Gavin Esler In Conversation with Dame Diana Rigg

hello and welcome to University of Kent thank you for joining us this evening in tonight's in conversation tonight set to be fantastic evening but it doesn't end there because you've got a ticket you're supporting students like me to the cancer opportunity funds I'm currently in the second year of my PhD and one of the scholars looking at the relationship between sleep and delirium and people over the age of 70 you're about to have a hip or knee replacement surgery without your support I'd not be here today so thank you I'd like to welcome to the stage the Chancellor the University Gavin Destler and his guest Dame Diana Rigg DBE hello good evening and I'm glad you've all managed to pass the test which was just to get here through the traffic which wasn't so good tonight welcome to the latest in our series of in conversation and our guest tonight is quite simply a woman for all seasons you may know we're from Game of Thrones or perhaps it's from the Avengers or as the wife of James Bond I think the only on-screen wife James Bond in on Her Majesty's Secret Service or for her many roles on TV and film please really welcome Diana Rigg well that went well dude um could we begin where you began in Doncaster yeah how did you go from Doncaster to Rada to the person at wiener I didn't spend long in Doncaster I was there because my my father's family came from there we then moved to Leeds and at school I went to a Moravian school just outside Leeds Moravian Czar of a Quaker mind and so it was a very very strict school but in the school was one teacher and awful lot of actors and actresses are inspired by a single teacher they the same story emerges all the time and this woman was called Sylvia Greenwood and she introduced me to poetry and to the magic of words and and um gave me the confidence to stand up and say a poem and you know and from then she suggested that I write to Radha for an audition which is what I did and I got into Rada my father couldn't afford the fees to Rada so then she wrote to the Leeds counselling in those days the council gave God miracle miracles they gave scholarships and I went to the town hall I remember walking through miles of flooring to a table at the far end with a lot of very serious old men who said what makes you think you could be an actress then and um I don't know I must have found the words because they found the money and thank God to them I mean making the leap to Rada is quite I mean it's very tough to get into you must have had some kind of spark as well as the inspiration from the teacher was there something that made you yes I'm a performer I can do no I never I never actually um I I never had a huge amount of ambition and I know this sounds ridiculous for somebody who's done what I've done I I never ever thought I gotta get there ever in fact I've got a friend whom I've known for 50 years I turned him once and said dead fact that I have I've been ambitious and he said no you always been grateful well I have I mean grateful for the joy of the profession that I found myself in and grateful for all the sort of jobs that happened along the way starting with rep in Star borough I think how important do you think is training to to the longevity of a career absolutely essential and and not just the training but the continuation you have to work on yourself all the time and I remember doing federal now federal was a great challenge because there were you have 85 speeches one after the other amazing and it demanded the most astonishing rest control and also it demanded a huge voice that you know that you had the range of your voice had to be huge and there were a couple now there were four lines in the part an old actress called Barbara Shefford was playing my maid she played Phaedra so there was the sort of tension onstage you know between us of course there was you know it always happens but one day I'd set myself the challenge of saying these four lines on one breath was that right at the end of a speech so really had to husband your breath and I'm set myself this challenge and we were on tour in Morvan I think it was and I achieved it and as we got offstage she turned to me and said well done she'd set herself the same challenge and that's what happens when people play the same part you you discover the same challenges you discover the same trough and and that's what the wonderful thing about the sharing that goes on in my profession were you prepared for the Thames which came with being mrs. peel no because it was extraordinary wasn't I I got and I know it sounds terrible to turn your back on on the gift of fame when it is a gift because suddenly or tell you're well-known all over the world but I find it such an intrusion and and to be just a sex symbol was I come from Yorkshire I tell a story along the way I was in I was playing Cordelia in King Lear Paul Scofield was doing Lear and we were playing in Paris the Paris Olympia I mean the took PE were there and we took our coat I was junior members I was right at the top of the building you know in a very scrubby dressing room I think people had sort of dried their hands on the curtains and anyway I remember at the curtain call this extraordinary golden creature about four four tears back from the stage and the stage light sort of reflected on her and she had this Oriole of golden hair she had a gold Lommy coat and and was it was the most beautiful thing you'd ever seen my eyes riveted on her curtain come came down we all went to our dressing rooms and we were bidden to the British ambassador's for a suave and I was um wondering how I was going to get there and I'd got why might one best dress not not very grand hanging in the corner there there was a knock on the door and I opened the door and there was this golden creature it was Marlena Dietrich and she said I've come to take you to the British Embassy I am promise you I'm not kidding I'm not making this up she said I will help you dress and so she unzipped my leather costume and I was standing there my brown pants she said your body is beautiful you don't need underwear how didn't bra no sir she sipped me into my dress and I went to the British ambassador's in her chauffeur-driven car I'm sort of like this all the time so I mean any person of that age nowadays wouldn't be like that you are looking at somebody who you know dates back a very very long way and things have changed so hugely but I suspect having that contact with Marlena Dietrich may have prepared you for being regarded as a sex symbol as mrs. peel not really no no no because it's very invasive and I didn't deal with my mail because I couldn't I didn't have enough time so I used to give it to my mother who used to write she used to write back to them and say my daughter's far too old for you me or things like you need a good run round the block or a cold shower now I read this could be not true I don't know but I read that you were paid considerably less than Patrick McNeil oh yes a lot hmm-hmm that wasn't his fault no no no that was my agent so this girl isn't going to go very far let's sell her cheap but I then I made a bit of a I made a bit of a fuss about it and then I got this reputation for being mercenary which I wasn't at all I mean I I was in fact getting less than the cameraman um so was that your agent or was that just the way things were because you're a woman and no no we're paid as much no no it was just my agent really you ordered I agents very yeah somehow I thought that might be a possibility so what it wasn't I mean it wasn't just that women were paid less for doing a similar kind of work do you weird weird ëcoz idea I wasn't aware of that and certainly not on stage you know on stage it doesn't work that way right and when you begin you made that leap though to television from or is it a leap I don't know you really don't say big and then you were became mrs. James Bond I mean the did the fame annoying or did it was it just something that you just put up with as part of the job or no what you you you well it's it's you you're vaguely split because on the one hand you realize that it is important to be known for example one of the first things I did after I did the Avengers was go back to the world Shakespeare Company and do Twelfth Night because I could put bums on seats and so you can put it to use and I think that is so important do you think you brought people into the theater who wouldn't normally get Twelfth Night Shakespeare not for me I don't but but I also don't I don't know and certainly maybe younger people but also I was one of the fur people who crossed over to television and I remember peterhall saying you know she's going to waste herself on stupid films and television because television wasn't regarded as highly as it is now it was simply regarded as another stream of entertainment now it has become hugely powerful but it wasn't in those days and I was what I was considered to be slumming it to be doing television that brings us on neatly to Game of Thrones yes I mean which is a lot of going from one cult series which is The Avengers to Game of Thrones is stormy I mean were you surprised are you surprised at how popular that has become yes well I have to say I didn't watch it and I haven't read the book either I think I think um I think there are some students here who know all about it and you will put me to shame because if you ask me certain questions I will not be able to answer as we're hoping for some really awkward questions in a minute let's see see what what happens well why do you think it why do you think it's just done it I mean it just hits a corner so anything I don't know enough about about that sort of entertainment I really don't mm-hmm so it's a surprise is it fun to do yeah that's great um very good scenes they write I mean really lovely meaty meaty scenes and so it's fun to do and and you travel because I was asking you earlier when we were in the green room so we all think it's not shot in Northern Ireland but not quite well the interiors are in Northern Ireland Iceland for the cold part and Spain or Dubrovnik for for the heat ease hot hmm in a manner of speaking well those of you watched it you know there we're good put the lights up in a minute and ask questions from from the audience and we'll get microphones to you but there's quite a few that already come in an email there's some lovely ones so I am I just want to ask you this one how has it been working with your daughter do you have to stop yourself from giving her advice on set oh god yes I can't say a word I'm very right to and it's fun but we make each other laugh so it's ofer gets really difficult because you know you know it happened I I'm it's known as corpsing on stage I don't quite know why laughter like died or something like that but anyway I'm a great corpse oh and I can go off at the drop of anything and so with Rachel together we do tend to course is that I am heard from somebody else that the rule of thumb is the more fun you have making it the less good it's gonna be is that true oh was that me or you I think it was you oh yeah okay um yeah I think that's what they say but I I don't I think in comedy it doesn't apply I think what they're talking about is if you're really really wallowing in drama and enjoying it I remember hearing Sarah Bernhardt a recording of Sarah Bernhardt in third and it was very French and very sort of Floria to her all that was going on she was really enjoying it um and you knew that the audience were probably fast asleep because it becomes indulgent what about you rolling about yet the relationship other than yourself who's your favorite Bond girl Oh Shirley Eaton is she's still around she may be in the audience for a while it why not Andres Ursula oh she was beautiful hmm yeah they replicated that scene what didn't they the one from when she gets out of the water look at it and many years later a Bond film yeah I don't watch it anymore I have to say I just I did some I don't know ran out of steam for me hmm see um thinking about your career in TV do you think audiences in general have changed from the avenger to Game of Thrones perhaps in terms of their devotion to the series or we're Avengers fans as passionate as games at throne fans do know I couldn't answer that really I I'd have to go back and sort of look at letters and all that kind of stuff um this is me name-dropping again but I was in my dressing room at at the National Theatre and it was a matinee and it was between shows and there was knock on the door and this this woman came towards me she was very bony and hair scraped back and then bronzed and she had mandarin collar and she was dressed in khaki and the arm was out it was very silly and it was Katharine Hepburn and she walked across and she said Spencer loved you well that's all I need to know about me and the Avengers it's all you need to know about audience isn't it Spencer Tracy loved you that's that's okay as well and a couple of other quick oh I can tell you the answer to this before you even save do you subscribe to services like Netflix or Amazon Prime yeah thank you The Guardian The Guardian style guide uses the term actor to refer to both males and females what do you think about this and what do you think of the word actress uh it's it's it's I love our language I just love our language we've got the richest language in the world and I love it to be precise and I am an actress right I'm so glad you said that as indeed clearly I can't stop balls I'm not sure about that but they're in a different different way as I say I will throw it open to questions for the audience about because you're a bit on the outer darkness but so we'll bring the lights up but and what's the proudest moment in your career many proud moments I would have thought um oh yeah I think it had a long journey it's a night we open the day on Broadway and it had started so small at the Almeida and then none of the West End producers had taken it up so it then lay in abeyance for oh I think it was about a year and then Jonathan Kent who was the director and myself so let's resurrected so we got a producer and resurrected it we toured England and then we went into the West End and the audience's grew and grew and grew and grew and then uh we were invited to take it to Broadway and that's how theater should be it paint we paid our dues in England ah and and we nurtured audiences they grew I remember we were playing Newcastle we was there was hardly anybody in the house to begin with the end of the week that we were playing we will fall so we knew we were on track and when we opened in Broadway I pleaded with the producers to put you Ripa tees up in lights can you imagine 2,000 years after the plays written you reproduce his hot what way I'm they refused and then I said I'll pay and they still refused because they said let's turn people away but anyway we reopened and we were a smash hit and I told you this because that is it's not pride it's just the best of theater when it's right has that kind of projection that kind of journey and it all felt right and pride had nothing to do with it hard work a lot I'm told when when Donald Trump finally becomes president you rep ADIZ will be all over the place so there'll be plenty of it plenty of that but but that leads on to another question about audiences do you get something do you feel the instant feedback from an audience when you're on stage that you obviously you don't get on on film so much so I mean I I think I don't know what your audience is are aware of it but actors are certainly are aware of the the feeling of an audience nightly and at the risk of sounding incredibly pompous I think it's it's a communion you when you go to a theater you you you lend your belief to us and it is our duty to answer your belief as fully and as truly as possible just that do you do you ever get the opposite you were there and you're thinking it's not for one reason or another is not going the way you want it yes and how is that is that is a misery Mir Rachel you just want to go home and climb under the duvet but then there's always the next night that's the point there's always another audience and people often ask me and say how do you do it weekend a week in night in night out or in - on Wednesdays - on Saturdays it's because of you you're different and you pull something out of us each night which we might not know was there and you can be sort of like this you know show me and that's a challenge too it can be really really cold when you first step out on stage and the audience isn't with you something might have happened they might have had to I don't know wait in a queue to get their tickets we're waiting arraigned for a bus you know audiences do change but it's lovely lovely winning you round and it's lovely when we've won you round in that sense do you surprise yourself sometimes do you see in other words does somehow the feedback from the audience the sense of the occasion does that make you better than you thought you would oh yes oh yes they pull something out of it very much so I'm not being extraordinary it's feeling really really yes it is it really is and you must never mistake the reasons why it exists because if it's it's that communion I swear it's that communion that's quite a humble thing to say actually you know you are a very big star people see you on the stage yeah I know but but you're actually saying something quite humble which is it's not just about you know it isn't never words words who you know we we deal with texts I've been so lucky I've have played to Tom Stoppard plays David Hare I did Mother Courage he did it in Yorkshire which made it sort of easier in a way I think I've been so lucky with with the playwrights and the directors that I've worked with but it always comes down to what's on the page always let's let's bring the lights up and have some questions from the audience because it's your fault it all goes wrong now we're just there's a gentleman down the front just wait on the second if you would mind sir just do we get the micro microphone to you good evening um do you have I think you might just answered it out actually but do you have a first love for either TV film or stage and if I may be so cheeky any game of Thrones spoilers any Game of Thrones stories a stage is is my favorite it really is I'm not allowed to tell game of stone stories no no they they make you sign a confidentially agreement and all that and we you get something called slides every day when you go to the studio and that's the scene that you you're about to play in and your name is stamped on it you sign for it when they hand it over to you and you have to hand it back at the end of the day in case you sell it to somebody right so we're not going to get very far on that line of questioning um good try so though who's next no but yes Lady Anne fat thank you hello Diane I was excited to see you that you've been an icon of my room while I and I just first of all comment on my admiration for you but my question in the 60s and you've talked quite a bit about the Avengers and up until the Avengers the female role in those sorts of genre was sort of silly little bimbos and I think you are probably the first woman to fight back with a brain were you aware of breaking new ground in that area you know I really do wish I could say I was but I wasn't and I stepped in to honor black men's shoes Anna Backman was was was the first I'd forget what she was called anyway she you know I played her part but but the irony the real irony is that the Avengers started out as two men it was Patrick makhni and another actor and the actor dropped away at the very last minute and they put honor in and they didn't change the script so she was doing all those things that men do and these gentlemen who are no longer with us couldn't believe their luck because suddenly they had you know female icons and they were going how did it happen we didn't have a clue but that that's really so I can take no credit at all but all I can say is you know thank you very much because it was a wonderful part and Patrick was adorable to work with and I think it came through that we really did love each other no sex but we loved each other it did actually Anderson there's something about that there was great chemistry this yeah I don't think it helps if you look if you've got um mutual respect and we did have that hmm yes there's somebody there and and somebody up the back too if there's anybody in the middle at the back in the outer darkness do just sort of wave a bit because it's a little bit more difficult to see you yes okay hello and I you talked a bit about words and text and how important that is and I think words are amazing basically so I was wondering if you have a favorite play or a favorite playwright um a favorite play you see it's unfortunate but Shakespeare and it's a cliche I know and my favorite play is King Lear because it's the greatest play I've been in three productions I walked on with Charles Lawton I that that's how long ago I played Cordelia to a Paul Scofield and and I played Regan to Olivier so I just I know it and god I love it do you forgive any thoughts about Glenda Jackson is King Lear maybe you haven't seen I ever seen Reggie Jackson's career it's a very fine reviews but I just wonder what your thoughts are about a woman playing a part clearly written for Amanda well I think maybe I should answer that if I'd seen it do you I mean that you can't you really can't comment but I better mean it all right but because women dubbed a you know there are others there's a Julius Caesar there's an all-woman Julius Caesar and this is I mean I think it's happening it's it's it's it's a symptom of the march of women isn't it basically is it or is it a gimmick I don't know I don't know I mean the audience have to make up their minds about it somebody's hissing I think they're hissing me is that person I haven't come down on the feminist feminist side bad luck who hits high so hissing that maybe wasn't me articulate the beautiful was but no I only kissed as a guttural reaction to the idea that it was gimmicky to have women acting interesting and serious roles you said no right was it well of course it it no it's not gimmicky to have women acting in serious roles but is it I was asked is it a gimmick to have a woman playing King Lear which is clearly a man there we are huh small thoughts we need a joke I'll tell you about something that happened to me when I was very very young I was walking on in this play called on deemed by jhagadu Leslie Caron was in it and she was married to Peter Hall which was the only reason she was in it because because it goes anyway I was playing an on Dean ah very unfortunate I had no lines but I the costume was deeply deeply unfortunate I had a dressing room of course I was very junior at the top of the theater and I had an all over thing but there were fins at the bottom and I had shell shell shell and it zipped up the back and I had a floppy hat with shells and seaweed round it and when I went up to my dressing room I had to go and when I came down from my dressing room I had no and I didn't have any seen at all but what I had to do the story of on Dean is she's a mermaid who comes up out of the sea falls in love with the prince takes human form but in the end tragedy of tragedies she has to go back into the sea again not if it's Leslie Caron playing on Dean no tragedy there believe you me anyway I'd be wouldn't so i with another friend of mine Wendy Wendy we had to lure the prince who had his back to the audience he was standing now and we were up in you know on a balcony and he was stayed by Richard Johnson who's wildly handsome and very naughty um so we had to try and lure him so we were going like this out of the window to noon and he was looking at us and pulling the sort of face say are you out of your mind do you know so of course I started laughing and I laughed every single night and eventually I was called to miss Karen's dressing room and she said Diana I hear to you every night but I don't know you are laughing and I said I'm sorry miss Karen I'm really sorry I'm it's a weakness of my night lucidum mm-hmm I had that weakness I killed myself think of something sad think of being filed yes and I take it that had the desired effect at least Alice order small thoughts yes the gentleman at the back and then there's lady down here thank you um don't Anya thank you so much for coming this evening it's great listening to you I just wanted to ask you you were into my all-time favorite films and so I was hoping you could share your recollections of the assassination Bureau particularly Oliver Reed who you are wonderful with and on a Majesty's Secret Service okay well I can't tell you much about the assassination Bureau except that I met I met an accountant at a cocktail party years after I've made it and he said I put a lot of money into that film and it lost doesn't help does it and then on Her Majesty's Secret Service well I'd never been in such a huge production before I mean it really was astonishing they they flew me to Paris for the collections to choose a fur coat nice they they sent up from from we were in my cot around the village but halfway up a mountain anyway and they sent down to interlaken for a watchmaker for me to try on a watch that I just glanced at once and which they gave me I mean the plenitude of you sort of coming from the world shakespeare company I was completely gobsmacked you know it was terrific um of course you know we had our problems with leading man but there you go I have my watch in my fur coat what do you think of the leading man sir since it's one of your favorite films oh thank you well I might be in a minority but to me George Lowe's and being Timothy Dalton and my two favorite bonds I absolutely love her I think that lady just hit the den over there it's a free country you're allowed to be wrong and it is interest over for the next one why not did her sellable why not great actor there was there was a lady than you yes yeah no I was really interested in asking about what it was like to work with um Peter Brook in 1962 and bring back King Lear again cuz obviously above time he was really big and kind of broke out in terms of theater bringing forward ideas from micro tarski and art oh and was quite it was it was a wonderful production it was quite quite quite extraordinary he's a very chilly man indeed I think that's I'm not gonna be indiscreet kind of look is that because I decided not well you see I was very young practically untouched by human hand and I used to wear something called number nine on my lips playing Cordelia and I was again at the top of the thing and he used to cut he used to come up to give me notes and I could hear him coming up the stairs I go this is number nine and he'd stand behind me give me notes into the mirror tip my head up kiss me lean forward and grab a tissue take the number-9 off his lips and walk out nearly every night now nowadays of course you know he'd be sued wouldn't Harry but I was too young and too frightened and to everything but he did do a wonderful production absolutely wonderful so possibly um there are penalties to be paid when you're directed by a um very good director I was wondering what name was good to follow that to be quite honest but do you do you recall maybe not every production you've been in but you recall with great affection I mean that is perhaps not quite an affectionate story but you seem to recall so much of these great shows performances scripts I do I I'm very very very lucky and I do remember when I was young a walk-on total walk on my first season at Stratford you're not going to believe this um Paul Robeson was playing King Lear laughs what am I talking about a fellow Sam Wanamaker was was yah go marry your whom you won't know probably Yoda amongst you will know she married Robert Shaw she was very beautiful she was Desdemona Albert Finney was in the company Peter O'Toole was in the company Olivier was playing Coriolanus day me death Evans was playing Ville um Nia in fact I mean Olivia I should never forget I he was I mean my god and he I don't know why that keeps happening oh yeah um he had he had a quick change room off the stage which had the biggest bottle of Mitsouko perfume in it you have ever seen it was a big and we used walk past it and go that's three years wages in liquid anyway I was standing off stage one one evening and he'd had had to had a battle on stage and it had obviously gone very wrong I was standing with my friend Mabel both of us deeply humble dressed in rags and he threw the sword into the corner and then he saw Mabel and I standing there anyway don't ladies does it's very rude rude word followed and he said Oh ladies forgive me and my friend Mabel who was madly in love with him said oh I don't care Savoy thoughts were there yes there's right at the back I'm just wondering don't die on it if there's any plays that you have always wanted the chance to do and he still would like to yeah well I can't now but you know I never I never ever did Katherine in Taming of the Shrew and I'd so loved have done it instead of which I played Bianca and Vanessa played Katherine and it was a wonderful production it really was such fun and nowadays people go oh it's kind of you know Petruchio and these treats are badly and all that kind of stuff but it's really about two people finding each other and eventually falling in love and is I I love it but I it's too late now but i understanded Vanessa and I don't know if any of you I love an age now Betty Davis said old age ain't for sissies and she's so true but I remember the fire fire on it that threatening unkind brow and I had an operation recently and I said to the nice that is I've got this Shakespeare's speech of Catherine's which I can remember I'm going to go into it as you put me under anaesthetic and I expect to be saying it when I come out hmm yes it was somebody in the middle my question are similar to the gentleman in that direction my favorite bond is also on Her Majesty's Secret Service I think partly Donna because of your powerful female character that you played in that role and crazy yeah Tracy tracer and yeah it's the lady at the front said as soon as you're working Avengers and thinking about the fact that you have won the first you know in the Bond film you your character saved Bond it was the Bond girl that saved the man and looking at maybe the career of say your daughter and other actresses that around at the moment do you feel there is still those strong female parts out there or do you feel in a way we've stopped taking a step back in that respect I I think the parts are getting stronger I think there's there's more recognition now and that there's a huge market for all four parts you know strong women and people are writing it certainly on television they are definitely I mean I think their bit slower on film to catch up but television is steaming ahead with really good parts for women they've been quite a few Hollywood movies in the last couple of years which have tried to address that yes there's quite anyway yeah what few is a very dark it seems a bit odd if you ignore 50% of your market I know I know yeah hello and I just have a question on a drama point of view really and this is going to be quite difficult to answer because you've had so many fantastic parts but when you get one that you really love you really get into and I suppose is there one that really sticks out to you is your favorite part you have ever played that I've ever played did you yeah was that the question okay um yeah I think it was Medea I mean it was so tough but the rewards it wasn't you know did Weston was just extraordinary and and again you play a very large part because I haven't God I'm hiding how many years it is since I did it but people and certainly when I win New York people say I saw you as my dear I mean I have a belief that theatre imprints deeper than film or television and that it stays with people and that is the power of theater and that is a wonder of theater and that actually in the end is all great you give us you know that to have remembered that for so many years touches me deeply but from the audience speaking as an audience member the thing that you get from live theater you don't get from anywhere else is this belief that this person on the stage is speaking to me and tomorrow it will all be gone and we different I will have the memory of that that's why it's so extraordinary do you think though that audiences have changed a bit I mean there is I think it was a it was a meld of staunton was saying recently people shouldn't eat in the theater and I certainly know from personal experience there have been people who tweet on the theater or do something they're not paying the same degree of respect it seems to me to what's going on in the stage that they perhaps should have done or didn't put in the past yeah I think that's true I also think television has a lot to answer for and and that they they equate an awful lot of you know going to the CFO being they put their popcorn good and say there is nothing worse I don't know if you're with me then sitting next to somebody eating crisps you can hear every scrunch I mean I could kill them I think they shouldn't sell food in a theater I really don't I drink yes but when it comes to sort of popcorn I die and it's all about making money they should not I I sat next to somebody last year it was eating a tuna sandwich yeah now it didn't make a noise Barry anyway awful some this lady over there um hello Dinah lovely to see you this evening and I never thought I would like Caen or even get to see Game of Thrones but I have and I'm an older person and I remember you in the past but you are working with a fantastic group of actors I think in Game of Thrones was some wonderful English female actors actresses and how do you I mean do you find that you're out like a mentor or a bit like a mother to them and is there any any of them that you think will be able to take on your mantle as you know one of our premier Dame's of the theatre well I only if they ask I mean I wouldn't dream of being anything or doing or saying anything at all I mean it's very hard I was talking to Gavin about it before he came out an awful lot of those kids haven't haven't done the training and I read for that because they have reached a sort of status and and how where are they going to go from there unless they've done some training but the other thing the good thing about Game of Thrones if that they employ British actors for the most part and do you know why because we're grateful we're cheap and we arrive on set knowing our lines and when never late and it's because we're trained and that's why they they use us and thank God for it do you think you right at the start of our conversation you talked about Radha leads canceled and and all that which seems I mean leaks counsel funding a young woman to go off to rather seems like it wasn't amazing but does that does that cut down opportunities I mean there's you've seen a lot in the press about you know so many older Toni ins who become actors because of the comfort material which is that true that's rubbish I mean um and I do hate it when actors moan you know they're saying oh all the toughs are getting the parts well no it's not true I mean I've been around a very long time and and I remember when when it was only it was tops were the last people to get the parts in the early 60s it was people who spoke with an accent so it's cyclical it's you know but there is a money I mean the Michael Caine's the Bob Hoskins probably exactly thin but there is also money element into it as well isn't it because it is a risk you have to take if you're going to have a long career you have to spend some money to go to Rada or whatever as well as details of course but I get it from somewhere when I was at Rada III I used to leave Rada and I used to go to a coffee shop off Cambridge circus Hanway Street it was all the Greek sailors used to go there and so there are a lot of tarts around and they used to try and trip me up as I went by carrying the coffee and I used to work there from hoppers five until half past eleven I used to catch the last tube home to clap himself not a glamorous life but is it I mean if you had to advise somebody a young person wanting a career determined to make it on the stage in particular how would you say to them they should think about the career and think about you know not just the flash-in-the-pan the TV series that suddenly makes them a face that's well known have you've got any thoughts as to what they should do how they should go about it I'd say you know buy as many cheap seats as you can and go and see performances because I did that when I was a student and certain performances are engraved read as much as possible I don't necessarily mean plays I mean we'd ask good literature but if you're if you're actually not in anything I think it's very good if you could possibly a group of you get together and do readings and and discuss plays and you've got to keep those juices flowing and I do know that the jobs are so few and far between and I'm grieve about it because unless the young have a strong foothold in the truest part of theater which is practicing it they're going to they're good they're going to be sober muse they're going to go astray they're going to get lost I think if groups can get together young people act as an actresses interested and of course there are clubs in London does the Arts Theater the act of the center which is terribly important go there never lose sight of this being your instrument and you've got to play on it as often as a pianist would play on a piano you've got to that is very interesting we've got time for about one or two more questions so there's gentlemen over there and was there somebody there is somebody at the back very very back in the middle as well um hello my question is about personality-wise and how that affects your career you seem to be very outspoken but has that ever gotten you into trouble in in your roles peterhall said I was the rudest walk-on you'd ever come across because I couldn't do citizen C I simply couldn't anyway um personality I you know you have to subsume subsume your personality into a part you must but I had such an interesting discussion and here's another name-drop Harvard University was giving Arthur Miller of a prize and I was along for the evening and they they we were both there very early so of course I suggested we went now to drink which we did and I was able to ask him questions about his work he was credibly generous um and I one of the questions I asked him is you know you've seen your plays down the years performed by succeeding generations what's the difference what has been different now to them then and he said personality and he meant it as not a compliment people were bringing their personality to the play they weren't prepared to subsume which is what you got to do in order to serve the play of course and it was quite it I found that absolutely fascinating he'd spotted it I was just thinking as you were you've been talking tonight if subsuming your personality to do justice to the play also makes you a more empathetic person because you have to change clothes every performances yeah and when ah Sarah Bernhardt said I I put I put a part in front of me and see if it is in nature and if it is then I know it can be played which is such a fascinating truism but what you've got to do also is measure the distance between yourself and that part and fill it and as a result you've got to know great deal about yourself I mean I do think that some don't necessarily measure up but most actors and actresses have a profound sense of the truth of themselves I mean if they don't then they're lost a final question from whoever it was at the back I'm sorry I've lost sight of you um I was just wondering if you weren't an actress what do you think you would be and what did you want to be when you were younger oh so now how old are you 13 I do you know what you want to do I want to be an actress good and I wish you very much luck Thanks um what I I always wanted to be an actress and I think you're very blessed I think to know what you want to do at 13 which is what I knew I wanted to do at 13 means that you have a goal in life and you have a purpose an awful lot of your contemporaries I suspect don't know what they want to do and you save you know I don't know but you know and therefore you will achieve it and I wish you the best of luck in just a final question for me what was the funniest thing or daftest thing that's ever happened to you Oh truce what a question apart tonight of is huh the daftest thing oh I did I think the daftest thing I ever did was to get my kit off in a believable Arden Eloise um are we cliff Michelle and I did it you know the play and it was absolutely the directors it is very necessary for for the play and you know they find their kind of sensuality and so therefore I Keith came on from one right side of the stage and me from the other and we were both naked and it was so cold I we took it to Broadway and I got the worst notice of my life as a result of this scene um a critic wrote of me diana rigg is built like a brick mausoleum with insufficient flying buttresses I survived I'm not sure quite how to follow over your flying buttresses I call I think I would just like to thank you it has been a great privilege a great honor and great fun to meet one of my favorite actresses ever Diana Rigg thank you as we preach as we shuffle off I'd like to thank all of you two for coming here because your contacts where would we be well it would be a lonely conversation but it'd still be fun and also all your contributions tonight to come here I go to the Kent opportunities fund which helps many of our students so thank you for that there also we some buckets somewhere if you want to throw in as they used to say in Northern Ireland it could be a silent collection that means that mean clothes thank you

Channel: University of Kent

Views: 72,213

Rating: 4.935564 out of 5

Keywords: Gavin Esler, In Conversation, interview, diana, diana rigg, dame diana rigg, shakespeare, king lear, othello, William Shakespeare, Game of Thrones, Detectorists, Rachael Stirling, Olenna Tyrell, Emma Peel, The Avengers, Theatre, TV, Film, Movies, A song of ice and fire, George RR Martin, Queen of Thorns, hbo, patrick macnee, ian hendry, actor, actress, acting, performing arts, performance

Id: t_p1qf-xBJw

Length: 56min 28sec (3388 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 13 2016