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think is superbly exemplified today in Tom Hanks, to mould a part around themselves and yet to contain within themselves so much that it does not seem that the part is thereby impoverished. That dialectic – how much of themselves? how much of the author’s original intention? – is one of the most exciting problems of acting and it is one which I think my father’s career probably addresses and answers in a number of very interesting ways. When I was writing my book Michael Redgrave: My Father I looked through his diaries and I found in 1939 an entry which was clearly troubled because his writing, which was normally a neat and rather pleasing script, was awkward and jagged. He may have been drunk or distressed, probably both. He said: The artist as a man of character. It has been said that the two are incompatible. This agrees with the theory of artistic temperament as a disease. Particularly it is true of actors whose nature demands that they should lose themselves, or rather find themselves in other characters. The extent to which characterization alters my private life is frightening and at times ridiculous. To live happily it would seem that I must concentrate on the portrayal of romantic upright simple men, which anyway next to the childishness of Baron Tusenbach [in Chekhov’s Three Sisters] or Sir Andrew Aguecheek is what I do best.
His first four films present us precisely with this romantic upright simple man, though sometimes with a touch of the childishness of Tusenbach or Sir Andrew.The first was The Lady Vanishes, directed by Hitchcock, in which he has to appear with the almost obligatory Ronald Colman moustache. He also has to do something which is a nightmare for an actor coming from the theatre to the cinema. In his first scene with Margaret Lockwood he has to perform about seventeen different physical actions: he has to come into her bedroom; stand in the door; greet her (she, of course, is upset, offended at finding this young man bursting into her bedroom); he then has to take off his coat and his knapsack and deposit them, along with a walking stick, in different parts of the room. He then has to come over; confidently sit on her bed and unpack a suitcase; and finally exit from the room, tipping his hat as he does so, saying, ‘Confidentially I think you’re a bit of a stinker.’ And all in one camera set-up. It looks a wonderful first take, but it is a nightmare for an actor, even if you’re experienced. If you’re inexperienced it is a triple nightmare. Film is an extraordinarily technical medium for an actor compared to theatre. Occasionally in the theatre, when working with great theatre magicians like Robert Wilson, we will be asked to hit a mark very precisely, and to raise a hand on a particular word, and the lighting will be organized in such a way that we must do so. But that degree of precision is rarely needed in the
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