Oh, come off it, I've only directed three plays for the RSC.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Fifteen years ago I walked out of a production of one of my plays at the RSC because I decided it was a waste of time.
I don't direct the plays of others.
You can't take a play someone has directed and do whatever you want with it.
One fine day I discovered that more complex plays really have to be directed.
You really get to direct the movie three times when it comes to the action sequences and the set pieces.
My first time I directed a play was 'No Exit,' a play set in a subway.
Commissions suit me. They set limits. Jean Marais dared me to write play in which he would not speak in the first act, would weep for joy in the second and in the last would fall backward down a flight of stairs.
I'm not being offered a constant stream of wonderful parts with wonderful directors that would keep me away from the theatre. When they turn up, I do them.
When I staged the play and narrated my story to the audience, people found it amazing that after facing so many hardships, I have gone on to do 482 films.
Most of my career has been spent with the RSC doing Shakespeare, and the thing you learn from Shakespeare is that his historical plays don't bear anything other than a basic resemblance to history.