Alec Guinness Talking Pictures


Alec Guinness

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Alec Guinness was known as an acting chameleon,

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capable of adapting himself to any part.

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It was in reputation he won after playing a huge range of roles

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in some of the best British films ever made.

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Ealing comedies like Lavender Hill Mob and Kind Hearts And Coronets,

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and a run of classics directed by David Lean,

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including Great Expectations,

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Oliver Twist, Lawrence Of Arabia,

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and The Bridge On The River Kwai,

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for which he won the Best Actor Oscar in 1957.

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And, two years after that, he was knighted

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and became Sir Alec Guinness.

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It was quite a rise.

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And we join him here, in 1973, talking to Tony Bilbow,

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on the Film Extra programme, about how it all started.

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I wonder if we could go right back, Sir Alec, to your childhood.

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Your parents weren't actors. What did your father do?

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Well, my father, I never knew.

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I mean, he was out of my life when I was a baby.

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But he was a bank manager.

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No connection with the theatre at all.

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And I really lived on my own

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since I was about 14 or something like that, on and off.

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So, at what point did you realise that you had to be an actor?

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I don't know. I mean, hindsight is very clever.

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I consciously knew I wanted to be an actor

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by the time I was 16, that's for sure.

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If I look back now, I think I always was an actor

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from the age of five or six or something.

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I was always in dormitories at school telling stories.

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They'd all fallen fast asleep but I went on telling, you know,

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night-time stories and acting them out madly in my bed in the dark.

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You had no idea why?

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I suppose... I think it's a great mistake to...

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I would never go to a psychoanalyst to sort this out for me.

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I don't want to know why.

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I guess, kind of lonelinesses, and insecurity,

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and insecurity of personality and character,

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and therefore latching on to make-believe, and pretending.

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For me, acting is just "let's pretend". It still is.

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You have to apply, or you learn certain skills,

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and then they become too much and you have to try and abandon them.

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But it is "let's pretend",

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and I think anything that goes much beyond that

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becomes pretentious rubbish.

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I don't want them to delve into pop psychology

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but are you, as a generality, happier when you are acting

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than doing anything else?

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I'm happier when I'm rehearsing,

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because then all antennae are out, particularly in the theatre,

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because the rehearsal period then lasts a month, roughly.

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Film rehearsals, of course, are inclined to be

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very off-the-cuff and swift.

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But, even then, it seems to me I am at my most alive,

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both in trying to find a character, in the general situation,

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what the whole thing is about,

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and an alertness as to where one is, and what one's doing.

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Once the acting job has started,

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it's, I suppose in a way, like an office job.

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There's one of the periods in your life

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when I imagine you didn't feel particularly alive

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-was when you left school and went into an advertising agency.

-Oh, yes.

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-You were a copywriter, weren't you?

-I was a copywriter,

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then they took me off that, very kindly, and made me a layout man.

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I was disastrous at that. They put me back to copywriting.

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-What did you have to write?

-I wrote...

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boring little ads for Rose's lime juice, one time.

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Wilkinson's razor blades.

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Philips lamps.

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Mullard radio...

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Everything about which I knew nothing.

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Did you come up with any original slogans?

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Oh, no, me? No. For heaven's sake, no, no.

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I was in offices when original slogans came up.

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I had made very good friends, they were sweet to me there...

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But I earned a pound a week, 30 bob a week by the time I left.

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-Were you worth it?

-No! I cost them a lot of money!

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The Daily Mail appeared one morning with a vast, empty space

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which is where my ad should have been!

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What happened then? You decided advertising was not for you?

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I was always wanting to be an actor, it was a question of how.

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I didn't know any actors, I didn't know how one started.

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And, while I was at the advertising agency,

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I got on to Martita Hunt who became a very great friend of mine,

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because I thought I would try and get into the Royal Academy.

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And I had no money.

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And so this meant trying to get a scholarship.

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And so I went to her for hour lessons on my voice,

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and this, that and the other.

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I don't think she taught me a thing about anything there

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but she taught me a lot about life.

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I mean, she formed my taste in many ways, which was far more valuable.

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And when I arrived at the appointed time at the Royal Academy,

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I was met by a lady who said,

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"What a good thing you haven't come down from Scotland,

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"we're not giving any more scholarships this year."

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So I was left with egg on my face, to a degree, and near tears.

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And I ran into a girl whom I used to know as a child,

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within minutes, and wept on her shoulder.

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And she said, "You'd better run down Baker Street

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"to the Fay Compton studio where they are holding auditions this minute."

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And I dashed there, and I was just in time and I got the scholarship.

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You eventually joined John Gielgud's company.

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And then you joined the Old Vic in 1936.

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But your film career really started in 1946

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with Great Expectations, didn't it?

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That's right, yes.

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The first film I'd done, apart from appearing for one day

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when I was a student, walking on...an extra, in Evensong.

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And I swore I would never, ever do that again.

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The way they were treated... Oh!

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-What do you mean, the extras?

-Yes. And I thought, no, that's not for me.

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And I thought, I will never go into films until,

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if I'm going to be offered something in films,

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it must be something I've already played in the theatre.

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And it so happened that I'd done a stage adaptation

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of Great Expectations in which I'd also appeared.

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-It was Herbert Pocket, wasn't it?

-That's right, yes.

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And David Lean and Ronald Neame had seen that and remembered it.

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And then they decided to do the film and they also remembered me

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and, as the war was coming to its close, they...

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Well, it had finished, actually, they contacted me.

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And that was the start of working in films.

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But, even with that success, it's odd, it seems to me,

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that you managed to land the part of Fagin in Oliver Twist,

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because, after all, you were still quite young

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and, in theory, for you to play Fagin was ridiculous.

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That's the only time I've ever gone out after a part.

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I absolutely was determined to play that.

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And David Lean was wonderful. I mean, he listened.

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My thing to him was, at the time,

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when I heard they were going to do Oliver Twist,

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"You'd never think of casting me as Fagin."

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And he said, "Not in a thousand years."

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And I said, "That's where you are wrong.

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"Because you people in films are only interested in types,

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"you're not interested in anyone actually trying to act."

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And I think he was a bit startled, and didn't agree.

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And he said, "Well, I'll give you a test." So, a test was arranged.

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And I got it.

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Mind you, your interpretation of the part

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caused a little trouble, I think, in America.

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They were a bit touchy about it, weren't they?

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Yes, the Russians were touchy about it in central Europe,

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because they were determined that it should be called anti-Semitic.

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The word "Jew" was never mentioned in it,

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because there was no question of it being anti-Semitic.

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As indeed Dickens was accused of being anti-Semitic, which he hadn't,

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and then he went and wrote another novel to make a sympathetic...

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I mean, I maintain that the character could have been a Jew, Arab or nothing.

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In the '60s, your film output slowed down.

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You did a lot of stage work,

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Ross, Exit The King, Macbeth, Dylan on Broadway.

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Do you think of yourself, first and foremost, as a man of the theatre?

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I think of myself as an actor, yes, I'm sure.

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But I started in the theatre. My early years were the theatre.

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And, funnily enough, I've nearly always,

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with the exception I think of one year

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when I did maybe two or two-and-a-half films in,

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I have always managed to do something in the theatre,

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because it's very good, I find, to tackle

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or come face-to-face with a live audience.

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And I also wanted to keep my...

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Many actors who go into films have been in the stage,

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and the long years go by,

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and then they get a chance to go into theatre again

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and they become petrified at facing an audience

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and shy away from it and get very frightened.

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And I was determined that that shouldn't happen to me.

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And, on the whole, I am happier in the theatre,

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not from any other reason than in the theatre you are your own boss.

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If something has to be cut, a scene has to go off,

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your lines or a speech or something,

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then you can mould your performance around that gap.

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Or if something extra goes in, whatever the case may be.

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Whereas, acting for the films, which has its other delights,

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if something goes, you cannot adjust your performance

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if it's snipped at the end.

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I've seen performances of myself on the screen

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in which the end has been put at the beginning, and vice versa.

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And, if I knew that had been going to happen,

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I would have performed differently throughout.

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And so I feel I'm not my own boss when filming,

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whereas I am in the theatre.

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Four years later, Guinness's latest film had, to his surprise,

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just become one of the biggest box office hits of all time - Star Wars.

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It meant an appearance on Parkinson

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where the conversation opened with an examination

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of his whole approach to the art of acting.

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How would you go about, it's a thing that always fascinates me

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when I talk to actors, particularly great actors,

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about how you build a part, about what comes first

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in building up a character, this sort of thing.

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I always find, too, by the way,

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that actors don't like being asked this question very much.

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And I can tell by your face that you're not savouring it either.

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No... Well, I don't know.

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I don't know how one...

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Obviously one's imagination

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and what the author has presented one on a script are vitally important.

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If I get stuck... Actually, that Lavender Hill Mob part,

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we've just seen that, I based on two things.

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I went to the zoo and in the rodent house, in the small rodents,

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I saw some little, round-eyed, nervousy little character,

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rather sort of fluffy.

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And I thought, maybe that's... Maybe something on those lines.

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And then I realised that a bank clerk at my bank looked very much like it.

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LAUGHTER

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So I settled on the bank clerk's voice.

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Two clips, both with no Rs, I'm playing in, with Fagan and that.

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So that was very much a bit of observation, and tilted up, no end.

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But, when I have got stuck, I have very often gone to the zoo

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-and see if some animal would give me some clue.

-Really? Why the zoo?

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Well, the only place where you can find strange animals around!

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RIPPLE OF LAUGHTER

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When I did Richard III in Canada, I'd spent a lot of time,

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I searched around, I thought, an eagle, maybe?

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And, no, I'm not really a kind of an eagle type.

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And then I found a creature called the unsociable vulture.

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LAUGHTER

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I used to visit it, oh, every two or three days,

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it got to know me, he was very kind of full of...

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RIPPLE OF LAUGHTER

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Quite a sociable chap, actually!

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LAUGHTER

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What were you getting from the unsociable vulture, Sir Alec,

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that you could possibly use on stage?

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Oh, some, I don't know what, some, something little,

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a little something at the back of my mind,

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or indeed maybe a walk or a mannerism or something like that.

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I mean, could you demonstrate, say,

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a notion you had once had with a bird or something,

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to show me exactly what you mean?

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Well, I think I first got the idea

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that animals might be helpful in my possession before the war

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in the Cairo Zoo - I was on tour playing Hamlet.

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And there was a bird there called a shoebill.

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-Is it all right if I stand up?

-Sure.

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Because I don't think I can do this any more.

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It stands about that high, and it's grey, very soberly pale grey.

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And it doesn't like being watched, that appealed to me no end.

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It likes to watch other people.

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And it has a very, very big beak,

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rather like a shape of some enormous shoe, great, big, grey thing there

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and a little eye up there.

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And I first spotted it,

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it was standing on one foot with a kind of little tail out.

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I can barely stand up like that...

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And kind of eyeing one.

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And I noticed that whenever I turned away, it moved.

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But it would never move while I was watching it.

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You have to sort of pretend,

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every time I say, "now", you have to turn away and look back.

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So, he was standing looking at me, one would say, "now",

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you turn away. You turn back, and one leg would be...

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LAUGHTER

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One would say, "now".

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LAUGHTER

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And, "now". He'd turn the other way.

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LAUGHTER

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APPLAUSE

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So, how did you use that in the part of Hamlet?

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Oh, I didn't play Hamlet like that!

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I did have a disastrous Hamlet later on,

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but it wasn't through doing a bird!

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It gave me the idea that maybe I would get some sort of amusing

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kind of movement or something from it. I'm very devoted to animals.

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-You are?

-Yes, indeed. I love watching them. In Ceylon later...

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-May I tell a little animal story?

-Please, do. Please, do.

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I loved the elephants one saw around.

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And one afternoon, I went down to watch a lot of elephants working,

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pushing great tree trunks down into the river,

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which was a very fast river.

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And all the elephants except one,

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rolled these big trees down into the river

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with that part of their nose.

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Kind of pushing and rolling very successfully,

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very skilfully and very soberly.

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They'd push, and the tree would get into the water

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and, gradually, get shifted away by the current.

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But there was one enormous rogue elephant there,

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with a chain around his tummy

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which meant that he'd probably killed someone.

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He was a very wise, huge, old fellow.

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Um...

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He had great big, floppy ears going round.

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And, he didn't do this at all.

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He pushed it as if it was a pencil.

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He kind of got his nose and pushed it the difficult way towards the water.

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And I thought, "Why?" Then one or people said, "Watch that elephant."

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And some of the film crew were going, "Oh, silly old so-and-so.

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"Why doesn't he just roll it like the others so it goes down?"

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And it was as if he heard them. Because he, um...

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He was very, very slow in all his movements,

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the way he kind of came and pushed this huge tree.

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And the little eye took us all in.

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And he thinks, "You think I'm a fool, don't you?"

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And he very, very slowly,

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moved, left it,

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moved round and as he just got back,

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he gave us all a tiny, wicked look,

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and flipped it with his back foot into the river.

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APPLAUSE

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-What a lovely story!

-I adored the elephant.

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You were telling me earlier,

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that you had a parrot once that you tried to teach how to act?

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Oh, I didn't teach it how to act. It was a splendid actor!

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I tried to teach it a Hamlet soliloquy. We didn't get very far.

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He was a South African grey.

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I was very fond of him. He's dead now, alas, poor old thing.

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He's gone to a feathered world elsewhere, about four years ago.

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But he used to get as far as...

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Sorry, I didn't teach him the accent or the tone,

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I did it quite straight.

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But he finally used to say,

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"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I?

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"Is it not monstrous that this parrot - yah-yah-yah!"

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LAUGHTER

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-Was this a pet?

-Oh, yes, indeed, yes. Yes, indeed.

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What kind of pets do you keep?

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After my time in Ceylon, when I was doing Bridge On The River Kwai,

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I took to tropical birds for a bit, for a few years.

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I haven't got them now, because there were always tragedies

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when I was away and I couldn't bear it any more.

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At the moment, I've only got two dogs, and a cat and three goats.

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-Three goats?

-Yes.

-You mention watching and observing animals,

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And you've got the idea for a walk from an animal.

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In fact, you've been on record as saying

0:19:330:19:36

that you only get start getting into a part when you get a walk.

0:19:360:19:39

-Is that right?

-Yes, I think so.

0:19:390:19:41

I don't sort of feel happy

0:19:410:19:44

until I'm doing it from the ground upwards, so to speak.

0:19:440:19:49

This used to be very self-consciously done when I was a student.

0:19:500:19:55

It really came because I had no money to spend.

0:19:550:19:57

I could allow myself sixpence a week, and there was no entertainment.

0:19:570:20:01

I used to spend that sixpence a week on going to the gallery at the Old Vic.

0:20:010:20:04

The rest of the time was following people in the street.

0:20:040:20:08

You know? Surreptitiously, of course.

0:20:080:20:11

And, I used to follow people, and watch their walks.

0:20:110:20:14

And I felt I got to know something about them.

0:20:140:20:17

-And I used to imitate their walks behind them.

-Really?

0:20:170:20:20

And I began to feel, at least I know the mood that they're in

0:20:200:20:24

or what their ailments are, or whatever it might be.

0:20:240:20:28

And that kind of got rather stuck.

0:20:280:20:31

I don't do it now, I don't...

0:20:310:20:34

I very seldom nowadays,

0:20:340:20:37

out of laziness,

0:20:370:20:40

consciously observe what someone's doing.

0:20:400:20:45

I've lived on that store for many years,

0:20:450:20:47

I should store again, I suppose.

0:20:470:20:50

I suppose when you're in a part, you draw something from the back of your mind

0:20:500:20:53

that you observed some time ago, the way somebody moved or something?

0:20:530:20:56

I think it's got to become - for me, anyway -

0:20:560:21:00

it's got to become unconscious again.

0:21:000:21:02

There was a time when I used consciously think,

0:21:020:21:04

"I remember seeing that man do that."

0:21:040:21:07

As probably I did in The Lavender Hill Mob film.

0:21:070:21:10

But it's best if you've forgotten and comes up again

0:21:100:21:14

and you don't know where it's come from.

0:21:140:21:17

What about that famous walk in River Kwai, you mentioned the film,

0:21:170:21:19

when you'd been put in that awful isolation thing,

0:21:190:21:22

You had that extraordinary staggering, lurching walk

0:21:220:21:25

across the parade ground when they let you go.

0:21:250:21:27

-Where did that come from?

-Well, that's a very personal one.

0:21:270:21:32

But it's true, because it shows the very funny process

0:21:320:21:36

that goes on with an actor, maybe.

0:21:360:21:39

My son had polio when he was about 12

0:21:390:21:41

and was paralysed from the waist down.

0:21:410:21:43

He's fine now, he plays rugger

0:21:430:21:47

and rushes around and does whatever he wants.

0:21:470:21:51

But when he was recovering...

0:21:510:21:53

Um, walking again a bit,

0:21:530:21:56

it was obviously a very stiff, strange walk.

0:21:560:21:59

And I had a little cine-camera,

0:21:590:22:02

and I remember when he was first walking, taking shots of this.

0:22:020:22:05

And then when one saw on the screen,

0:22:050:22:07

my wife and I persuaded ourselves that he was fine,

0:22:070:22:11

he was walking fine. But, obviously, deep down inside, one thought,

0:22:110:22:14

"Oh, God, he's going to limp for life," or something of that nature.

0:22:140:22:18

And, years later, when it came to doing that scene on The River Kwai,

0:22:190:22:26

I found myself doing the identical walk

0:22:260:22:30

that I had on that little cine-camera from five, six years previously.

0:22:300:22:37

I'd entirely forgotten. I didn't know I was doing it.

0:22:370:22:39

It was only when I saw myself on the screen, I thought,

0:22:390:22:43

"Where on Earth did that curious,

0:22:430:22:46

"slightly lurchy, bent walk come from?"

0:22:460:22:48

-It was the same as I have on the cine-camera.

-Quite extraordinary.

0:22:480:22:52

What about the great film stars that you've met

0:22:520:22:54

in your long career in the movies?

0:22:540:22:55

Who were the ones that you remember most vividly?

0:22:550:22:59

That's difficult, "most vividly", they've all been fairly vivid!

0:22:590:23:04

HE CHUCKLES

0:23:040:23:07

One's met a great number.

0:23:070:23:10

When I first went to Hollywood...

0:23:100:23:14

An unlikely story, but true.

0:23:160:23:19

There was a party at the... whatever the hotel was...

0:23:190:23:23

It was the Beverly Hills Hotel, I think. Enormous party.

0:23:230:23:28

I hadn't been asked, and it was being given by John Wayne.

0:23:280:23:31

And he suddenly heard that I was in the hotel and very kindly,

0:23:310:23:36

about midnight phoned up and said,

0:23:360:23:38

"Come on down, put on a black tie and come on down."

0:23:380:23:42

So, I was thrilled and went down to this great gathering.

0:23:420:23:45

And it was the first time I met Betty Bacall who I was very chummy with,

0:23:450:23:50

and I was talking to her and she was ravishing and marvellous,

0:23:500:23:56

when a well-known Hollywood agent came up and dragged her and said,

0:23:560:24:00

"You mustn't be seen talkin' to that limey, come on."

0:24:000:24:04

And I was so furious,

0:24:040:24:06

I've only clocked anyone ever in my life and I clocked him.

0:24:060:24:09

LAUGHTER

0:24:090:24:12

And I flew out in a rage.

0:24:120:24:15

Back up, ripped off my black tie,

0:24:150:24:17

back into bed, and you know, crossly done.

0:24:170:24:21

Ashamed of myself, but also very angry with this chap,

0:24:210:24:25

and the phone went again, and it was John Wayne again saying,

0:24:250:24:29

"Come on down again, you got to make it up."

0:24:290:24:31

So, down I went,

0:24:330:24:36

on with the black tie again,

0:24:360:24:38

and thought, "I'll behave very well."

0:24:380:24:41

And by then, it had become something of a scandal

0:24:410:24:44

and a lot of people had gathered around.

0:24:440:24:46

And he said, "I want you to shake hands with this man."

0:24:460:24:49

He's dead now.

0:24:490:24:50

HE CHUCKLES

0:24:500:24:51

Not through my blow!

0:24:510:24:53

LAUGHTER

0:24:530:24:55

And so we solemnly shook hands again,

0:24:550:24:59

rather coldly, but solemnly.

0:24:590:25:02

And there was a lot of applause for that whereupon I clocked him again!

0:25:020:25:06

LAUGHTER

0:25:060:25:11

So, while shaking hands, you pulled him...?

0:25:110:25:14

It was something he said again,

0:25:140:25:16

I don't know what it was, but it drove me mad.

0:25:160:25:18

HE CHUCKLES

0:25:180:25:21

But John Wayne was marvellous about it. He was very comforting.

0:25:210:25:24

From someone, I got a huge box of cigars the next day, I don't know who it was.

0:25:240:25:28

Probably everybody in the room had been wanting to do what you did!

0:25:280:25:31

I think that was what was behind it.

0:25:310:25:34

You also met Dean, didn't you? James Dean.

0:25:340:25:36

My very first night in Hollywood, I met James Dean.

0:25:360:25:39

It was a very, very odd occurrence.

0:25:390:25:42

I'd arrived off the plane, they took a long time in those days,

0:25:430:25:47

about 16 hours' flight.

0:25:470:25:49

And, um... I'd been met by Grace Kelly, and various people,

0:25:520:25:55

but I found that I was alone for myself for the evening.

0:25:550:25:58

A woman I knew phoned up and said, "Let me take you out to dinner,"

0:25:580:26:05

And we went to various places and she was wearing trousers

0:26:050:26:10

and they wouldn't let her in any of the smart Hollywood restaurants.

0:26:100:26:14

That was in 1952, '54, something like that.

0:26:140:26:19

However, we finally went to a little Italian dive

0:26:190:26:22

and that was full, so one got turned away.

0:26:220:26:25

I said, "I honestly don't mind just a hamburger anyway."

0:26:250:26:28

I was hungry by then.

0:26:280:26:29

Then I heard feet running down the street and it was James Dean.

0:26:290:26:34

He said, "I was in that restaurant and you couldn't get a table.

0:26:340:26:38

"My name's James Dean." He said, "Will you come and join me?"

0:26:380:26:42

So, we said, yes, very kind of him.

0:26:420:26:45

Then, going back into the restaurant, he said, "Before we go in,

0:26:450:26:48

"I must show you something. I've just got a new car."

0:26:480:26:53

And, there the courtyard of this little restaurant was a...

0:26:530:26:58

I don't know what the car was, some little silver, very smart thing,

0:26:580:27:02

all done up in cellophane with a bunch of roses tied to its bonnet.

0:27:020:27:06

And I said, "How fast can you drive in this?"

0:27:080:27:12

And he said, "I can do 150 in it." And I said, "Have you driven it?"

0:27:120:27:16

He said, "No, I've never been in it at all."

0:27:160:27:19

And some strange thing came over me, some almost different voice,

0:27:190:27:23

and I said, "I won't join your table unless you want me to,

0:27:230:27:27

"but I must say something.

0:27:270:27:29

"Please, do not get into that car, because if you do..."

0:27:290:27:33

And I looked at my watch. I said, "If you get into that car at all,

0:27:330:27:37

"it's now Thursday," whatever the date was, ten o'clock at night.

0:27:370:27:43

"And by ten o'clock at night, next Thursday, you'll be dead,

0:27:430:27:46

"if you get into that car." It was nonsense.

0:27:460:27:50

So, one had dinner, we had a charming dinner.

0:27:500:27:53

And he was dead the following Thursday afternoon, in that car.

0:27:530:27:57

-Extraordinary.

-It was one of those odd things.

0:27:590:28:02

-Has that ever happened to you before?

-No, I'm glad to say.

0:28:020:28:06

It was a very, very odd, spooky experience.

0:28:060:28:10

I liked him very much, I would love to have known him more.

0:28:100:28:14

Let's talk about the latest aspect of your career?

0:28:140:28:18

Which is quite extraordinary.

0:28:180:28:20

All these years in movies, and all of a sudden, you've hit the jackpot

0:28:200:28:24

with a thing called Star Wars which I saw last week.

0:28:240:28:28

I think it's super, it's marvellous escapism. It'll clean up.

0:28:280:28:32

How did you come to be involved with a piece of science fiction like that?

0:28:320:28:37

It arrived as a script.

0:28:370:28:39

I was just finishing a picture in Hollywood with another day to go.

0:28:390:28:43

The script arrived on my dressing table,

0:28:430:28:46

and I heard that it had been delivered by George Lucas.

0:28:460:28:50

And I thought, "That's rather impressive."

0:28:500:28:52

Because he's an up-and-coming, very respected young director.

0:28:520:28:57

And then when I opened it and found a science fiction,

0:28:580:29:01

I thought, "Oh, crumbs! This is simply not for me."

0:29:010:29:03

And then, I started reading it.

0:29:050:29:07

It seemed to me the dialogue was pretty ropey,

0:29:070:29:10

but I had to go on turning the page.

0:29:100:29:13

That's an essential in any script.

0:29:130:29:15

You've got to know what happens next, or what's going to be said next.

0:29:150:29:20

And I went on reading and I thought, "No, I like this.

0:29:200:29:25

"If only we can get some of the dialogue altered."

0:29:250:29:28

And then I met him, we got on very well,

0:29:280:29:31

and I found myself doing it, that's all.

0:29:310:29:34

-It's made more money than any other movie ever made.

-So I'm told. Yes.

0:29:340:29:37

And you got yourself part of the action? 2.5%, isn't it?

0:29:370:29:40

-No, no, not quite that.

-What is it?

0:29:400:29:44

LAUGHTER

0:29:440:29:46

Sir Alec, how much is it?

0:29:460:29:48

Well, you want that story?

0:29:480:29:50

I tried to keep this dark, I don't know where this all sprang from!

0:29:500:29:54

I think it was the Evening Standard to blame for this.

0:29:540:29:57

I had a contract.

0:29:570:30:00

My agent said, "I've asked for 2% of whatever..."

0:30:000:30:02

because we didn't think it would make any... I've never had...

0:30:020:30:06

I've had a percentage on a film before,

0:30:060:30:08

and they lose money like mad if I have a percentage.

0:30:080:30:11

I said, "Oh, fine. All right, 2%."

0:30:110:30:14

And the day before the film opened in San Francisco,

0:30:150:30:19

George Lucas phoned me and said...

0:30:190:30:22

He's like Alan Bennett, he's very diffident and very shy and quiet,

0:30:240:30:29

and he has a funny little voice.

0:30:290:30:32

And he said, "I think the movie is kind of going to be all right."

0:30:320:30:36

I said, "I'm glad, George." He said, "The press quite like it."

0:30:360:30:41

I said, "Good." He said, "We're pleased with...

0:30:410:30:45

"We're very grateful for the little alterations you suggested,

0:30:450:30:48

"and so we'd like to offer you another half percent."

0:30:480:30:51

Thereby making it two and a half.

0:30:520:30:54

I said, "All right, that's marvellous. Thank you very much."

0:30:540:30:58

And a matter of a few weeks later, in fact, the day I saw the film,

0:30:580:31:02

I've just seen it the once.

0:31:020:31:03

The producer, who again is a charming, delightful chap, I said,

0:31:030:31:09

"About this little extra something you were kindly offering,

0:31:090:31:13

"I wonder if we could have something in writing,

0:31:130:31:16

"just so that my agent and so on believes this.

0:31:160:31:20

And he said, "Oh, about the quarter percent, yes!"

0:31:200:31:23

LAUGHTER

0:31:230:31:26

No fool they!

0:31:270:31:29

So it's 2.25%.

0:31:290:31:32

All right, let's then have a look at Star Wars. There's a clip here.

0:31:320:31:37

I couldn't begin to precis or lead up to this clip.

0:31:370:31:40

Don't ask me either!

0:31:400:31:42

If you don't know, nobody does.

0:31:420:31:44

But anyway, you play a sort of guru figure. Here you are.

0:31:440:31:47

I have something here for you.

0:31:490:31:51

R2-D2 CHIRPS

0:31:510:31:53

Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough.

0:31:530:31:56

But your uncle wouldn't allow it.

0:31:560:31:59

He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan

0:31:590:32:01

on some damn, fool idealistic crusade, like your father did.

0:32:010:32:05

Sir, if you'll not be needing me,

0:32:050:32:07

-I'll close down for a while.

-Sure, go ahead.

0:32:070:32:09

-What is it?

-Your father's lightsaber.

0:32:120:32:15

This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight.

0:32:150:32:18

Not as clumsy or random as a blaster.

0:32:180:32:22

An elegant weapon...

0:32:220:32:24

for a more...civilised age.

0:32:240:32:27

For over 1,000 generations, the Jedi Knights

0:32:290:32:31

were the guardians of peace and justice of the Old Republic.

0:32:310:32:35

Before the dark times, before the Empire.

0:32:350:32:40

How did my father die?

0:32:430:32:45

A young Jedi named Darth Vader,

0:32:470:32:49

who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil,

0:32:490:32:52

helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights.

0:32:520:32:56

He betrayed and murdered your father.

0:32:570:33:01

Now, the Jedi are all but extinct.

0:33:010:33:04

Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force.

0:33:050:33:09

The Force?

0:33:090:33:10

The Force is what gives a Jedi his powers.

0:33:110:33:14

It's an energy field created by all living things.

0:33:140:33:17

It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.

0:33:170:33:21

R2-D2 CHIRPS

0:33:210:33:24

APPLAUSE

0:33:240:33:29

You said you saw the film. What's the fascination to you, do you think?

0:33:340:33:38

-I think a marvellous, healthy innocence.

-Yes.

0:33:380:33:41

Great pace, wonderful to look at,

0:33:430:33:45

full of guts. Nothing unpleasant.

0:33:450:33:48

I mean, people go, bang-bang, and people fall over and are dead.

0:33:480:33:52

But no horrors, no sleazy sex.

0:33:520:33:56

In fact, no sex at all, if it comes to that.

0:33:560:34:00

And a sort of wonderful freshness about it. Like a wonderful fresh air.

0:34:000:34:05

When I came out in the cinema into Tottenham Court Road, I thought,

0:34:050:34:09

"Oh, God, London is sort of gritty and dirty and full of rubbish."

0:34:090:34:14

-This had all been so invigorating.

-That's absolutely right, actually.

0:34:140:34:17

It's one of the films I've come out of recently

0:34:170:34:19

where I've felt happy and uplifted when I came out. I enjoyed myself.

0:34:190:34:22

That's all. People are going to read too much into it.

0:34:220:34:25

It's simple stuff for all ages. It's great fun.

0:34:250:34:28

-Are they doing that now with you?

-Doing what?

0:34:280:34:30

Reading more into it? The guru figure you portray.

0:34:300:34:33

I get pretty strange letters, I don't mind telling you!

0:34:330:34:35

-I can imagine, actually.

-Oh, no, surely.

0:34:350:34:38

"My wife and I have got problems,

0:34:380:34:40

"would you come over and live with us for a few months?"

0:34:400:34:43

LAUGHTER

0:34:430:34:47

Yes, you could have yourself a fine time!

0:34:470:34:49

LAUGHTER

0:34:490:34:52

The success of Star Wars meant Guinness never had to work again.

0:34:520:34:57

And he grew increasingly selective about the roles he accepted.

0:34:570:35:01

He won huge praise for his portrayal of George Smiley

0:35:010:35:05

in the BBC series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People.

0:35:050:35:12

He also started writing

0:35:120:35:13

what became an acclaimed series of autobiographies.

0:35:130:35:17

And then, in 1988,

0:35:170:35:19

he was nominated for an Oscar for another Dickens role.

0:35:190:35:22

A six-hour version of Little Dorrit

0:35:220:35:25

that he discussed in this interview with Barry Norman.

0:35:250:35:29

Sir Alec, were you in any way daunted,

0:35:290:35:32

when you were asked to play Dorrit,

0:35:320:35:34

to learn that the film was going to run for six hours?

0:35:340:35:38

I thought it was an absolutely astonishing, foolhardy job.

0:35:380:35:42

I'm not daunted from my own point of view, but I thought,

0:35:420:35:45

"How the heck are they going to do a film

0:35:450:35:49

"which is in two parts, for that amount of time?"

0:35:490:35:53

But they've brought it off.

0:35:530:35:54

What about the character of Dorrit that you play?

0:35:550:36:01

Presumably, you don't just take a part because it's offered to you.

0:36:010:36:04

There must be something there that attracted you to that role?

0:36:040:36:07

Well, flattered, first of all, to be asked to do it.

0:36:070:36:11

Then thought I'd better read the novel, which I've never done.

0:36:110:36:14

And there is a feckless, vain, silly, but kindly, man,

0:36:140:36:20

full of foolish schemes and a great folie de grandeur

0:36:200:36:26

when he comes out of prison.

0:36:260:36:28

I could see little shades of myself here and there in that, perhaps.

0:36:300:36:34

Anyway, I thought it was worth making a stab at.

0:36:350:36:39

What parts of yourself did you find in that list of adjectives,

0:36:390:36:43

none of which is terribly complimentary?

0:36:430:36:46

Um, oh...

0:36:460:36:48

Wrong decisions, stupidities,

0:36:500:36:53

sometimes thinking, "Things are going to turn out wonderfully well" when they're not.

0:36:530:36:58

Just not thinking things through.

0:36:580:37:00

See to my cuff, Amy, if you please?

0:37:010:37:04

How long you've been!

0:37:040:37:06

You're a good girl, you're a very good girl. My favourite child.

0:37:070:37:14

It's not very hot.

0:37:140:37:16

Were there any letters?

0:37:160:37:19

No, Father.

0:37:190:37:21

What am I to do if that letter doesn't come?

0:37:210:37:23

What am I to do? Fettered as I am!

0:37:230:37:26

Are you quite sure there were no letters?

0:37:260:37:28

Can't someone carry the hot water for you?

0:37:290:37:32

It's not heavy.

0:37:320:37:33

My daughter shouldn't be seen carrying hot water.

0:37:360:37:40

You watched that with a blank face.

0:37:430:37:46

Were you unimpressed or do you just not like seeing yourself on screen?

0:37:460:37:50

I don't like seeing myself on screen,

0:37:500:37:53

but I'm afraid under the blank face,

0:37:530:37:55

I had an admiration, not for myself, let me hasten to add, but for Dickens.

0:37:550:37:59

And the wonderful variety of thoughts you get through that.

0:38:010:38:06

The vanity, the petulance, the snobbism, the selfishness.

0:38:060:38:12

All there in every sentence.

0:38:120:38:17

Would it be true to say that the part, the film part,

0:38:170:38:20

that brought you first strongly to the public attention,

0:38:200:38:23

was again a Dickens? It was Oliver Twist in Fagin.

0:38:230:38:26

Now, I believe that you had fight very hard to get that role.

0:38:260:38:30

I don't know if I had to fight.

0:38:300:38:33

I approached David Lean, saying,

0:38:330:38:37

"I would love to play Fagin,"

0:38:370:38:40

and I was what, 34-35, something like that.

0:38:400:38:43

And he obviously thought it was a bit mad as an idea.

0:38:430:38:47

SLAMMING

0:38:500:38:52

Why are you awake?!

0:38:520:38:55

Speak up, boy, quick!

0:38:550:38:56

I couldn't sleep any longer, sir.

0:38:560:38:58

-What have you seen?!

-Nothing, sir.

0:38:580:39:00

You were not awake an hour ago.

0:39:000:39:03

-No, no, indeed, sir.

-Are you sure?

0:39:030:39:06

Yes, sir.

0:39:060:39:07

There, there, my dear.

0:39:090:39:11

I only tried to frighten you.

0:39:110:39:14

Did you see any of those pretty things, dear?

0:39:160:39:19

What you think of that one?

0:39:190:39:21

Howard Davies is splendid!

0:39:240:39:26

BOTH CHUCKLE

0:39:260:39:28

I don't know, it's a bit theatrical, isn't it?

0:39:280:39:31

After Kind Hearts And Coronets,

0:39:310:39:33

which came very soon after Oliver Twist,

0:39:330:39:36

you were given this name of "the man with 1,000 faces".

0:39:360:39:39

It took you a long time to live that down, didn't it?

0:39:390:39:42

That was a publicity stunt which has dogged me,

0:39:420:39:45

not all my life, but for so many years.

0:39:450:39:48

There is one further question I must ask you, Sir Alec.

0:39:480:39:51

You're wearing what looks like designer stubble, now,

0:39:510:39:55

I imagine you're not vying with Mickey Rourke for a part in a film. Could you explain?

0:39:550:39:59

No, this is kind of a week-old, or something like that.

0:39:590:40:03

It's got another couple of weeks to go before I go to Venezuela,

0:40:030:40:07

on location for Evelyn Waugh's A Handful Of Dust.

0:40:070:40:12

There's quite a nice tie-up, isn't there, between A Handful Of Dust

0:40:120:40:14

and the film we started discussing this evening, Little Dorrit.

0:40:140:40:18

Yes, it's pure coincidence.

0:40:180:40:20

But the last line that I have to say,

0:40:200:40:24

it's in Evelyn Waugh's novel, in A Handful Of Dust,

0:40:240:40:29

is to the young man who's reading Dickens to me,

0:40:290:40:33

I say, "Let us read Little Dorrit again."

0:40:330:40:36

Lovely from my point of you.

0:40:370:40:39

The following year, Guinness received a fellowship from BAFTA.

0:40:410:40:44

He carried on working occasionally into the 1990s

0:40:440:40:49

and died in West Sussex in the year 2000, aged 86.

0:40:490:40:51

The obituaries called him,

0:40:560:40:57

"The most versatile actor of the 20th century,"

0:40:570:41:01

and quoted his response when he was asked,

0:41:010:41:03

what would he be doing if he hadn't become an actor? His answer?

0:41:030:41:07

"I don't know what else I could do, but pretend to be an actor."

0:41:070:41:12

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:41:210:41:24

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