If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When you're playing King Lear, you have to have a little humour, or you will have no tragedy when the king dies.
King Lear alone among these plays has a distinct double action. Besides this, it is impossible, I think, from the point of view of construction, to regard the hero as the leading figure.
As an actor you're used to being the focus of attention.
I don't really want to be the centre of attention.
I was born with a need to be the center of attention, and, of course, you're the center of the world when you're acting.
In no way do I want to draw attention to myself.
I've never been that guy who says, 'Ooh, I have to play King Lear'. First off, that'd be a disaster anyway. I tend to read something and see who's involved, and then know I want to be part of it. But I don't think I'm through with comedy. I still love to make people laugh.
'King Lear,' I've been seeing all my life. I mean, the great actors of my lifetime... to join their company, as it were, by playing a part that's challenged them, is one of the great joys of being an actor who does the classics.
There isn't a King Lear for women, or a Henry V, or a Richard III. You reach a level where you can handle that stuff technically and mentally, and it's not there.
I have no desire to play King Lear or Hamlet. I never had a grand ambition. I just followed my nose.