«I wasn't mean or unhappy, but I was naughty — broke the rules as best I could»: Jim Broadbent in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Jim Broadbent arranged to meet me at the luxurious hotel library in Soho. I rather hope to find him there, disguised as a chair like he was when he played Horace Slughorn in the Harry Potter films, but instead he passes me on the road looking tall, dapper and younger than his 73 years. He was just stopped by an autograph hunter who made him sign a Game of Thrones poster. Broadbent had a brief stint in a fantasy series as Archmaester Ebrose. Most often referred to by fans of Potter or Only Fools and Horses — he played Sgt. Roy Slater on the long-running sitcom — but he tells me, «it can be far from out of the ordinary.»
Of course, there are so many great performances on Broadbent's resume, from his Bafta-winning roles as prison reformer Lord Longford, who defied public opinion to visit Samantha Morton's Myra Hindley, in Channel 4's Longford (2006) and pompous impresario Harold. Zidler at the Moulin Rouge! (2001) with his Oscar-winning John Bailey paired with dementia-stricken Judi Dench Iris Murdoch in Iris (2001) and his beloved license fee wrestler Kempton Bunton in The Duke (2020). If I had a Mike Lee poster for Life Is Beautiful (1990), I would be tempted to ask him to sign it.
Broadbent played the bartender in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game over 30 years ago, with its famous twist in which the woman Stephen Rea's character (played by Jay Davidson) falls in love with is revealed to be transgender in a fully nude scene. . “Then it was a different matter,” says Broadbent. «Awfully many things have changed for the better, and this is a very important part of the conversation, which could not have happened then.»
What does he think of Harry Potter, which has become such a lightning rod for controversy after J.K. Rowling's stance on transgender issues? “It's really sad. I think JK Rowling is amazing. I haven't experienced it myself, but I think I would support her if it came to that.
Could he have imagined that a «cancellation culture» would encroach on the profession he joined? back in the early 1970s? “No, it was the other way around,” he says. «Not at all.» He remembers that at that time a different phrase was used — “ “ ideologically justified ”… but there was no negative aspect in it.”
The restrictions of the culture wars certainly did not apply. He starred in Richard Loncraine's brilliant 1995 film adaptation of Richard III, playing the Duke of Buckingham as the dastardly Richard Ian McKellen, reimagined as a fascist plotting to take over 1930s London. I wonder what Broadbent thinks of former RSC artistic director Gregory Doran's suggestion that Shakespeare's «rolled up» Richard should only be played by disabled actors from now on.
«I don't think it's feasible in the long run,» he says. “Actors can play anyone, and actors with disabilities can play anyone. You can't start making rules.»
Broadbent is known to be picky about every role he takes on — «and if it's like what I just did, it won't be interesting.» For the most part, he says, “People my age don't work anymore, so you're less likely to be the main character. And finding roles that are unfamiliar is harder now; when they appear, you think, “Ah, yes, I have never done this before” — it's really exciting.
Here's how he felt about his new film, The Incredible Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Broadbent plays a retired married Harold who receives a farewell letter from an old friend, Queenie, sent from an orphanage. He intends to post a reply to her, but chats with someone who tells him that miracles can happen if one truly believes. Immediately he decides to walk to see her, dressed as he is, from south Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed, about 500 miles from the border with Scotland, believing that while he walks, Queenie will live on.
The emotional story already has fans. It is based on the Booker-nominated 2012 novel Rachel Joyce, which follows Harold's journey across England, finding communion with the natural world, and confronting the painful truth about his life and his stagnant marriage to Maureen (Penelope Wilton). It's a startling, sometimes very dark fable in which Broadbent becomes indistinguishable from Harold, whose legs visibly ache, his hair grows longer, and his face is tanned and weather-beaten.
'It's really sad': as Horace Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. : TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy Stock Photo
Broadbent tells me that before he took on the role, he was already familiar with both the novel — a decade ago he narrated an audiobook — and its author. Early in her career as an actress, Joyce played Perdita for his Leontes in A Winter's Tale at the Crucible in Sheffield in 1987.
Today, he is wearing fairly sturdy boots. “I have a stronger one,” he says. How far does he think he could walk in a day in yachting shoes like Harold's? “I don't know,” he laughs. “It's not about the shoes, really. These are legs. Probably about six miles, first day. They will be a little uncomfortable. Maybe we could increase the number to eight…”
In this wanderer, it is hard to avoid the symbolism of Christ, which attracts followers, trying to perform a miracle by faith alone. Is Broadbent religious?
“No,” he says. “I went to a Quaker school. I think that if I were religious, that would be my path to a spiritual life. I think they are nice people.”
His parents sent him to Leighton Park School in Reading, not because they were Quakers themselves, but because they were pacifists who got along with faith in non-violence. His brother, who was six years older, had already followed the same path, and Broadbent enjoyed his time there.
'It's not really about the shoes. It's Feet': as Harold Fry in Harold Fry's Incredible Pilgrimage
«I've always had a lot of friends,» he says. “I behaved badly, I was naughty. I wasn't angry or unhappy, but I must have been naughty — I smoked and, when I was older, went to the pub, broke the rules as much as I could, and always looked for jokes that became very annoying to the teachers; without focusing too much. I was not an academic.”
According to him, his parents were «bohemians» who formed a creative commune in the rural plain of Lincolnshire, in the small village of Holton-combe-Beckering, north of Lincoln. Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin, who went to school in nearby Market Rasen, later immortalized the land's pull in the lyrics of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: «You can't put me in your penthouse/I'm going back to my plow» — «My friends went to school with him,” says Broadbent. «I've always worked on farms when I was in school, then when I was a student, and also when I graduated from college and didn't have a job.»
Broadbent, too, felt the pull of the earth, and for years he and his wife, artist and former theater designer Anastasia Lewis, kept a second home in Lincolnshire to escape west London, though, he says, «it became too much for to keep two homes — aging and a three and a half hour drive — so now we're under the same roof, which is reasonable but sad.
After being asked to drop out of school early, he managed to get into art school, although deep down he knew that he really wanted to be an actor. It was his father, an amateur actor who founded the acting troupe Holton Players, who eventually suggested that Broadbent change direction and go to drama school. He studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda), graduating in 1972.
Rebel, artist, prankster: Broadbent plays the eccentric shop owner in Paddington. Photo: Laurie Sparham
Looking back at Broadbent's career, it's not hard to see the rebel, prankster, and artist at play. He is constantly on the path of pushing the boundaries. He was in the extraordinary 10-hour Illuminatus! run at the National Theater in 1977 directed by Ken Campbell, whom Peter Hall once described as a «complete anarchist.» (Bill Nighy was also in the production.) Broadbent also created a comedic double act with Patrick Barlow as half of the Brent National Theatre's «entire cast», performing epic retellings of stories such as the life of Christ. (Messiah, 1983) and the French Revolution (Revolution!!, 1987) on the outskirts of Edinburgh and in London.
He constantly collaborated with innovative directors such as Terry Gilliam, who starred in the films Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), and Mike Leigh. “I've always had my eye on these guys,” he says. «I went to an acceptable avant-garde, still within the framework of systemic structures… just.»
In 1992, Lee directed Broadbent's own film, A Sense of History. «This is the only time he's directed a script,» Broadbent notes. The result is a startling piece of black comic narration, performed by the actor himself in tweed and rubber boots as the 23rd Earl of Lythe, who, while recounting the story of his family and their vast fortune, reveals the story of his own fraud with a touch of nonchalance.
“It was a very specific character play,” says Broadbent. After Martin Scorsese saw him at the New York Film Festival, he chose Broadbent to play Boss Tweed in his 2002 film Gangs of New York.
One can trace this edgier Broadbent over the years, even as he takes on the good-natured persona we appreciate in roles such as Bridget Jones' sweet daddy and Mr. Gruber in the Paddington films. His 2018 graphic novel Dumb Margaret, inspired by Brueghel the Elder's painting of Dullé Griet striding towards the open jaws of hell, surprised many, while his 2015 exhibition of deformed wooden figures he carves in his barn, along with clothing and hair, shocked Twitter users with reactions such as «This looks like a still from an episode of Doctor Who that the BBC had to apologize for airing after it was declared too scary for kids.»< /p> 
I wonder if he thinks his character in The Duke was right that the BBC license fee is an unfair tax on ordinary people. “No, I don't know,” he says. “I think the license fee is a good deal. When you think about how much we spend on all the other channels we watch, the license fee is minimal. Let it go on.”
He has very fond memories of working with Woody Allen in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), where he played an English actor who moved from the West End to Great White Path. “I knew my character well,” he says, “probably better than him.” . It was exciting. He's just great. His whole way of working, scenes shot in one shot, more or less, and the impetus to improvise and never know if the camera is pointing at you. It was wonderful.»
How did you feel watching Allen's career become mired in scandal? «I just wish he could make films the way he obviously would like to.»
Broadbent famously turned down the role of Del Boy before David Jason made it his own. Does he ever regret it? «Not at all. I had three episodes and loved it. I couldn't be stuck on it for decades. And I wouldn't be that good anyway. I love doing different things; not being tied to one character.
That's clear. Later this year, we'll see him as the Earl of Leicester in Amazon's supposed Bridgerton rival, My Lady Jane, about the 'nine-day queen,' Lady Jane Grey.
However, the role of Harold Fry is close to his heart, with a reassuring attitude to deep pain. «There are some very sad moments in most families' relationships,» he says. «I didn't realize it all the time. But it was true.»
Harold Fry's Incredible Pilgrimage in theaters April 28
Свежие комментарии