TALKING TO FREDDIE FOX
The highly regarded Guildford Shakespeare Company return to the fore this month with the first of their productions for 2022, Shakespeare’s epic tragedy Hamlet.
Starring in the eponymous role is the Olivier Award-nominated actor Freddie Fox whose television credits to date include: Mark Thatcher in The Crown (Netflix), Tony in The Pursuit of Love (BBC1), and Jeremy Bamber in White House Farm (ITV). With theatre credits including The Judas Kiss (Hampstead Theatre/West End); Romeo in Kenneth Branagh’s Romeo and Juliet (West End) and Edmond de Bergerac (Birmingham Rep/UK tour) Fox received his Olivier Award nomination (Best Actor in a Supporting Role) in 2017 for Travesties (West End).
What’s your approach to playing Hamlet? Do you have a process in rehearsal for getting to know a character?
The answer is that it depends from job to job. My research process varies from character to character and that depends very much on the character themselves: whether they are real or fictional; what medium I’m doing it in and also the amount of time I have to research it. In the case of Hamlet, the beauty of the part is that you can bring yourself to it and it is so rich and there are so many ways to play him. That naturally, I hope, will make it a different Hamlet to any other Hamlet that anyone has seen before; my interpretation will invariably be different, because there is so much the part offers you to interpret.
Can you remember when you decided to become an actor? To what extent did your family encourage or try to put you off it?
I was sort of kicking and dancing on my parents’ dinner table from when I was very, very young. I remember my parents took me to a production of Guys ‘n’ Dolls at the National and I got the audio cassette at that time and I learned every song. So I sung all the songs to anyone who would listen.
That innate love for story-telling and shows was fostered at my school where I did a lot of plays and put on a lot of plays to direct as well. And whilst my parents briefly tried to, show me other options, they very quickly realised when I started auditioning for drama school, when I was eighteen, that there was no hope of putting me off a life in the theatre and they didn’t really have much of a leg to stand on, given their chosen professions! However, I would say in addition to that, I am very grateful to the support that they have always given me when it was clear that I’d made up my mind that this was the vocation I wanted to pursue.
The last year, well, two years, have been strange to say the least. Looking back on 2021, what have your personal and professional highlights been?
It has been an extraordinarily difficult year, particularly for theatre, and I’ve been so impressed to see how dynamic and inventive producers have been in putting productions back onto stages for audiences. And continue to tell wonderful stories, even with huge restrictions like social distancing in the audience and social distancing on stage and rigorous testing programmes and having to have PPE in every corner of every dressing room to make sure that the cast feel safe to perform.
I’ve been so impressed to see how British theatre has bounced back and, I suppose, personally, I have been lucky to have been working a bit in television, during the pandemic, which, whilst theatres weren’t able to open up, were able to sustain actors. I did The Pursuit of Love with my friend Lily and a number of other friends, which I’ve so enjoyed doing. It felt like being on a desert island with a group of your best friends as the world seemed to be improbably and horribly strange, that we were able somehow to make that show and laugh, and be together, and tell a beautiful story, whilst it felt like show business and the entertainment industry was on its knees.
Again, I felt very lucky to be working but also, even luckier to be working with great friends.
You’ve obviously done a huge amount of TV and film work as well as theatre. How do the different mediums compare to you? Do you have a favourite?
The answer is, I don’t have a favourite. I think I couldn’t survive without both. There’s a magic about being on a film set and watching all these amazing departments work in sync and harmony with each other. All small cogs working in a much bigger machine, all of whom fall totally silent from between the moments you say, “Action!” and “Cut!” and then everyone goes about their jobs again and it’s like a sort of beehive.
I love being on film sets. As a child, I used to obsessively watch special features on DVDs just so I could feel like I was there with the film makers. But then, equally, there is nothing more delicious than being in the scintillating half-light of a theatre just before the curtain goes up, the hush that falls, it’s so – for want of a better word – dramatic, and filled with poise and tension. And the best of all is that you get to work with actors and a company for a long period of time, and get to know each other so well and get to do something slightly different every night, whereas, on film, when that day of filming is over, it’s locked and that’s it.
So I’m very lucky to have been able to work in both mediums and I hope that carries on for as long as people will keep hiring me.
What comes next for you after performing Hamlet?
That’s a million dollar question, you’ll have to ask my agent. But, at the moment, a couple of filming projects, one a film, another a television series, which, in this day and age of non- disclosure agreements, I’m forbidden to say. I feel like a death squad will be waiting at my door, waiting to pounce on me if I talk about it publicly at the moment, but hopefully, those projects followed by, I would very much hope, another piece of theatre at the end of the Summer. So, fingers crossed, we’ll see.
HAMLET
JANUARY 29 – FEBRUARY 19 HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, GUILDFORD
For more information and tickets, visit guildford-shakespeare-company.co.uk