Ben Kingsley and Buzz Goodbody

1 Jan 1972
31m

The actor talks about his early stage career.

In a 1972 interview produced as part of the University of London's 'In Conversation' series, the theatre director Buzz Goodbody talks to Ben Kingsley about his career-to-date. (Goodbody was the Royal Shakespeare Company's first female director, known for the political edge she brought to her productions before her death by suicide in 1975.) Kingsley hadn't yet acted in a film at the time, so the focus is on the theatre.

Kingsley speaks eloquently and intensely. He talks about how he had initially planned to become a doctor like his father, but was inspired to take up acting by a trip to Stratford-on-Avon in 1967, where he saw Ian Holm play Richard III. He discusses how his Anglo-Indian background has shaped his work, for instance the influence Indian dance traditions had on his performance as Ariel in an RSC production of The Tempest.

He talks enthusiastically about working with director Peter Brook on A Midsummer Night's Dream ("A remarkable man. He made a magic space where anything could happen"). And he recalls working with Goodbody herself on a production of Trevor Griffiths's Occupations in 1971 - an experience he cherished for the way it "brought together the realpolitik and the humanitarian".

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