|
Thanks to Anke
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not, I'm not going to go on for a very long time, I'm going to say something quite short but I think you ought to know. That from the moment I met Ken Branagh I was in deep trouble. It's gone on for a long time now it was about 15 years ago actually. We were cast in Ghosts and I was playing his mother. Rather unsuitable actually, it was, um, but still… And Elijah Moshin…in the studio Elijah Moshinsky I'm afraid, asked us both to leave… because of bad behavior. I have to say that it wasn't entirely due to Ken it was mostly due to Michael Gambon but there's, that's another story. Then a bit later he rang me up one day, very excited, and he said I want to talk to you, can I come and meet you for lunch? And I thought [Judi gasps] "He's going to ask me to play a really wonderful part, this is gong to be really it. This is going to be it." So we met and um, as, as, as Derek has said before uh, gradually he got round to saying will you direct uh, Much Ado About Nothing. Chooses the play for you. Um… and, um, so I was completely stunned to be asked to direct, something I had never done in my life before. So anyway, after a while of thinking, days, weeks, or whatever, I said yes, I would do it. And I had a very, very nice time doing it, a bit bossy. But I was very, I had a very nice time doing it indeed. Um, uh, I, I do remember that, that between the verses of the song when Ken was hiding in the, in the little um, he, four little trees I gave him to hide in the middle of, um, he, there would be one verse of the song, and he'd think it was over, and so when they started the sec, sec, second one you'd hear him say "Oh God" or "Oh Jesus" or "Oh Christ" and I gave him, I said I didn't want to hear any of that again. I don't want to hear any of that again. But of course it was there, it was there. He wanted to do it so he did it. Um, and then I, they went on tour to Brighton and I went down to see it and took a lot of notes. And when I went round afterwards he'd left the theater in his costume because he didn't want any uh, notes from me. And then we cut a bit on and I was doing The Gift of the Gorgon at the Barbican theater and he was doing his Hamlet, which started at six thirty. I had a two-hour drive from home and when I got there there was never a parking place for me… because everybody had gone in to see Ken in Hamlet. So I was completely left, so you see it's, it's, well it's, um, it's a chapter of disaster really. However, I have to say that he's among a handful of people that if he were to say will you come and play this part and I didn't even know what the play was I would without reading it say yes, I'll come. Uh, Ken, everybody's said all the things uh, that we feel about you tonight. Um, I can't think of a better or a more deserving person to get the Golden Quill and especially in Sir John, beloved Sir John's name. And it is for, as you've heard, your… sense of humor and your… constancy, and your, the fact that you never read the papers, and for your stoicism, and for the fact that you have, um, never forgotten anybody's name on anything you've ever done, any set or anything, um, down to the person who comes and, I don't know, what?, does something just to the set. You know everybody's name and everybody's introduced to everybody. I think you are a remarkable person. And I feel very, very proud that it's my turn to pass the Golden Quill to you. And I just have to add one thing, I got this in New York last summer. It is immensely heavy, in fact one person can't hold it. I had to ship mine back across the Atlantic [audience laughter] at enormous expense whereas you have just got to put it in the boot of your car and take it a couple of miles down the road. So will you please come up here and I'll give it to you. Excerpt from Kenneth
Branagh's Acceptance Speech where he thanks To John Gielgud, who is a shining example of the classical tradition, a model of humility and generosity and a blazing talent whose encouragement to this young actor was beyond the call of duty. Uh, but I want, and I am coming to the end I promise, I would like actually if I may, just to draw attention to one particular actor who I've discussed on, on, on several occasions with Sir John. Uh, we've both talked about our, our various inspirations and you, you saw tonight, Sir Derek Jacobi, who's the reason I'm here and has a lot to answer for... [audience laughter] And many of my inspirations have been before you this evening. Performers whose work set a standard that, that constantly stimulates one to aspire to their quality. So, when I was sixteen, and after I'd seen Derek and I knew I wanted to become an actor I inherited a huge set of, uh, uh, "Plays and Players" magazines and it's where I, I started a lifelong interest in the theatre and it's where I, uh, first came across this particular fella. He was very dashing, very dashing, there were some stills from As You Like It and, uh, he was an incredibly virile Orlando. And I started to see him on television and admire his great comic gifts and his undeniable star quality and I was determined that I should see him live. So one afternoon I took myself to the Aldwych Theatre and saw a production of King Lear in which he was playing the Fool and I stood for the first time in my life in, in the presence of truly great acting. It was effortless reality and compassion and humanity and wit and pathos and it was all at the service of the play and of his fellow performers and it was a spine-tingling connection to, to great art, it was simple and it was profound. And years later I got to know him, and his wife, and I found a remark that he made to her to be, to be very true. He said that you can never be more on stage, than you are in life and by this time I knew in his case it was true. I knew about his enormous heart, his warmth and his intelligence and I knew for sure that what I'd seen all those years ago had been no accident and I was always too shy to tell him because he's like me, he's easily embarrassed, but I want to tell him tonight, because he's here, that I left that performance of his feeling that if any part of my professional career could approach what he did in that role, that I would die a happy man. And so if I have any right to be standing here tonight it's, because of the inspiration of people like the great Michael Williams. [Ken applauds, audience applause] Uh, so I'm going to get off while I'm still in one piece, thank you very much, Michael ...
From The Kenneth Branagh Compendium Website
|
