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Prince of Players
Advocate, Febuary 20, 1996
Kenneth Branagh puts aside Oscar Predictions to address rumors about his
private life
"I don't know what makes you attractive to another person, whether it's a
man or a woman," says actor-director Kenneth Branagh with emphatic diction.
"Anybody with a twinkle in their eye is sexy as far as I'm concerned. I've
met an incredible number of men who are just as astonishingly gorgeous and
sexy."
It is an amazingly candid statement from an actor whose sexual orientation
has long been the subject of rumors--and never more so than now, after he
heas separated from his wife of six years, actor-writer Emma Thompson. The
rumor mill grinds up and spits out stories about Branagh being alternately,
a philandering heterosexual, a closeted homosexual, or a repressed bisexual.
He has unwaveringly refused to comment on the rumors about his
sexuality--until now.
Reporters who gathered in mid-January in Park City, Utah, for the Sundance
Film Festival--where the opening-night film was the Branagh-directed A
Midwinter's Tale--were sternly warned that he would "absolutely not" answer
questions about his private life at a press party. But in a private two-hour
interview with The Advocate, the restrictions were not enforced--and with
great honesty the 35-year-old writer-actor-director discussed the long and
complicated road that has led him from his humble beginnings in Belfast,
Ireland, to the heights of critical acclaim in both England and America.
Branagh's interest in the stage began early. His family moved to England
when he was 10, and he began reading 25-cent paperback volumes of
Shakespeare as an escape from the school-yard bullies who taunted him for
his Irish accent. While attending London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
(RADA), he was plucked from class for the lead role in the acclaimed British
TV-movie Billy, and Branagh never looked back. He was dubbed the West End's
Most Promising Newcomer in 1982, joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in
1984, and met Thompson during work on the BBC miniseries Fortunes of War,
which debuted in 1986. The actor hit pay dirt in the United States in 1989
with his third feature film, Henry V, for which he received Academy Award
nominations as Best Actor and Best Director. The same year, he published
Beginning, an autobiography--at the age of 28.
As with any career, there have been ups (Much Ado About Nothing and a third
Oscar nomination for directing the short subject Swan Song) and downs (Swing
Kids and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein). But where Branagh has achieved
unwavering success in film has been with his Shakespearean adaptations--turf
to which he returned in 1995 with Othello. With his performance as the
manipulative Iago, he may yet again find himself in Oscar's spotlight.
Says Laurence Fishburne, who stars as the tragic Moor: "I haven't met that
many people who are as talented as Ken and still manage to be really humble.
I was freaking out about one of the speeches I had to do and saying, 'Maybe
you should cut it out. Do we really need it?' And Ken looked at me and said,
'Look, man, I'm a pug Irish kid from Belfast and I'm not supposed to be able
to do this stuff either.' That kind of generosity, that kind of
humility--that's who Ken Branagh is."
Shakespeare is also very much a part of A Midwinter's Tlae, the sixth film
Branagh has directed. Shot in black and white, it is a farcical look at an
ambitious but depressed actor who forms an amateur theatrical troupe to
stage a production of Hamlet in a rural English village. Much of the cast is
unfamiliar to American audiences, but among the recognizable faces are
Absolutely Fabuolous's Jennifer Saunders as an Amercian producer casting a
science fiction film; Ab Fab's Julia Sawalha, playing a wacky actress having
a go at Ophelia; and Joan Collins as an impatient agent. Thrown in for good
measure is a gay male actor who, in somewhat stereotypical fashion, insists
on playing Queen Gertrude--and does.
Branagh's Advocate interview is held in a mountainside snow lodge. His hair
is dyed a very noticeable shade of blond because he is playing Hamlet in an
upcoming version featuring an all-star cast that includes Jack Lemmon and
Kate Winslet.
Setting down a glass of beer and lighting a cigarette, Branagh readies
himself for what he has spent years avoiding: With great ease and no visible
wincing, he signals that questions may finally begin.
Even during your marriage to Emma Thompson, you in particular never
seemed to be able to get away from the rumors that you were either having
affairs with other women or affairs with men.
I know. The stories about my being gay have been going on for a very long
time. There was one once that I was living with some man I had never
actually met.
Certain public figures seem to attract rumors that they are homosexual,
while others never do. Why do you think you are someone who has always had
these rumors circulating about him?
[Sighs heavily and takes a long draw on his cigarette] Em and I just weren't
willing to provide the press with enough information, so the scope of their
imagination just exploded. We made a decision simply never to talk about
these rumors to the press.
Why not? Wouldn't that help to clarify things? Otherwise, doesn't it just
seem like you're hiding something?
Well...how can you, really? I mean, it's the most enormous conversation to
have--and it's hard enough between the two people who are involved. To try
and fill in all the little men sitting outside our windows in the trees
about each stage of our private journey...well, we couldn't.
So it's all a misperception?
Yes, I think it's true to say they do not know us. Their judgments are based
on secondhand perceptions, which make us on one level mysterious and on
other levels prone to judgments that are wildly askew but can become a part
of a kind of accepted knowledge about us.
Did you know that because of things Emma said in her cover story last
year with The Advocate, there was a wire report when the two of you
spearated that actually said you had walked out on her because she had
spoken to us about having "lesbian fantasies"?
[Laughs] Again, I think that because we decided to give away as little as
possibe to the papers, it frustrated them enormously. But we were tyring to
protect a very personal thing to us. We have friends who've been enormously
annoyed by all the attempts to get them to talk about us. Given the nature
of the public world in Britain, we've led a pretty private life.
Then how do you think these stories got started about your being gay?
I have absolutely no idea. Search me.
Has Kenneth Branagh ever had a homosexual experience?
No, in fact, I haven't.
Have you ever wondered about it?
I remember once I was driving with two gay friends--a couple who've been
together for a long time--and they were saying ot me, "Oh, Ken, you're
crazy. A guy like you needs to be gay. It would be much easier." This was
pre-AIDS, and they weren't saying that I should have a lot of casual sex,
just that if I got the physcial side sorted out, it would be much less
trouble, because then you don't get the same kind of aggravation.
Oh, really?
Well, they had a steady relationship but had reached a kind of mutual
understanding about sexual adventures.
In your autobiography, Beginning, you wrote that upon leaving Belfast to
study in London, you mother said, "I hope this place isn't full of nancy
boys." Did you know what she meant? Were you ever called a "nancy boy"?
No, I didn't have any homosexual friends at that time--or at least any that
I knew of. I've since discovered that some of them were. I didn't really
know what a homosexual would be like then, beyond the kind of Noel Coward
version, dressed in red with a long cigarette holder or something.
When did that change?
At RADA one of my best chums was gay. We would share stories about
relationships. Once he said, "I love you very much, but you're the only male
friend of mine I don't fancy."
Really?
Yes, gay men don't pursue me really. I don't send off the right smells.
But in your bio you also wrote about a fellow male student who
propositioned you after class.
Oh yes, that's right. He offered to take me to the meat racks at Piccadilly.
I'd forgotten about that. I didn't even know what the fucking meat rack was.
This is, indeed, my one and only experience. He was a Scotsman, a redhead,
and, yes, it was a major fucking come-on! It was during the course of a
whole day, and this guy was getting increasingly friendly.
Once you realized what he was suggesting, what happened?
I was utterly thrown. I didn't know what to do, except I thought, 'Perhaps
it's all going to be like this.' I was 17. I'd never encountered
homosexuality before. All I knew was, I didn't fancy going down to
Piccadilly with him.
Did it ever happen again?
No. Surprisingly, actually, I guess.
You also wrote in your autobiography that in certain dance classes you
took, all the men had to wear tights. You described them as "nervous men
insisting on their heterosexuality." Why was there such discomfort?
There's something slightly ungainly about guys in tights. Your equipment is
always on show. I think it's more of a school thing, not beingly
particularly free in one's body. It's not quite a butch-male thing to do.
However, I remember reading about a fitness test that showed that dancers
are more fit than football players. I was rather impressed by that.
When Frankenstein was released, the word "hunk" started to appear next to
your name. Would you say that you're a sex object?
I've been around long enough to know that enough people find me attractive
in some way. I haven't met many people who have no sexual chemistry at all.
But do I think of myself as a sex object? No. I mean, the letters I get
reveal there are enough people who would like to know me in the biblical
sense, but still, that's not houw I'm generally viewed. What's more, if
that's ultimately what you're recognized as, it's somewhat blurring. You're
not taken seriously. So I'm pleased to say it hasn't been something that's
got in my way.
I watched you take your clothes off once in a London stage production of
Hamlet.
Actually, we're going to do that in the movie version of Hamlet that I'm
working on. After Hamlet's been stripped of all of his ideals, he's ready
for all the things he wasn't ready for at the beginning of the play. I think
being naked will be a wonderful image to get this feeling across.
You once posed nude for a photographer. Would you do it again?
You know, the reason I've resisted doing it since is that it creates such a
stir for me at home. If I did it again, then there would be 50,000 other
articles that would come out asking "What is he doing? What is he up to?"
I'd get lots of letters.
Have you ever gotten fan letters--love letters--from men?
Yes, yes, I have.
And what do they say?
Oh, mostly they say things like "I'd like to spend some time with you. I
feel there's something between us when I see you on-screen, something that
appeals to me. We could get together and go away for the weekend." Things
like that.
Go away for the weekend? What was it you said a moment ago--"A major
fucking come-on"?
[Smiling] Mmm, yes.
But have you ever really been curious about homosexuality? Have you ever
been to a gay bar, for example?
No, I've never been to a gay bar, but I have close gay friends, and I spend
a lot of time with those close gay friends.
Have you personally ever considered having sex with another man?
Well, I think everybody's curious. And it's never bothered me whether people
think I'm gay or not. It was just one more thing people could think or not
think about me. I mean, I'd still be getting on with my life whether I was
gay or heterosexual or whatever.
Have you ever wondered what a homosexual relationship would be like?
The fact is, up until this point I haven't been drawn to having a gay
relationship, and it doesn't seem as though I'm gay. But who knows? I mean,
life is a series of surprises.
There's always the future?
[Laughs] Yes.
Is this the first time you've ever spoken with the gay press?
Yes.
Why are you talking to the gay press at this particular time?
It wasn't a formal or conscious decision. I don't mind doing it, but I've
not felt the need to go and proclaim my right to pursue whatever sexual path
I might take.
Recently someone told me that he wouldn't go see Othello because it had
too many homosexual overtones going on between Othello and Iago.
Really? Well, you know, a rather distinguished critic said he was annoyed
with my performance because I'd clearly played Iago gay. I had no
consciousness of doing that at all, but I did play as though he loved
Othello. But I don't mean in a sexual sense. I just meant that he absolutely
loved him. And frankly, that's the way I am with my male friends: I say "I
love you" when I feel it.
Sir John Gielgud once coached you before a performance for the queen, and
you wrote, "I could have kissed him." Is there any other man you thought you
might like to kiss?
Well, I have actually kissed Gielgud since then. He's in my film of
Hamlet. He's 91 years old and just the most extraordinary creature. But
let's see: What other male would I like to kiss? I don't know. I think Ralph
Fiennes is a good-looking lad. I don't know that I want to kiss him. Rufus
Sewell, maybe? Pierce Brosnan? I watched Goldeneye, and the film works
partly because the camera and all of us are very happy to look at him.
There's something very, very appealing about him.
In your film Peter's Friends, your good friend Stephen Fry, who is gay,
plays an HIV-positive man who's terribly afraid of telling his friends. Has
a friend ever told you he had HIV?
Yeah--fuck, yeah! Boy, it was a shock too. I have actually had that happen
almost as a result of that film. Someone had suspicions that I knew they had
HIV.
What? Someone thought you knew he had HIV, so he told you?
Yes, but I had no suspicions at all, and the whole thing ended with tears
and hugs.
You got married at a time when information about AIDS was still somewhat
sketchy, but this is a different world today. Now that you are, ostensibly,
dating agin and seeing new people, would you take an HIV antibody test if
someone asked?
Sure, of course. I had to be HIV-tested when Em and I got the house, for the
insurance.
Was it a strange experience?
Yes, I remember it was stranage. But mostly it was just another thing that
made me loathe insurance companies. I think they've finally given that up
now, testing for policies, because the outcry was so huge.
Let's talk a little bit about the film you've just written and directed,
A Midwinter's Tale. What about the names of the characters? There's a
designer named Fadge and a character called Vernon Spatch and the one I
liked best, Terry Du Bois. Everyone in the film kind of bastardizes the
French pronuciation, and it sounds like "Terry Does Boys".
Yes, many of the characters I wrote with certain actors in mind,
particularly John Sessions [who plays Terry Du Bois]. He had done a raging
queen in one of his one-man shows, and I always wanted to bring parts of
that character to a film, to exploit the schtick but also take it away so
that the character is naked.
Some gay viewers will see these jokes as part of what we call "the
predatory tradition", that is, derivative of the stereotype that gay people
are after everybody else sexually, that you're not safe with gays around.
I'll be sorry if that's the case, but at the same time the fact that they
are stereotypical doesn't mean they don't exist. What I worry about more is
the lack of originality. I would hope that the execution of it in my film
would be sufficient to carry it off well.
There's a point in the film where someone says, "Shakespeare himself was
probably bisexual." Do you really think this is so?
Well, it's not a particularly original thought. Any detailed analysis of the
sonnets would lead one to believe that Shakespeare had a clear sense of male
affection. So he might well have been bisexual. His investigation of male
friendship and male love is very deep. It's very unabashed. It's very
full-blooded, very full-on, like Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. I
always wanted to do a 19th-century production of Romeo and Juliet and cast
Mercutio as an Oscar Wilde figure. Even if their relationship wasn't
physically consummated, every other aspect of that relationship was as it
might have been between a man and woman.
There have been other British directors, such as the late Derek Jarman,
who do Shakespeare adaptations--
I liked his Tempest very much. I remember watching it, and this guy who was
sitting next to me grumbling all the way through it got up and left. I'm
sure he was a closet homosexual.
Would you ever contemplate doing an all-male film version of some
Shakespeare play?
I don't think I can, actually. On the basic level that girls don't get
enough parts anyway. I could do it if I do an all-female version.
There has always been talk of your being knighted or your winning an
Oscar. Do you want to be knighted? Do you want an Oscar?
It's always nice to get a bit of recognition. But if it's a choice between
picking up an award and having a larger audience, I'll always want the latter.
Is it true that the Royal Shakespeare Company once called you "Dame
Branagh" because you were turning down all the roles they were offering?
I think there were a lot more colorful phrases bantered about than "Dame".
The British press has said that there was a rivalry between you and Emma.
As Iago, you have that great line, "Beware, my lord, of jealousy. Look to
your wife." Did jealousy contribute to your breakup?
No, that's so ridiculous. One thing our relationship never had was a sense
of competition. I saw Sense and Sensibility the other day and felt so
incredibly proud. I think she's so very talented, and there's never, ever
been an ounce of envy between us--going either way. It gives me an
incredible buzz that she's finally being recognized for her writing as well.
So it's not true that, according to a wire report, you said, "I have to
make an appointment to see her. She even goes to bed with her Oscar."
[Horrified] No, that's amazing!
We've heard that you've talked about doing the film version of Larry
Kramer's AIDS drama The Normal Heart, with Barbra Streisand directing.
Yes, I've been talking to Streisand. But she's still wrapped up in her
current film project. I'm very intrigued, so, yes, absolutely, if it ever
came up, I'd love to do that film.
We also heard you were developing a film about Oscar Wilde.
Yes, but I didn't do it because David Hare and Mike Nichols were doing
something about him. I mean, it's not surprising. The time is right. If I
directed it, I would want to do it with Stephen Fry. It'd be perfect
casting. Stephen is so big, so fleshy in the same way that Wilde was fleshy.
What about the idea of your playing Oscar Wilde?
I was actually offered the role of Wilde in another film, but it didn't
happen. Wilde fascinates me. One of the first serious, sort of naughty books
I ever read was called Feasting with Panthers, which was about Wilde's
circle of friends and also about the whole world of Victorian London. I
would have loved to have spent an evening with Wilde. And I certainly look
forward to seeing a movie about him someday.
In your autobiography, you refer to yourself as being "queeny". Did you
mean that literally?
I suppose I mean as a sort of extravagant foot-stomper, a kind of swagger.
[Lifts his nose in the air and moves his head from side to side, surveying
an imaginary cout] It's like, "What about ME? Is anybody listening to ME?"
Do you have a contract for a second installment of your autobiography?
There's been an ongoing understanding that I will write more. But I don't
have plans to do it anytime soon.
Not even with all this attention being paid to your separation from Emma?
In a large part because of all the attention being paid to the
separation.
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