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Reading mode: Bill hopes downloadable literary greats will have wide appeal |
The rise of the house of Nighy
Top actor Bill tells Dan Carrier about his latest project of bringing the classics of literature to the iPod generation – starting with the stories of Edgar Allan Poe
COVERED in slime and with a beard of tentacles, Bill Nighy’s biggest role to date was as Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, in which he got to chase Johnny Depp across the high seas.
But while the Kentish Town-based actor has established himself as a bankable Hollywood star, his latest gig is not in the theatre or cinema. Rather, he is set to perform to an audience of one, through the headphones of your iPod or car stereo: Nighy is behind a new scheme that he hopes will bring classic literature to a new generation of fans.
Downloadable via a website called Silksoundbooks.com, he is joined by Edward Fox, Susannah York, Richard E Grant, Terry Jones and Rufus Sewell, all reading their favourite stories.
“I was impressed by the idea,” he says. “People can download a great book read by some of the best actors in the English language. It is a stylish project.”
Bill has chosen for his first reading Edgar Allan Poe’s The Dupin Mysteries – a book that has always held an attraction for him. Next on the list is Ford Madox Ford and he also wants to tackle his own favourite, Ernest Hemingway.
He hopes the new scheme will have wide appeal, introducing young people to classics and persuade them to read the books themselves, while he also believes the idea will appeal to older people – “an ideal accompaniment to long car journeys,” he says.
Poe was his choice. “I am a great sucker for a detective story, and I like the way Poe writes and the things it says,” he reveals.
But reading a 19th-century thriller for today’s audience is not easy. He uses a series of coloured pencils to help him into character – underlining passages which require a certain tone or voice.
“I like the use of language. But any actor who has tried to read for recording will agree that it is gruelling.
“It is weirdly hard work. When the idea first comes up you think it will be a breeze, and you think it will be fun – reading into a microphone, what could be easier?
“The degree of concentration required means by the end of the day you are quite worn out.”
And Poe’s work has an added dimension.
“Even with the language you are familiar with it can be quite hard, but with 19th century writing there is an extra dimension. The sentences can be very long, often with six qualifying phrases.
“But the secret is preparation. You have to sit with it solidly before hand. You have to ensure you can do different voices as an when. Can you imagine having to portray five Scottish women of all ages nattering to each other? Without hours of preparation, it can get you in terrible trouble.”
But it is something he manages to achieve, and has provided the actor with a welcome break from the trials of film-making.
Despite his cinema box office success with, most recently, Pirates of the Caribbean and Notes on a Scandal, the stage still attracts.
He has spent six months on Broadway, appearing in the David Hare play Vertical Hour, alongside Julianne Moore and directed by Sam Mendes.
“We opened the week Donald Rumsfeld left office and the Democrats won the House of Representatives and the Senate. There was a buzz about New York. People had a spring in their step, as any one with any sense would.”
A veteran of the West End, he enjoyed testing the Broadway audience.
“The city feels smaller for one thing – people come in to see the show and you feel very much part of something.”
And he says American audiences appear to be less critical.
“They clap you before you have done anything. The first time it happened to me, I looked behind me to see what was going on and why they were applauding. I could get used to that.”
And the play’s theme helped. It included a riff about the Iraq War.
“It touched a nerve,” says Bill. “People were happy to have it discussed on stage in a grown-up way.”
He enjoys contemporary playwrights – Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter and David Hare – and likes to provide his audiences with a laugh.
“I think it is rather vulgar to ask people to sit in the dark for two and half hours and not tell them a joke,” he says.
“Comedy is more my style. I can only think of one play I have appeared in that did not contain a joke – King Lear, alongside Anthony Hopkins. That will not happen again.”
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