Shakespeare's frequent horseback journeys from London to Stratford, and from Stratford to London, must have made him familiar with the county of Oxfordshire.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I've done a lot of Shakespeare onstage, and I'm not convinced that the Earl of Oxford was the author of all those works, but I am convinced that the Stratfordian William Shakespeare was not. My feeling is that it was an amalgamation of many writers, in the same way that most films are a collaborative endeavor.
In fact I'd like to go back and live in Shakespeare's London.
And it is a very beautiful idea, and possibly true, that a common man from Stratford with a common education was able to write these plays.
Shakespeare is where I live. I adore him.
James Agate, a great critic of the day, advised me that the way to learn your job properly was to learn Shakespeare, so I went to Stratford. It really sorts out the men from the boys.
Shakespeare's language does not require a British accent. It requires a facility with language, and that's all.
The English people, a lot of them, would not be able to understand a word of spoken Shakespeare. There are people who do and I'm not denying they exist. But it's a far more philistine country than people think.
I did do some Shakespeare on film, it's really difficult. It's really interesting, because I was doing a series in Canada called 'Slings and Arrows' and it was about a company based around the Stratford Festival.
I had been in a Shakespeare company for three years and done a lot of Shakespeare. That was fun. That was interesting.
Shakespeare fascinated me. He hardly ever left the country. His imagination was worldwide though reading.