and grew up here, where his parents worked as actors. Mr. García has said that he followed his parents into show business so that he could spend time with them. As a teenager, he got into the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Then he came back to Mexico City and won the starring role in Amores Perros, by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the film that would return his country to prominence on the international cinema circuit.

Mr. García played a poor city kid who wants so desperately to escape his lot in life and run away with his brother's wife that he enters his Rottweiler in barbaric, back-alley dogfights for money. The movie, which was nominated for the best foreign film Oscar, revealed unsightly sides of Mexican life that hadn't been seen before on film. But it was Mr. García's next role, as a sensual young man in Alfonso Cuarón's Y Tu Mamá También, that won him fans.

Again, it was the story of a road trip, but it was also a love triangle and a coming-of-age narrative about two teenagers overwhelmed by their own hormones. Its sex scenes struck a chord with moviegoers around the world -- everywhere, that is, but here, where audiences were put off by Mr. Cuarón's frankness. "That is why Mexican films can be so dry," Mr. García said. "In this country, everyone wants prostitutes to be poets, young people to speak like philosophers. But that's not the way movies should be. That's not real."

Mr. García's next film led to national protests here. In The Crime of Father Amaro, directed by Carlos Carrera, he played a predator priest who has an affair with a teenager and sends her to her death in a clandestine abortion clinic. The Catholic church pressured the Mexican government to ban the film -- which might have worked as recently as a decade ago. But in 2000, Mexicans ousted the authoritarian regime that had controlled the government for most of the last century, and they are less willing to tolerate censorship. Protests against Father Amaro by religious groups succeeded only in drawing more people to theaters.

"For so long they told us we were not ready for democracy," Mr. García says, speaking about the government. "We were always ready. And that's what people said over and over again, when they went to see Father Amaro. A lot of people who saw it said they thought it was a bad movie, but they were glad a movie like that existed."

In a way, that seems to be the thinking that drives Mr. García's free-agent film career (despite enormous demand, he's made almost no commitments to future projects). He says he gravitates toward roles that challenge him and that tell untold stories, or those that have been forbidden. Take his two latest films. Che Guevara is right up there with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as one of the most widely recognized, least understood figures in the world. The goal of The Motorcycle Diaries, he said, was to demystify Che. "In the end," Mr. García says, "he comes down to the same common denominators we all share at 23. We have all traveled and discovered ourselves in new places."

Walter Salles directed Mr. García in the story of the cross-continental road trip through labor camps and a leper colony that slowly transformed a starry-eyed Argentine medical student named Ernesto Guevara into the fierce revolutionary called Che. In a telephone interview from San Francisco, Mr. Salles says Mr. García immediately felt an affinity with an image of Che few people would recognize -- and some might not like. Mr. Salles's Che is not the lion depicted on posters and T-shirts. He's naïve, sickly, socially awkward and so painfully uncertain of himself that he's overshadowed by his dashing travel companion, Alberto Granado (played by Rodrigo de la Serna).

"It takes courage for an actor to portray an Ernesto Guevara who is introspective, who is living with his doubts, not with certitudes," Mr. Salles says. "This is the story of a young man who rebaptizes himself from the beginning to the end of a journey. At the beginning he is one man. At the end he is another. Gael had the capacity to understand the dimension of that arc." Mr. Salles continues: "He moves us in gentle strokes. In the end it's like walking two hours in the gentle rain. You're soaking wet, but you don't really know why."

Mr. García dropped everything to do Bad Education, he says, because of the "illusion of working with Almodóvar." There were lots of rumors about bitter disagreements between the actor and Mr. Almodóvar during the making of the film, in which Mr. García plays a drag queen who was abused by a priest as a boy. Some reports said that Mr. Almodóvar stopped filming at one point and demanded that Mr. García lose weight for the role.

Mr. García is discreet, but clearly, making the film was a trying experience. Colonial attitudes toward Mexico remain alive and well in Spain, he says. "When I arrived there to prepare for the movie, many people told me to take off my accent," he recalls. "Everyone said the same thing to me, I swear -- even journalists and Almodóvar, himself. They would tell me to take off my accent, like it was something dirty I had to clean up. I told them, 'What do you mean, take off my accent?' I told them I was going to put on a Spanish accent."

If Mr. García expresses some qualms about Mr. Almodóvar's methods, he's no less impatient with Hollywood's. "Hollywood has made some of the best movies in the world," he says. But then he goes on and on about how shallow it seems: "Poor, poor directors that make films in the United States. The big studios only allow them to make films if they meet certain conditions. And if those conditions ruin the integrity of the film, then the film is ruined, and it's a huge waste of time."

He says that no matter where he travels, he intends to keep his base here. This country lives an almost eternal identity crisis, he says, set as it is between one of the poorest corners of the world and the only remaining superpower. It makes for lots of great stories to tell. In fact, Mr. Garcia and his friend and Y Tu Mamá También co-star Diego Luna have been talking about producing a series of films from each of this country's 32 states. And his homeless days may finally be coming to an end: he's made a bid on a house. "This is the place that excites me," he says. "I have a strong itch that keeps me here, to be a part of this place. I think that if I abandon it, I'll become just another actor, like all the rest."

[henrycavillmasterlist]

Blink of An Eye

Characters: Henry Cavill x OFC

Summary: Kinsley was born to a theater-enthused mother and a rancher father. They were settled in Columbia, KY where her father’s family had established a well-known ranch and while well off, Kinsley thrived in the theater. Her mother finally convinced her father to send her to London to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She quickly took to the teachings and made a name for herself, becoming a prominent student. It was one night, one stage when she came to the attention of the man that would change her life and her direction forever.

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[lboogie1906]

Joseph Marcell (August 18, 1948) is a British actor and comedian. He is known for his role as Geoffrey Butler, the butler on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96).

Born in Saint Lucia, he moved to the UK, when he was 9 years old and grew up in Peckham, South London. He lives in Banstead, Surrey.

He studied speech and dance at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

As a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he appeared in productions of Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has appeared in feature films and on television in Britain. He serves on the board of the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London where he is featured in a nationwide production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear.

He played Gonzalo in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in May 2016. He played Solly Two Kings in the play by August Wilson, Gem of the Ocean at the Tricycle Theatre, in London, in January 2016. He began rehearsals as Titus Andronicus, in July 2017, for the La Grande Shakespeare Company, in La Grande, Oregon. He married Judith M. Midtby (1975-80). He married Joyce T. Walsh (1995). He has two children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[ladyaislinn]

November 4, 2024

Rufus Sewell Loves Grappling with His ‘The Diplomat’ Wife Keri Russell

Never have the power dynamics in a marriage been more intimate and sexy. "The mischief he's making is in order to put her forward, which is key," Sewell tells IW.

Russell and Sewell display a convincing intimacy that is great fun to watch. I spoke to Sewell on Zoom, and learned a few things you may or may not know about him and the show.

1. He is a respected British stage and television actor.  In “The Diplomat,” he deploys a perfect American accent. He lives in Los Angeles now, but he was nurtured back in the day by Judi Dench. “When we were at drama school at Central School of Speech and Drama, or Central School of Screech and Drama, as we called it at the time,” he said on Zoom, “she directed The Scottish Play, and I played the porter. That got me my start, because she, unbeknownst to me, got her agent to come and see me, and she even got me my first job.”

He got his start playing a Franciscan friar in “The Royal Heart of the Sun,” and a crazed skinhead stand-up comedian in “Comedians.” “I played a Scottish heroin addict,” he said. “I played a Dublin Bus driver with Albert Finney, very working class. After a few years of playing out there parts and and feeling that that was my niche, I played someone who was supposed to be the young guy, the young buck. And it was a struggle for me, because I wasn’t used to not having a mask to liberate me. I did play Will Ladislaw in ‘Middlemarch.’ It changed the way I was seen. It took me a long time to be able to just get the idea of how people saw me out of my head. That’s why I love my career now, because it feels like as I’m getting older, I’m able to go back to the parts I did before that and still have the benefit of actually being able to play the dude sometimes.”

2. Americans see Sewell differently than Brits.  He plays a mature dude in “The Diplomat.” “I don’t think I would have got this role in a British production,” said Sewell, “[unless] it had been an upper-class part, some remote Lord or some wanker on a horse. But this role came via the Americans, who don’t have the same ideas of types of actors, kind of class, etc. I’m actually coming from quite a poor background, but because of those jobs, I read as quite posh, which meant that for a long time, I haven’t got near a lot of parts that I could do. I feel like I’m getting closer. It’s about being allowed to do parts that I probably wouldn’t like. It’s the same with playing Prince Andrew [Netflix’s “Scoop”]. It was so liberating in so many ways. It’s posh, but It was less of a challenge, weirdly enough, than the things that people think are second nature for me.”

6. Hal Wyler’s goal is to ensure Kate’s success.  Having had a top diplomatic career of his own, sidelined, Wyler is now navigating his wife’s rising fortunes. As Sewell sees it, “the success that she has is something that he has been behind the scenes trying to instigate. All of his back-room machinations are in the service of putting her up where he believes — and she does not — that she belongs, which is at the top. So the fantastic thing about the dynamic is that when he’s at his most sneaky, it is in service of her and in the service of everything that they both believe is good and and that is the saving grace. He has always been her biggest advocate and supporter, to the extent that early on any decision that she would have wanted to take, which would have put their relationship ahead of her career, he would be very much against. He played backup for her the way she has played backup for him. He’s not naturally as shape-changing as he wishes to be, his frame is not the right size naturally to play backup. So it’s a learning process for him.”

7. The couple’s struggles are key to their mutual attraction.  “The mischief he’s making is in order to put her forward, which is key,” said Sewell. “So all of those struggles are about his nature and the way he does things which are like oil and water between the two of them, but it’s also a massive part of their attraction. So this is, and always has been, and always will be, their key struggle. All of their dynamic, the entire DNA of their relationship, all of their fights, all of their struggles, are tied up with what they think is sexy about each other. What they can’t get away from is also what makes them want to strangle each other, and that’s what makes it delicious [to have sex], sometimes in the same night or in this bush, who knows?”

8. The relaxed intimate marital scenes are not hard to do.  When Sewell first read the script, “in one way, you could recognize it as a comedy of divorce,” he said. “But it’s so well-written. I was so excited by what one is not used to seeing in this kind of format television. The biggest thing was that people recognize the sniffing of each other’s arm pits, and they’re taking a pee whilst talking, and fighting over the crumbs of a croissant, and then, the sex and all of these things going together just made it feel so much more real, with their humor and the dynamic.”

9. It works when it’s funny.  “When we go to these places, and when we meet a lot of diplomats, the people in this world, it’s very accurate, that gallows humor,” said Sewell, “that Terminator scan of a room, not only who are the people to wine and dine, who are the people to avoid, but who are the people to kill. Humor is not a thing sprinkled on the top. It’s absolutely integral.”

These are people who do hardcore plotting and political intrigue in bed, “with the munchies and the sex all tied together,” Sewell said. “Like the strap in the bushes in Season 1, which was the North Star in terms of tone, not that the tone should be fighting in the bushes, but the fact it can go from something so serious and real to something so ridiculous and also real, and back again in the way that life can. It was: ‘the parameters are here.’ That feeling of freedom and the ridiculousness of reality is so much fun because it’s funny. You don’t have to fake it. You just make it real. We laugh a lot.”