tonight through his ideas and his vision, onbo the role an the py. f now i'll do itnd a soe heaven. i be scan, ail kiedy fathernd e same villa se to hn. a ttumd in whicer on as m,etry, of really, otionally low yourlf tofollow tbeed with a ret e gone tgh extraordinary urneysn my dres rmhtly music andhogr pnd alrtsings to that r, a alive. anit'spain stuff but it'slso stuff that as all know, you kno, when you exrience heitened emotns they make you feel alive and th reaffirm a sense of self whethe's a love of aaren oa love of a child or whatever it is, all thosethin areery alin y. >> who kws, sa heen. but inur circumsta and cause of ft, his heavy wi him. am i then revee to take him in the purging of hi soul when he'sfit a seasonedor his sse? no. rose: jude w hamlet r the hour funding for arlise has roded by the following: >> aitional ndinfor charlie roseas also providedy these funders. captiong sponsored by ro communication from our studiosn york city, th is chlirose. shespee's'hamlets a rolehat has challengend and rewarded actors over the es. the late great sir john gill gud whos brayals were considered among the fist described the part as a suing of pressof living. there are sa to be as many hamlets as there arectors to ierpret him. he are some talking about the role at this table. >> i played hamlet very younand we wen to crohnbook stle to play at the castle where we more or ls a certain shakespeare'srooplso went. i was, i mean, le i remember when th date was concerd i thought, i had sort of died and gone to heaven. if it had all spped tn i uld have been absotely bloody dighted. >> we didn't rehearse itnd when you shoot it you shoot in pieces out of order. and you he last part of a soliloquy the month bore the rst two-thirds. >> so it isarder doing on film becauset has such a tural progression. >> or it doesn't. ybe that ishe best way to dit, who knows. >>ut you said you wished you had done it stage rather thaon fm. >> yeah. >> yh. >> he uld put thepost important word athe end of the line. toe on nor to the be that ishe question. so the most important thought of hamlet at that time is notife or death, it the question. it's t quest. >> a i walked up, it was a thing from -- on the stage to dohe to be or not to be soliloquy. and iaid to be or not to be, at is the question, whether it is nobler inhe mindo suffer the things and of outrageous fortune or to take on, i had -- what is that to die to sleep- i thought what is going on. chuces. >> i got somehow through it and towards the mdle of e siloquyi did that at one pot. i was wearing my horn-rimmed spectacles. and they had len in them which turne black when the light shown. ani had been wearing them and had forgotten. and i played the t be or t to be in front of owel cowardin horn-rimmed glasses. >>nd he was cckling. >> you regret most inour li not having played hamlet. >> yeah. >> why didt -- you future off and all of a sudn you were too drun >> well, because younow, in our lifime, in my lifeti i think that acting was an avocation. living lif was a vocation to me. and so i ner had the time. i was -- i said yeah i'll do next year. >> what do you think of that? >> what a nderful collection. an amazing collecti of inteiews. i think part of, being a part of thegacy is something i have somewhat oided thinking about while playing the part. >> it thrilling to remind me. i have done about 135 o them now so i'm condent i i can get on it with it and do it. ye, it's been very interesting ding to the -- n grammar was the reason i got inlved in this producon. he -- he was a part of the season at th don mar and suggested that i play the part. and i thi had itome from just about anyon else, maybe any one of those, but cause it was him, i reall took it serusly. and suddenly tught maybe now is thetime to do it. >> you will recognize jud law, his the test to try his hand at portraying the danish prince, though more known for his film work he is no stranger to theatre. he was nominated for a tony in the broady production of in scretions in 1995. ter a successful run in london's west end his hamlet is now in preview on broaay. and here is lk at at production . >> jud law one of my favorite actors back at this table, welco. >> tha you for having me back. >> how does one decide it's timeor me to do hamlet? >> well,hink somewhere in the bac of my mind was alys a sense that it was inevitable only because was a challenge that everyone whoad played it and thoses evewho haven't played it, even richard harr so eloquently put ere, said that you know it's the gatest of challenges. but also theost fulfilling of roles. but getting the timin right and thelignment rig was always very important to me. and ing in the rightands and being inhe right frame of mind and at the right time in my own life. and ken brown asked me to be a part of the season in the don mar inthe west end. and that involved michael grand it who i thinks a fantastic directo anthe don mar is the wonderful mpany known for gatherg terrific ensembles. anit just felt thatime was right. and it was nothing more than that reall t wasn' a great urging, suddenly, it just felt that the gup of people arounde were the ght group. rose: why is it the most challenging of roles? >> well, nowhat'm pling it i would say it is the most challenging of roles because it requires ju autvery eatrical element avaible to you in onperformance. comedy, drama, tragedy, wit, physality, passion romanc. it challenges you in dialogue, in theize of its soliloquy, seven soloquys in a to the audience. and then it's ao inedibly demanding because i'm stealing a quote re from another great hamlet roger reese who saido me you don't pl hamlet, hamletlays you. there is a part of you in him. there is -- it has to be your feelings of le. because indeed t estions he raises, the experience he isoing through is in a way a map thugh live that we all lead and the questionse asks are questions at none of us have answers for. and again the rean why the play is so vibrant, so alive today as it was 400 years ago. but they are questions that we all have to summonn ourselves if youike. there is not a caricature like a richard iii to hide behind. or a fighting king like henry 5th. he is ve much an open spirit and so on aightly basis it very, very danding to emotionally put yoursf through that roller aster. >> rose: and that part of why it viewed the favorite shakespeareian role. >> i tnk the favorite because -- bause on the whole, i would stick my neck out and sathat actors lik hard, like hard wk. you know, funny enoh i was out fo dinner last night th two of the gentlemen who are in the play. one has a nonspeaking role and one pys horatio. and were talkin aut the difference in the experience of playing the role, playing the piece he in new york. and course what the young guy who don't speak said is that hewould find it even harder here because what he doe't get is the portunity to just go at it. instead he's experiencg it fr a back row watching us. and i thinkctors always feel pushi yourself, doing it is where you want to be. >> do you art off with this b saying yo want to go see an lesh a read and reread, not only the playut everything else wrten about the play or do you say in order to be refresh and original iot to take a fferent path? >> i had about a year because i s the last in a season of four. i had about year before i ev started rehearsing whicis a wonderful amount of time. and i wanted to do it properly, you know. i really wanted know that i had givenit my best and emaced it and eaten up absolutely everying available toe. and i starteby reading, i felt the bes place tostart s in the 1600s, 19, around the timwhen shakespeare wrote this play. anto find out what was -- to gather as much as iould wh was going on england, in london at that ti. what was insping this man to write suca volutionary piece of work. and that took me to several books, one 1599 by james shapiro whichooks at this -- at england monarchy, at the church, athe wars inreland, whatas going on othe streets. and indeed what was being read by those whcould read. there was also anotr wonderful book b robert mcgee called the izabethan hamlet whichlooked atthe affectshat thislay would ve on the elizabet audience, the fect of a ghost on stage, for exple, would hav mea ctified da nation fothe man talking to himnd possible dam nation r those in the audienceo little keys that ju planted interesting seateds in my mind. d that then lead me o to certain texts wherehey believe shakespee could have been reading the essays of mitell due montagne. if you hd next to the soloquies are incredibly silar. and the idea that this was reesh in william shakespeare's mind, the id of mining your own feelings in a almost linear thought as a way of expressg someone in a le. to an audience was -- was obviously so sumpuous. and u can see that in the soliloquies. and then yes, i d, because hi so long, i did about go back and see a few of th films i hadn't seen. i ha't seen the melgibson film >> rose: the burton u can get on dvd >> hi seen that bere and i went and watchedhat and the wonderful interview around that production with guilgud becae he directed it. i found a recoing of guilguid ich i listened to. i watched thelivier film. so i subrged myself but having said thatthere was a period o time then when i actually did anoer job shortly bere i started rehearsals. and looking back although it wasn't planned, i'm really glad because it meant that i let it all jus filter but at the same time removed i from the forefnt of my mind. and waable then to start he had remembers -- rehearsing with the text, very much aresh. >> rose: it retches you as anctor, it does what do you as an actor, either in life or acting. >> i thi in both. i'm not to over -- on aery personal level. on a personalevel but as an actor and on a personal leveas me, as a person. >> rose:ow has it changed you as a person. >> i thinkhe day daley mand to summon up aense of pain, aense of longing a sen of hope, a sense of lief in the world and its beauty and also ints tragedy and demise, a that is summoned in this exquisitepoetry, of whi is there only as a m reallyo emotionally allow yourself toollow, has to be imbued wh a real heart anso i have gone through exaordinary journeys in my essing room nightly with music d photographs and all rts of things to keep th fresh and ali. d it's painful stuff but it's als stuff thats we all know,hen you experienceheightened emotions ty make you fe alive. and they rffirm a sense of selfhether it's a love of a parn or a lov of a child or whatever it is, all those things are very aliven you. >> rose: which ipart of the reason that lot of people have said tha when they read hamlet they fee like shakpeare was speaking tothem. he somehow has gotten sothing about what it means to be alive. >> yeah, absutely. through a seriesf estions, he somehow affirms whatt is to be alive. 's a very unusu equation in a way. because hamlet questio and questions d questions. but in -- i suppose you could y that those questionsre what keep us all intereed, whetr keep us all interted and what keep us on the edge of our seats life itself. and so to see it mirrored in meone else, to see it coming out of someone ee, especial, you know, under su a famous mantle, aa piece workyilliam shespeare i suppose he's reaffirmg. >> rose: whais the hardest part of . everybody is familiar wh it, so itas the possibility of being almost clicheish. >> ion't personally fine any of that very har rose: oh no, okay. that whole part of it, you weren't worried about is the moment i've got to -- >> sure, i h moments like that in rehearsal. there were moments i rehearsawhen early early on when people s hamlet, thinng gosh, i'm hamlet this is a cliche. and indeed, the several of e lines in the famous soliloquies trip you up earl on. but michael ha created a wonderful production. and in that pduction, in that world that exists for the out of ten minutes every nigh i'm hamlet in that world. and the urney i follow verylear tome. what i have to do. and what betr ways to press that journey than through these extraordary lines. th likes of which we haven't surpassein 400 years. there iso better wayf saying to liver to die, to ber not to be. ere is no better way of --. >> rose: it stood thtest of time. >> it stood the test of time. what iound hard is t mpler rather not so simple physical application ery night. i mean and being mentally alert, to be able to change on line with absolute convictions very, very --. >> rose: people who have written about it, no becausit has been reviewed here butt has been revied in london talk about the physality of your own performance, in a sense, how well you move across the stage. was th thoughtinto that, i mean is that sometng th you and the director sort of -- >> no, it wasn't, funny enough. people do talk and ask lot about that and whether i took classes or whether it was mething decided to imbue. >> rose: to emphasize, to ve a special kind of -- >> it's not. itas just sortf evution out of the rehearl process. what i knew, inew i didn't want him to be a brooding moross introverted stagnant sort of figure. i wanted h to have great life. and i wand these beautiful words d these tughts and "passions",be they dark or light,to have an energy to em. i wanted y to fe h thoughts. and so i think that's what started to happen physally rses howo you get to the point where yo are hamlet? >> i had this discussion with micha ear on. and to back to this idea whh i rlly don't underestimate, that hamlet is not a character of sorts. he is a character within the story but i haveo beim. i rely he tri to play it afresh everyight. now the was a very strong bl print of where and what have to do. m not there to frighten other ters or pull rbits out hatsor anything. bu it's got enough elbow room to really allow m to experiment nightly and to allow the emotional thread to folw, to lead m. i can literally follow my nose emotionally. andthat's really allowed me to, i feel, open myselfp to him. and i was always a little ovwhelmed early on when you stand at the foot of the motain and put yourselft the end of it. if you start to thi of where you ve to get to at the end of the evening, it's overwhelming. because it's such a long journey. at you have to do and it' interesting becae this ultimately comes out in the play and in the part. is play ity the scene scene line bline and shakespear helps you to each moment. every time a new chacter comes on his ergy changesment hearries an energy from one and puts it to ather in the same way at he will take lines from characters andse them against them inanother ene. and it is almost le a momentum that ilds up. and before you know it you are the hours in and are you at moment where h himself then says the readiness isall. and to me what, it was the greatestiscovery i had in the part becauseo much is made of the early par of hamlethen he is qutioning and he's in this sort of gordian knot of self-analysis. and a lo isn't said about that particular speech ich to me is the most beaiful where he talks about the providence of the fallf a spar owe, if it is now, to come, if it not n, if not now it wl come, ready sensall. >> ros it really is beautiful. >> existtial clarity. and he as it up -- he surmisest by sayinet be. that moment to me is a man whis iredibly open anything and evething that thrown at him, iluding death. >> re: mastering elizabethian, how do y do it? >> well, there are sort of several sides to it, i suppose. therare always elements and wor that make absole no sense. and you have to be in a company, i believe, or i w lucky enough to ben a company where ere was so such thing as a stupid estion. what doe a do -- bodkin mean. >> re: that is the rule at this table. has to be so. and then you can begi learning. >> rose:xactly. >> sfirst of all that has to be clead up. but then youi think it's the same wh an audienc your earttunes to it. and you have to remember that wlst there is always specific meaning to a line there is also a hidden meaninand apoetic meaning, there has to be a moment whe you allow yourself to play with e words, at the words willut of their own shapend sound crte an image. it's not --it's not about being specific, somemes it is but on the whole it's about creating a smell, a tone of feeling. and so it's not like learning other lines it's not -- you ntioned beckett earlier,t is t likelaying beckett, it's not a specifi to me. it's pore out painting withords. and when su havehe thought, curate, when you have the presence, as said before there is often no other better words than the words he offersou to express them. >> somebody ce said that hamlet dances with this stuff. yes, he does. he does dance withis thoughts. but ined you see, i think again that's why he's so miliar to us all. cause we have an oprtunity of seeing inside a man' head, a person's head. anto me it's a wonrful snapot of how we all think. how we alleel. the is a certain punctuation which i' sure you areaware ofhat some won't know which is the eye amic pentameter when shakespeare writes in verse. whats interesting is h often ts full stops in the middle of the sentencehich means the thought chans. so hamlet rare leh finishes a thoug without startingnother thought, start ring thought. and that is a great indicaon from shakespeare of how he wantsim to be played. but it's als to me an indication of the ki of man he is. and indeed the kind of man rhaps that is certainly familiar to which is this idea as youross a stree will be thinking about ying a present for somebo and then ll you see mething else and think to no, i must book that holiday an then you wi remember the book d the bookill lead you . >> wn you do that, you say i pe i don't forget to buy the presen >>nd of course you have drifted on. d sometimes tt can be an incredibly deep and emotional press that you are going through. sometimes it can be about a book andpresent and d walk organize somethg like that. >> rose: a look at som scenes and i want toou set them up. this is act 1, scene 4, you see the ghost of your father. in hamle. >> witthe beginning of the play is very interesting. ain people enjoy calling him the gloomy dain. but he isndeed mourni. he has just los his father who he obviously aded or at least had a very,ery significant rolen his life. and to make matters worse, his mother has married most immediately his uncl, his father's brother and left him almt in this desert of mouing ere he is alln his own, isolated. he is questioni his own life. he says in the first time you see him alone, you know, that he wied in a way cokill himself. the ly reason he won't becausgod is against m. buhe's over with the world. he over with everythi cynical and negative because to him he sees everything as a polluted garden, an unseeded garden, h calls it. suddenly out of no where he is appached and told that spirit of his father has been dean waing the battlements of the castle. he hooks on to it immeately which is unusual beuse of course you would ink it wou be e last thing he would need. but to me it is aign that ere is a chink of hope. there is a chink of something is ami. and also possibly somethin afoot. and so hebelieves in them anfollows them. >> roll tape. re it is. act one, scene four. >> a drunkard, soil o -- and indeed itakes from our achievemen so performed at height, marrow of ou attributes. >> ministers ograce, defend us ,000 a spirit of hell or be goblin dned. brick withhee air from heaven or blasts from hell. be thy intense, wicked or charitle, thou comes in such a questionable shape that i will speak tohee, i will cal the hamlet, king. >> father! royal dain. >> o, answer me, in ignorance but tell why thy nonized bones set in death have burst their -- why where we saw th quietly intered, ponderous and marvel, up again, what may this mean? say why is this, wherefor. whathould we do? >> re: in all this transitions th you have to go tough here. what is the actor's head thinking? becaus you're doing ery night. >> yeah. >> re: you want to make sure it has a rreshness. >>here is so much tolay withvery night rses it might be a different performance. >> indeed. butnd there is always something to get rht and get bter and improve. and there is always somethg to re-examine. mean first of all, i don't think shakespea wrote a gger part it is about or 50% ofone of his longest pls. >> yeah, exactly. >> so you ha a huge amot of dialogue. whicoffers many opportunities. there are, you know, each line you want t mter, perftly and you mayot do one line as well as youid the otr line the nigh before sthat nht your chall seng well, there is a breath i really wanted to get on that line >> and iyou get it there, may send you tonother ace that is even better. >> exactly. and en uerneath that is a situation, a wonderful heightened situationhich builds and blds and builds and the same with that but on a larger, in the same way u may not get that. so heartfelt one nightut you get ithe next and that again leads you to another. so iis annormoushree mensional jigsaw puzzle at offers itself to you. and never stops challenging and never stopsxciting the performer. can't believe there w an actor out there who has played him. whcould say i got bored playing him. he is -- i mean myear is you know, i finish here in decemb and there are n pls so far to take him on or to anything else. but quite whatou do xt i have no idea. i -- now he has to t me t of it. >> is itikely that you would mo want to go do anothe shakespearelay. >> very possibly although which wld need a rest. >> ros but you might. >> yes, very, very possibly. >> rose: a you feel good about being back ontage. >> i'm very please to be back on stage, yeah. it was wre i start. >> rose: yeah. >> that why i asked. and y also have created enough of a by of work on film that you cago back any timeou want. yocan go back an forth. >> yeah. >> rose: and this wi make it even the choices even better. >> i hope so. i hope so. i dorgotten the exhilaration of theatre on many levels. the exhilaration of having a live audien, of playing it ere and then, experiencing this wonderful alchemy th haens or t edge of the stage and the beginninof the auditorium. an indeed the poteeee of ensemble and what you build upthe rapport you build with a group of actors. d of course there is that wonderfuscene in hamlet where the onlyeople ultimately he recognizes himself are the actors. and there are all these references to th players are ming and put on the ay. and he adores thedea of performance and through performance, of course, he is also able to captu rea life in tripping up his une. so taking this on theroad, had this fantastic mirror of th, suddenly packing up the stage and taking it to the castle. d denmark. >> w the prince of denmark there. >> y. the prince of denma came to the first performance. >> set this up for m act four, sne 2, hamlet won't telosenkranz and guilderstern where the dead body is >> the are all these things of madness throughout hamlet. and many questions sed is. is he mad. what ismadness? how mad is he. does he beco mad. to me the pa is quite straightforwar actually. i am n going to explain it now because think it's more eiting to co and see it but what i will say is this, tt he gets close to madnessas possible after is killed paloneus and at this stage his recognition of wha life is and the worthf life is very potent in his tongue and in his md, and i deed his also inthis moment, baling with his new found enemies, roseranz and guildensrn who were indeed hioldest friends. >> roll tape, here it . >> what is it you'v done, my lord, with the deadody. >> compounded wi dust. >> tell us whe it is. >> that we m take itnd bury. do not believe. >> believe what. that i may keep your counsel and not mine own. besides, be danded of a sponge. what replicationshould be made by theon of a king. >> take you me for aponge, my lord. >> i, sir, one that soaks up e king's count nance, his rewa, his authorities. but suc officers do the king's besservice in the end. he keepinghem like an airport in the corn ef -- corner of his jaw, first mouth to be las swallowed. when he leaves whayou have gleaned it is but squeezing you and sponge, you shall be dry agai >> i undstand you not, my lord. >> i'm grad of it. slee. >> my lord, you must llus where the bo is and go with us the king. >> of all the years wh the king. >> but the king is not wh the body. >> the kinis a thing. >> a thing, my lor >> of nothing. >> every night does the audience rea different? to the different ments in termof the line onenight versus another nht? or do they seem to respond the same way in ter of applause. >> there areertain acts every ght to key moments >> they're waitingor. >> which there waiting for which is already blliantly wrten andrilliantly performed i haveo say by the company. the ll of paleus which rowan ok plays is is filled with the most faastic word play and he is a brilliant comic actor. so there are certain key momes and key physical moments that we devisedhat we know we get pitive response fm. so we don't and that is part of li theatre too when there nothing there. >> rose: did you not get it. >> youave to car on and motoon. maybe the next one but there --. >> rose: iill get them tomorrow nig. >> will you ge them torrow night and also tomorrow night they may get something that youe never gotten before. and wh i have notid here is the audience is -- the audience here rlly meets you halay. theyant, they want to get it. they want to eny it. and ere are certain moments ich in t london run areey moments of not human, not drama b shifts in the dynamic of the py. and here you can hear peoe dably moving a feeling with you. it's very, very palpabl everyone said soin the cost. and they are very enthusiastic here, whi is wonderfu they have a great embrace o the thtre. >> do you see hamletr the performance different day than you did when y began oh so many mons ago. very much so. >> do you really? >> look, ias thrilledith th london run. thrilled that we were embred and enjoyed as much as we mr. but i look back now and i think what was i doing. whatas i doing. i mean i think -i think it'sheatural process that apart beds into you, there e qualitieshat you throw yourself into at the begiing of a run which slowly turn, hone do and t,ther colors come up. i wod say there w a brashness to themn aggressi that i found. a furyi found in be done whici think is just leveled out somewhat. and slighy a bitore wit here. certainly more confince and that's because wenow it as a company. we knothe play very ll. >> and the resnse has been terrific too th in terms it of critical and in terms ofudience response. >> yeah. >>et me do one more scene. act 5, scene 1 hlet discusses the skul the king's gesture. what can you telus of that. >> iad this, i read one of the many books in preparation for this part, this wonderful outlet this wonderful observation that cause hamlet cannot play the king, hisncle has taken over the role of the king he assumes the next most truthful role in court which is the fool. which is w he puts on this an partilar disposition, why is consideredad becae he starts speang in the giberh of a fool which isn't madness but is wit and often pnted truth. the play unravels a he is fally accused of the murderf paloneus heis sent away but returns havin vowed to have bloody oughts only. the first thing sees is grave dig are and the grave gger unearthed this skull ich turns out to be the old ols skull. it is a wonderful sort of symmetry. also happened to be to be one of his closest frnds as aoy, thisld man who was obviously the court ster. and it is also very much the completion of a circle o life,uddenly hamles aware that whatever you do whatever are you capable of, you all end up the same, whether youre exander the great or csar or a gre digger or a lawyer or a politician or a crtier, you all e up in the earth. and yo all endp as mter. anwhen he suddenly has a connection not just th that sort of scienfic truth butlso with the actual lif that was inthis skull, is yet another momentthat affects h dictly to the heart. roll tape. here it is. >> a rest poor yuric. i knew him, horatio. full of infinite jests, of most excellent fancy. he adore me on his back a thousand tim and nowow my imagine, my gourds rises at it. those lips which iissed. whether you are jibe now, yourgambles, your songs, yourflushes of m iment which we werence set the table on a roll. noone now to mocyour own grinning. quite cck fl. they will get you my lady's chamber and tell r at paint an inch thick to thisavor she mt come. make heraugh at that. >> when you wah it what do youhink? >> don't do it li at. >> it's true, isn't it. >> it's clinical. >> vy, very klein call. it's also very odd because i have been foro many months now. >>ince they may have shot is. yes. but i have never really watched at bad. i just d a b of a test and let them get on with it because it's f theatre. i dn't really want to engage in the filming too ch because 's a theatre piece. so ihave been seeing him through he, not like that. so when yoare making a film you spd the day looking back on what you ha done. and you get use towatching yourself, youre living it and are you lookingut from your own skull. >> but h does -- how does e think differely. obviously projection is e thing. of being on stage in terms of the skill a the talent and the moment of the actor. tw cameras and i bunc of technicians around and a director. cinematographeversus ne of that. just an audience. >>s it going to be different? >> i havelways believed it's many of t same skills in difrentroportions. >> beyond amplification. amplification is -- but i also believe amplificatio both vocally but also jus in reaction is also overstated from when peoe compare film d they say acting on stage is operating with a knife and acting on film is operating with a laser. i don't know, you know. i've sn great actors on film getting away with really broad performances. and i've seen actorson stage gettingway with very mimal performances which get woerful responses fr an audience. >>f they don't seem to be doina lot but theudience love it. >> a lot of it is the sense how it's going. and that depends on the theatre you are . and ined the shop that you are in in film. so t bier difference to me ishat theatreou have your two and a half hours, your two hrs, your three hours, however lonit is to tell your ory. and once you go you ain't stoppi. you are goin the are seens in this when hamlet is on stage for 45 minutes th people coming on and t scene is changing around him. i'm more lost in that part and inhat worldn those moments than i've ever been in moments, in whole streaks that have been rebuilt to the 1920s an cars and people going by, with cameras hid heen because i'm more aware o hitting mar and having to be in ock and wh have you. >> because youave the cameras there. you have to be make sure e you wheryou are supposed to be in relationship with the camera. >> it a sort of dam most. >> exactly. >> talk about this director adaptationn terms of clothes, in ter of set, in terms of what that w abou and where it ce from. >> what wasvery clear fr the gego is that micel was very keen tell this production to the who had never seen it before. i ink therere -- there is a general sense in theatre that you know, if yogo to thetheatre you have seen mlet, you all know shakespeare which isn't ue. a lot of peoe haven't seen shakespeare and han't seen hamlet. andtherefore why dress it with n conces, new thris. tell it as it is on the page and keep it verclean, keep it very straightforward. and the pieceerves ielf. and is very effective a piece. and he applied tt alsi think the dss and to the set. he dn't want it to be seen as a period sting. he didn't want you to fl oh this isn'trelevant to me. and i don't think helso wanted no costu, elizabetn costumes can sometimes look funny on people. you spt half the time looking at tights and cloaks rather than chrisen -- listeninto the wos but neither did he wan it to be moderno it was mobile phones and gun and tvs. so he created this timeless period whe the clothre very present, very specific to a character. but not obstruseive. the set was the same. chris om has createdd wondful, simpleet that in many ways isjust a black box but dsses it occasionally with a sh of red or a drop of blu there a buff ment in this where we use a transparent -- that isit so we perform behind it. almosto furniture an faastic lighting. so the lighti splits this black box sometimes i half, in diagonals which shafts of light and beams. cuts off areas that makes them emingly in the nlight and sometimes i the moonlight and sometimes insi and sometimes outside. so there is a realworld b there never a sense of anything other than stening to this wonderful dialue. and key to all of that is mong at a great pac, which is very, very quick. >> a uses this wall well. >>eah, very well. >> beaifully so. >> on shaspeare is it the consensus of pple who may not have done what you have done and direors that he is betr a character or narrative or plot. >> specifically to hlet, i suppose it's more, goodnes, i think i would say it's more in the story, in the telling of the stor cause there are a lot of key characters in the story that you learn very little about. the one tha really surprised was ophia, ophelia and hamlover time become this exaordinary love story. we only tw snes together. ophelia you hear very ltle about other than this promise, posble love for hamlet. and if you look defect th had on the artisc sense of tragic love, it's becse it's all in the imagination anall in how skespeare lls the story. the are huge areas which he cuts and decides to go from, you know, a beat where she comes on saying i hav just seen hamlet. he is a terrle state. he is up set, he looked me in the face d went away. the next time you see them together isn't until she's beenet up to go and spy on m and talk to him. u have never seen anytng betweethem up until th. you ve never seennything shared. it's all in what is discussed by other people. she is in that sense ud veryuch as aool to frted the story. the me you could say about hotio who is there to signify t growth of loyalty and friendshi in hamlet's life. but once they made this commitment early oin the play you d't see them again until the second half en because heasn't broken that loyalty, you believe inhe loyalty. you don't need to se it. exercid. >> right. >> i want to take a look at this. this i hold bloom who say shakespeareian scholar, as you know. said this about hamlet. an the contradictions in his charact on a appearance on thisrogram. here it is. >> i he never met a person and never encountered a literary fige who i able to combine absolute contrarys,really contradictions as hamlet does. he is once me given to theatricality than any oth filling and yet also given to kind of terrifyg inwardness which keeps growing an owing. fuher and further into the deeps and that is an amazing mbination. how yocan be totally theaical andotally inward. >> is the an answer to that? >> totally theatrical and totally inward the contradictn. >> to me, 'she ntradictions and the righ to change his mind, that makes him relable to all ofus. you see him evolve and you see him leave and queion but leave behind questions andndeed, aners as quickly he' resolved them. justs we do in life. you know i'm sur the footage of me sat here ten years agotalking about -- stuff which would now look back on an say w am i talking about aing like that? why am ihinking like that. i've changed. in, within the story of this play, of crse, shaspeare only has several urs but in that he aows you the ance to see someone pelling away layers. i mean i think i couldn' agree with you more thats part of the reason you really have look deep side in playing hamlet. in terms of thinking of you own fls and your own weaknees and your own confiden and yourwn sense of destiny. >> yeah, indeed. >> to make it work. >> absolutely. and ner allow yourself to also leave behind something that you were filled with conviction on a moment before so in the moment you have to be- you have to convince yourself that that is correct. but inhe next moment you haveo be ready to walk away from it and me on to the next conviction. >> all rig, take a look. this is per brook who i analyzg, this is a night for spax sheer. analyzinto be or not to be. here it is. >> to or not to be, ich is -- or if i live,hat can i live for. and it ends before it lea through saying, thinking too much is what gets one io troue. and he says that the greatest enterisesanbe complely squashed by what he calls the peal cast of thought. d hamlet realizes that he had en thinking and thinking all this time of shld he kill, shouldn't he kill. is life right, are peoe like this, are pple like that. and now realizethat there something much simpler, whether it, he likes it orot, he has an action with his destiny a so he says, the speech wod start to be orot to be and ends with his word acti. and from then on, everything anges. >> wow. >> prettgood, huh? >> te, he a wonderf director. great inspiration. >> rose: there are two big questions. onis this fraudnense of an edible desire for his mother >> i don't agreeith that. i -- it is vy clear that onof the thorns in his side, in his art is that hisother has disappnted him, has created this torrent of dispointment in t just woman kin but mankind becausof her, in his opion, distasteful swt marriage that both i believe conjures question in his mind, the loyalties to the father when hwas alive but also now in mourning his dea. th naturally provokes in him a sense of --y sexually life, an thisoman as a sexuallyctive person. which as her son is distasful. and is sething he then uses and throws at her. and there were my rerences both toher and also on to the innocence of ophea, of being whore and being, you know, using sexualityment but the tion of him actlly wanting to eep with her, to me is n evidenin the text. i think it' a more moder effectation. >> rose:t does not intrude intony consciousnessof yours. >> no. >> re: you don't think it, you don't believe it you don't think of it, trefore it has -- >> it play those part >> rose: if you ought it yowould play it differently. >> of course. to me it just didn't become apparent in the te. i mean there is several a sense of his distae, the id of her being sexually tive is uncomfortable. and is in a way the hear ofhat he sees as this incestuous bed o corruption withinhe -- within the cot. but it doesn't, i don't lieve, lead -- i don't believe it leads to him actually wanting to bed his mother. rose: why did he hesitate fore killing cudio. >> h hesitates, again i can only speakf my onion. heesitatesecause he wants the death to be damned he wantslaweduous to go to hell. and the idea of the reward -- e idea of the -- sending m almost rewardi him by sending himto heaven is not enough. he wants the damnation to be double. he wants to take his life and ensure that he ss him to a place of missery. >> rose: . >> she wants tocatchhim at a time en he is doing something that will lead him to damtion. >> rose: where dyou put thisn terms of everything you've ever done? >> well, you kno, i'm always onef those people who trieto put whai am doing in the moment athe forefront. andhis has been so all-enmpassing and challenging an rewarding and i can't help but p it right at theop and right at the forefront of mheart and my head. >> rose: the dng of this. in a way for you, an opportunity to remind us, new york, who you were and what did y. >>bsolutely. absolutely. i mean was i thinking that when i agreed tbe a part of ts season and work with michael grandage and be a part of the sson tt ken suggested, no, at that time i was i thising more immediately, you know this is a great man and this a great company and want to play this great part. but u know, a week later when i dawns onyou that you just agreeto play hamlet and a you going to have to get up there ando it, the fear kicks innd for me it's the fea but also the beef in one's self-thaalways drives you. and i think a you absolutely right to highlight that there w a part of me somewhere tt nted to get the account there and raisey own bar and raise th expectation of those who had seen me and worked before and pre my worth, iuppose. >> thank you f coming. >>hank you for having me. >> rose: gre to see you. >> great tsee you. >> rose: jude law hamlet currently playing previews, openo the broader -- theat on tuesday october 5th. directed by michael grandage. will run for 12 wks. hamlet. jude law. thank you for joining us f this hr. see you next time. captioning sponsoredy rose commucations ptioned by mea access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org