Sir Antony Sher

Sir Antony Sher on playing Lear, Shakespeare's misogyny and Kevin Spacey - BBC Newsnight

Mar 10, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy0vahJhJ1I

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How little Ant became big Ant
Antony Sher pushed the boundaries of Shakespeare’s plays
The South African-born actor died on December 2nd, aged 72



Dec 18th 2021


His father had already started the car and was reversing down the drive. “Hang on a moment,” the young man said, and hopped out. All morning he’d been putting on a brave face about flying to London and starting drama school, but now he ran back to the house that glowed with Cape Town’s blue, blue light, and knelt next to his little dog, Tickey. He stroked her tight, confused face, let her lick his hand. Tickey was runtish, dark, ugly, scared—him in animal form, he always said. She’d been found as a stray and he liked to tell her his fears: about being small and needy and bad at sports, about being drawn to boys, about not fitting in—in school, in his own country, in the world.

Antony Sher knew he had to leave South Africa. Drama school in Shakespeare’s England would be his escape, though it almost didn’t happen after he made the mistake of choosing to play the tall, fat, indolent Cardinal Wolsey from “Henry VIII” for his audition. His two preferred drama schools turned him down before a third eventually said yes. The Webber-Douglas Academy would provide practical lessons in voice, movement, dance and fencing. It also offered singing (from which he was instantly banned for his tuneless tone) and make-up (which he relished), as well as a class called “Speaking Shakespeare”, which helped ease those South African vowels. But it did not teach him to act.