| 02 August 2011
Harold Pinter revolutionised British theatre – so much so that powerhouses John Malkovich and Julian Sands have teamed up to pay tribute to him. What does John Malkovich listen to on his iPod? Apart, that is, from arias by Beethoven and Mozart, which make up the exquisite soundtrack to The Infernal Comedy, a musical play about an Austrian serial killer, which he’s currently touring around Europe?
The compelling American star of films such as Dangerous Liaisons and In the Line of Fire, has downloaded a recording of his friend, the British actor, Julian Sands, reading poetry. Apparently, Malkovich is never without Harold Pinter’s poems on his iPod, tucked into the pocket of an elegant suit from his own fashion label.
“John saw me performing the poetry at a benefit performance for homeless women in Los Angeles, in 2009, and immediately wanted the recording for his iPod,” says 53-year-old, LA-based Sands, who has known Malkovich since they appeared together in the Oscar-winning 1984 movie, The Killing Fields.
Malkovich so loved the power and emotion of Pinter’s poetry, which was new to him, that he couldn’t stop talking to Sands about it. And about his reading, for which Sands was “tutored” by the Nobel laureate, who died of cancer in 2008.
The result is A Celebration of Harold Pinter, which Sands brings to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and which Malkovich directs, in between playing Casanova in a chamber opera, Giacomo, and the mesmerising murderer in The Infernal Comedy.
Yorkshire-born Sands was 21 when he made his name as the tall, blond, handsome George, who crushed Helena Bonham-Carter to his manly bosom with devastating results in A Room With a View (1985). He has appeared in only one Pinter work, The Room (1987), with Annie Lennox, which Robert Altman directed.
However, he has loved the playwright’s work since he was a schoolboy at Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire, where he acted in productions of Pinter’s plays, studying them for A-level GCE’s. He remembers writing an essay on the enigma of the “Pinter Pause.”
“Harold taught me that it is actually the actor taking a breath. You don’t just stop and there’s silence and dead air,” says Sands, adding: “When Harold realised that his voice was being impaired by his illness, he asked me to take over a charity reading he’d agreed to do in London for a women’s shelter.”
Still golden-haired and with cheekbones you could cut yourself on, Sands is soon to star in Hollywood’s version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, due for September release. He still doesn’t know why Pinter chose him. “We were having lunch together and he suddenly asked me, so I suppose I was on his radar. Nonetheless, it was a tremendous compliment.
“He said that there was one condition: we had to spend time together, rehearsing the work – and that was an absolute gift.”
The ailing playwright cared deeply about his poetry, so is there one nugget of advice that Pinter gave Sands? “He would say, ‘Slow down’,” he replies. “But the whole thing was an immense privilege for me. Imagine having all that time with someone you’ve admired since your school days! It’s like having a marvellous conversation with the audience about Pinter.”
When Sands read the poems at the London benefit, Pinter came and sat in the front row, fixing the actor with his glittering gaze. “It was nerve-racking, but it was also one of the most moving moments of my career,” Sands confesses.
For the Pinter homage, in which he also reads some prose and tells anecdotes about his friend, he’s dressed by Nicole Farhi. “My suit is so beautiful; I feel empowered by it,” he says. “John and I actually talked about me wearing something from his own collection, but we decided against it. I do wear his designs, though, and love them.”
Being John Malkovich, he’s even given Sands the clothes off his own back. “Which is yet another gift.”
Julian Sands in A Celebration
of Harold Pinter,
Pleasance Courtyard,
4-21 August, 3pm
From £7.50, Tel: 0131 556 6550
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