Ben Whishaw, one of Britain’s hottest young acting talents, is currently wowing viewers in the hit drama The Hour (BBC2 and BBC HD, Tuesdays).
In it he plays TV journalist Freddie Lyon, and though the series is set in the Fifties, it raises very modern-day issues around the relationships between the press, politicians and the police.
‘It’s a very different period of history but there are obvious parallels with today,’ says Ben.
In an interview with the JLP e-zine later this week, Ben looks back on what fired his love of acting, how the Partnership supported him through RADA, and the roles that have garnered him critical acclaim from his Hamlet at the Old Vic to playing Keats in the film Bright Star and Sebastian in Brideshead Revisited.
He also talks about forthcoming roles as Richard II and the film Cloud Atlas co-starring Tom Hanks and Jim Broadbent.
Man of The Hour by Jacqueline Mair
August 2011
Interviews with Ben Whishaw have been all over the press since his BBC TV series The Hour hit our screens.
Journalists home in on his precocious Hamlet, his dreamy Keats, and his troubled Sebastian in the film Brideshead Revisited. Little-known – until now that is – is that his mother works at John Lewis and because of the connection, he was supported by the Partnership through RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
We meet the afternoon before the first episode of The Hour is screened, as he slopes into the RADA café, rucksack over his shoulder. No-one bats an eyelid – OK it is the RADA café – but we both know that tomorrow will be different.
The Hour is set in 1956, though its take on the relationships between journalists, politicians and the police resonates strongly today. Ben, in his role as left-wing journalist Freddie Lyon, dominates the screen from the start.
Will this rather gentle, self-effacing young man be able to walk down the street again without being accosted by fans? ‘People maybe notice you for a few days, a week then it goes quiet,’ says Ben. ‘Actually, I like it when someone comes up and says they enjoyed something I’ve appeared in. I do it to people. It is a good way of showing you support them.’
Ben was brought up in Clifton, Bedfordshire, with his twin brother James. His father works in IT and his mother Linda is a Lancôme consultant at John Lewis.
Poetry..
i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses
by ee cummings
Ben Recites Poetry in The Hour
Ben and James D’Arcy Greatest Hits!
As you can see, Ben and James chatted about the James Bond film, Skyfall. Ben Whishaw is the new “Q” tech genius.
Watch Here (Ben Whishaw and James Bond, Daniel Craig)
Always performing
She got quite a shock when she saw the first episode ‘because I didn’t realise he had such a big part,’ she says. ‘But that’s typical of Ben, he never sings himself up – there’s nothing about him that shouts ‘actor’.’
No one else in the family had gone to RADA, but it didn’t surprise her that he made it. ‘I haven’t got a single photo of him, right back to when he was tiny, when he wasn’t performing,’ she says.
Ben joined a youth theatre group and at just 14 performed at the Edinburgh Festival. ‘I realise how important those early years were to my development as an actor,’ he says. ‘It was a serious endeavour, not just a hobby.
‘I had instilled in me that acting was something you do for love, not for fame or financial gain. Rory Reynolds, who ran the group, encouraged us to read and research our parts. I still find it a very important part of taking on a role.
‘Without him I would never have thought of going to RADA and certainly wouldn’t have been prepared for how hard it would be.’
Juggling contrasting roles
Studying at RADA means a huge workload. Contact time is more than 38 hours a week, plus preparing for roles.
‘There really isn’t time to take on paid work as well as studying, which was why financial help from the Partnership was so important to me,’ says Ben.
The Partnership has supported many RADA students over 15 years, with the last one just having graduated. There are no plans to continue the funding as the Partnership’s charitable giving now focuses more on supporting the communities in which it trades.
RADA taught Ben the art of juggling contrasting roles at the same time. Within a year of leaving, he was rehearsing Hamlet for Trevor Nunn at London’s Old Vic, while performing in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials at The Royal National Theatre.
Wasn’t it terrifying?
To audition at 23 to play Hamlet for one of Britain’s top theatre directors must have been terrifying? ‘No, I don’t remember being terrified. But I was exhilarated,’ says Ben.
‘I was too young to be terrified and I had nothing to lose. Auditions have been much harder as I’ve got older and I’ve certainly been a lot more terrified since.’
Ben’s film career also took off, with the crime thriller Layer Cake followed by Brideshead Revisited and Bright Star, in which he gave an acclaimed performance as Romantic poet John Keats.
Of The Hour he says ‘it’s been a great opportunity to find out more about post-war Britain. To work out what someone like Freddie, a working class intellectual, who seems to be in perpetual opposition to almost everyone, was thinking.’
Photo: Daniel Craig and Ben Whishaw in the “Trench”
Want to mention that James D’Arcy was in the Trench film too.
Parallel with today
He was astonished by how pertinent the issues in it have proved. ‘The Suez crisis in 1956 is part of the storyline and just as we started filming all the political trouble kicked off there,’ he says.
‘Much of the series revolves round journalists exploiting their relationships with politicians and the police. It is a very different period of history but there are obvious parallels and it seems particularly apposite at the moment.’
Ben went straight from playing working class Freddie to being a King – Shakespeare’s Richard II. He is just back from filming in Wales for a major new cycle of Shakespeare’s history plays on BBC Two next year.
‘The filming was chaotic but the locations were magical,’ says Ben. ‘It’s about a weak leader, the overthrow of a leader. Once again full of historical parallels.’
Ben is now moving on to another film, Cloud Atlas, which stars Tom Hanks and Jim Broadbent. He plays a whole range of different parts and is also learning to play the piano for it. ‘I like learning new things. I really want to do a musical so if the piano works out, who knows what’s next.’
Ben Whishaw's Notebook 