On the 28th July Woody sat down with Rachel Hawkes and Kate Hunter who play our Othello and Desdemona respectively.This second part of the interview looks at how they approach their acting and how they made their characters’ relationship seem real. Director SJ Brady and pillar of By Jove James Walker-Black were also present and occasionally chimed in with something interesting. You can read the first part of the interview here.
You can buy tickets to see Othello here.
[Note: The following transcript has been tidied up slightly. I thought it better to leave out the the barely articulate rambles I make when my brain is getting into gear. You’re here for the interesting things the actors had to say, not for the under-the-breath meta-conversations I have with myself while thinking.]
Woody: Let’s talk a bit on work as actors. It interests me and I’m the one writing it so it will interest the audience ’cause I say so. First off: working with By Jove – good thing?
Rachel & Kate: Yeah.
Woody: Good. Passed that test.
Rachel: Can you imagine? “Ummm … Maybe?” [Laughter]
Woody: let’s have a little discussion on the rehearsal process; how you approach the work. How method do you go? Or do you just finish your drink in the bar, put on your costume and you’re there?
Kate: Yeah, definitely. [Laughter] No, not at all!
SJ: She wishes!
[Laughter]
Kate: Okay, well let’s go back to Shakespeare. People have a lot of opinions about people updating Shakespeare, and I’m an absolute massive Shakespeare fanatic, I love Shakespeare. I get very nervous about people updating Shakespeare because, well, people go “He doesn’t need updating, he’s one of the most human writers ever, and that is why he’s still done”. BUT SJ has done it and blended the heightened modern and the original language together really seamlessly. Her love of Shakespeare and Othello, you can’t deny that. What it is, as an actor working so closely with her, is she’s so interested in and impassioned by human relationships and that’s where a lot of the focus as actors, a production and the company has been. And because we’ve changed the sexes and the gender that’s been really important to focus on that humanity. They’re not character. They’re real people. I would not say I’m a method actor, I don’t have a particular method. It’s a mixture of loads of things. I do though, need to know exactly where I am, need to get the fine details of everything.
Rachel: I would say I’m probably method than not-methd. I think I try to live think and breathe as the person to prepare for it. I can’t say that in rehearsal I’m just “Oh, Okay Now I’m Rachel, okay now I’m Othello.” I’m thinking about it as I wake up, about how she would do things. Even if I’m not actively rehearsing I’m thinking about how she would do it.Otherwise I couldn’t get into it as quickly.
Kate: It takes time, though.
Rachel: Oh yeah, but once you get to know a character, they hold a specail place in your heart.
Kate: That’s what they say. It’s not to say that they are you or they’re part of you or anything like that, but they seep in. It’s really beautiful. You learn a lot from the characters you meet along the way. I’ve learned a lot from Desdemona, but at the same time I’m still Kate so Desdemona’s obviously influenced by Kate. I don’t suddenly learn this brand new thing, nbut I might develop a new twitch or a new habit for Desdemona.
Rachel: This is my first proper Shakespeare production and what I’ve learned is about emptying myself and leaving myself open to feeling her, rather than mixing the two. I ty to be as empty for her as possible, so she’s more natural. SJ’s talked before: she’s so nuts – not Sj [Laughter] – Othello’s so nuts I’ve got to leave her at the door otherwise I’ might start murdering people in a bath. … Or we do that?
Woody: Is it hard to leave Othello at the door?
Rachel: yes. We had a run yesterday of the second act. I got really exhausted.
Kate: She was like a diva on the tube.
Rachel: I was. I was ” This is so hard, you have no idea how hard it is to be me!”
SJ: She had her sunglasses on on the tube.
Rachel: I was like this (passes out dramatically) because I was trying to sleep and the lights! Ugh! I had to have a glass of wine.
Woody: Good.
Rachel: Good!
Woody: Yes, Dionysus is the god of wine and theatre, he’d be pleased. Get [By Jove Co-Artistic Director Mr] David [Bullen] to tell about Dionysus. But you can leave her behind with a little help.
Rachel: Yes.
Woody: Good. That’s about what I came looking for. Unless, is there anything you’ve been sitting thinking “I wonder when he’s going to ask me about this” that I’ve forgotten?
Rachel: I thought you’d ask us personal things, about us.
SJ: What about playing a gay couple as straight people?
Woody: Yes. um. An idea occurs; what about playing a gay couple as straight people?
Rachel: I think I just trying to get into her. She’s gay I’m not. That’s how I see it.
Woody: Simple, yeah.
SJ: Though I think it’s safe to say at the beginning you both struggled building the relationship.
Kate: I know that if Othello were a man he’d probably be taller than me and that if I hugged him I’d put my arms around his waist and he’d put his arms around my shoulders. If Othello were a man it would be “right, fine I know how to make this looks right to an audience”. It’s … I’m straight and I can talk to people abut watch things but …
Woody: There’s the simple fact you’ve never put your arm around your girlfriend.
Kate: Yeah, it’s just physically different.
SJ: It’s putting your arm around a partner is different from around a friend.
Kate: Yeah, couples have their own language, their own physicality. Rachel and I have been getting to know each other since April, so it’s Othello/Rachel that I/Desdemona have fallen in love with, not the fact she’s a woman. Not to say she’s now genderless. I can’t just “become a lesbian” for the role, but I can lead Desdemona towards falling in love with Rachel’s Othello.
[Something apparently went wrong with my tech here and the recording gets a bit indecipherable. Sorry about that. If memory serves, it was mainly just everyone saying what a great bloke I am while I saddled up my Pegasus for the journey home.]
One hopes you’re well,
yrs,
ADWoodward
