Derek Jacobi
Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi CBEis an English actor and stage director...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionStage Actor
Date of Birth22 October 1938
growing-up thinking actors
Actors, I don't think, ever really grow up. I'm hoping that that rejuvenating process applies to me, too. It has so far. I've been very lucky.
actors faces hats
Sir Larry could be very strict and a disciplinarian, too. He had many faces; he wore many hats. But, ultimately, he loved the theater and he loved actors.
distance civilization hard-life
It's too hard a life for me. I could only do it - check out in that sense - if I checked out somewhere that was luxurious and within hailing distance of civilization.
imagination leap-of-faith situation
Ultimately it's a leap of faith and a leap of imagination to put yourself back in time into those conditions and situations and see how you would react.
character games careers
There's never been any game plan or thread through my career. It's just happened that I've ricocheted from one interesting character to another.
thinking years giving
I've been a professional actor now for 38 years. A long time. And it's wonderful to earn your living doing something that you love. To think people actually give you money for it!
quality actors young
You have to get through the Hamlet hoop as a young actor. Your classical qualifications are based on the quality of your Hamlet. And then, as an older actor, you have to get through the Lear hoop. And I'm approaching the Lear hoop.
thinking feet people
I think actors always retain one foot in the cradle. We're switched on to our youth, to our childhood. We have to be because we're in the business of transferring emotions to other people.
climate clothes imagine lived pretend within
You have to pretend to live in those clothes that they lived in, to live within the climate that they had then. You have to imagine with the help, obviously, of all the other technicians that are around - the writer, the director, the other actors.
real character play
Real-life people are often the hardest to play, people that you recreate who have actually lived, because you have to live up to people's knowledge of those characters.
fall years differences
We started filming in 1993 which was only four years after the fall of communism. The difference in Budapest over the last five years has been remarkable.
facts conscious unemployed
I'm always conscious of the fact that I am part of a profession that is 80% permanently unemployed. So, to be working in any sense is to be privileged.
blessed roles needs
I would like to be as fit as I've always been. I've been blessed with good health, I've been blessed with stamina. Particularly for those great classical roles, you need an Olympian stamina. I, fortunately, have that.
character thinking play
I think that each character has fascinated and interested me enough to want to play him.