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Branagh V? (long)Vincent Canby's famous description of Kenneth Branagh as a "nervy young man in a hurry" in the mid-1990s might have applied even at 13, when Branagh convinced the Reading Evening Post to enlist his services as a reviewer of children's books. (Payment was keeping the books he reviewed). As Stephen Evans, the stockbroker who financed many of Kenneth Branagh's projects, quickly learnt, "Ken knows how to schmooze people."
Indeed, while studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Branagh schmoozed the pants off Laurence Olivier, writing the veteran actor for advice on how to play Cherbutykin (the doctor in Chekhov's Three Sisters). Another letter won him an interview with Derek Jacobi. He schmoozed RADA's principal, Hugh Cruttwell, persuading him to stage Hamlet (with Branagh in the lead). He schmoozed Judi Dench and Derek Jacobi into directing an entire season for his Renaissance Theater Company.
But Branagh's most spectacular feat of schmoozery came while researching the feelings of a troubled prince for his lead role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Henry V in 1984: Branagh boldly asked for some advice vis-a-vis the pressures of royalty. From whom? Why, from Prince Charles of course.
["I drove up in this battered old Volkswagen," Branagh recalled. "I had on my one suit." HRH, who confided that he often felt the need to be very silly or very violent, was also persuaded to become the patron of Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company. Its mission? To democratize Shakespeare and prove that, as Branagh once declared, "the audience that wants to see Rambo could also be stimulated by Henry V." ("What next?" one RADA colleague wearily remarked. "King Lear on Ice?")]
[Trivia: Branagh was not noted for his humility. In 1989, a snotty column appeared in the Tatler referring to Branagh as Clever Ken, Confident Ken, Cocky Ken, Canny Ken, Calculating Ken and Campaigning Ken. (In the Sunday Correspondent, he and his wife, Emma Thompson, were 'spoilt brats.' Branagh was 'wally of the month.' And Emma? "E.T."]
Branagh, Kenneth Charles (1960- ) Irish actor and director, Renaissance Theatre Company founder [noted for his roles in such
films as
Henry V (1989, Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Director)
Dead Again (1991),
Much Ado About Nothing (1993),
Frankenstein (1994),
Hamlet (1996), and
Alien Love Triangle (2002); and for his autobiography, Beginning]
[Sources: Time magazine, November 13, 1989;
Cosmopolitan Sept 1991; The Guardian (London), November 9 1992; Kenneth Branagh, Beginning.]More Kenneth Branagh anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
Acting Behind The Scenes Moxie Advice Persuasion Royalty Theater Theatre Plays
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