whishawnews:

You’ve revisited some shows several times. Is it because you have new ideas about them?

I directed Hamlet in 1970, and then in 2004 I went back to it to recapture things I had done as a teenager. That first time, I assumed Hamlet was a university student; it says so on every page. But when I came to do it professionally everybody assumes you ignore those things and that it’s fine to have a 40-year-old actor playing Hamlet because his career has reached his pinnacle. [Nunn’s leading man, Alan Howard, was actually 33 in 1970.] It’s a strange theatre tradition built on the idea that you need a great tragedian to play Hamlet and therefore you see Gertrude near her 60th birthday and the ghost with a big white beard. All of that is nonsensical.

The moment that you say Hamlet is a university student, then Gertrude is 39, Claudius is 42 and Hamlet’s dad was 44 and died inexplicably in his prime. Hamlet discovers this affair while still believing he was part of an incredibly happy family. It derails and deranges him. In 2004, I did it with a boy called Ben Whishaw, who was just 23 and had only recently finished drama school. It was extraordinary.

— Trevor Nunn interview, American Theatre, 2 February 2016

fee95:

hugetinymistakes:

Ben Whishaw [x]

My sweet chick :33 ♡

nothingsweeterthanben:

Ben Whishaw doing a Criminal Justice promo interview for BBC Breakfast.

And being adorable, as usual.

(But I couldn’t help thinking that studio may have been a wee bit cold for such a delicate creature, seeing as how he kept rubbing his nose.)

whishawnews:

Tom Rob Smith, creator, and, joined by Ben Whishaw (via satellite and projected on the screen) speak onstage during the London Spy panel as part of the BBC America portion of This is Cable 2016 Television Critics Association Winter Tour at Langham Hotel on January 8, 2016 in Pasadena, California. (Source: Frederick M. Brown)

fee95:

♡