The Contemporary Shakespearean Actor as the Site of Adaptive Encounter.

371 Pages·2015·3.44 MB·English

The Contemporary Shakespearean Actor
as the Site of Adaptive Encounter.

By Anna Blackwell
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of a
PhD degree at De Montfort University, Leicester.
October, 2014.
Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Doctor Siobhan Keenan for her thoughtful and generous supervision.
Her kindness, perspicacity and enthusiasm have been essential in honing my thesis and
ensured that my doctoral work has been enjoyable and productive. I would also like to
express my gratitude to my second supervisor, Professor Deborah Cartmell, for her
exhaustive knowledge of both the field of adaptation studies and academia in general and the
Centre for Adaptations for offering me the opportunity to pursue my PhD at De Montfort
University. To my fellow postgraduates at DMU and other institutions around the country,
my family and friends who have shown interest in my work: thank you for your
encouragement and for understanding the unique pressures of completing a PhD. To David,
both my thesis and I are much the better for your frequent insight, unfailing curiosity and
reassurance. Finally, the greatest thanks are owed to my parents for their continued support,
cheerleading and for planting the roots of my love for all things Shakespearean: without them
this thesis would not have been possible.

N.B. Part of the chapter on Kenneth Branagh will be published in the forthcoming edition of
Critical Survey, Vol. 25, Issue 3 (2014). This article is entitled: ‘“Yes, I have gained my
experience” (As You Like It, 4.3.23): Kenneth Branagh and Adapting the “Shakespearean”
Actor’.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates the cultural uses and implied signifying practices of the work of
actors who are popularly and frequently described as 'Shakespearean.' Though ubiquitous
figures within culture, there is a dearth of criticism which questions what qualities are
invoked in the use of the term ‘Shakespearean’ and what implicit judgements of value or
taste, class or cultural function are at work in its attribution. Although works such as Carol
Chillington Rutter’s Clamorous Voices have analysed the figure of the female Shakespearean,
moreover, the male Shakespearean remains largely an unexplored site of meaning and
definition. It is this focus on the body of the actor which represents my original contribution
to knowledge. Indeed, despite the preponderance of actor-based studies in Film Studies or,
indeed, Theatre Studies, Adaptation Studies has been slow to locate the body as an adaptive
site; concentrating instead upon themes, authors, the work of directors or, more recently, the
influence of production factors.
My thesis argues for the Shakespearean actor as a site of adaptation, positing it as a
conduit for the transferable commdity value which is ‘Shakespeare’ and thereby considering
the differences which may occur in the production of meaning as the Shakespearean actor
moves between cultural hierarchies: from ‘high’ to ‘low’, or mainstream culture. An essential
part of this thesis and an aspect which further argues for its contribution to this field is,
therefore, analysis of popular cultural texts which have largely been ignored by adaptation
critics. Although figures such as Richard Burt have recognised the value of popular or
counter-cultural texts for an understanding of Shakespeare’s far-reaching and often surprising
influence, the more tangential work in the Shakespearean actor’s filmography provide equally
valuable ground to mine. An understanding of a Shakespearean actor’s cultural function is
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thus served by critiquing their mainstream films as well as their more documented
Shakespearean oeuvre. By focusing on the implicitly multidirectional possibilities of
adaptation as a process, I explore what values the ‘Shakespearean’ holds in contemporary
culture and whether these maintain a popular perception of the Shakespearean actor as a
representative of conservatism, elitism and ‘high’ culture. Or, whether the Shakespearean
actor contains the potential for subverting some of the associations which Shakespeare’s
legacy has accrued over time.

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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 1

Introduction
Part I: Presenting the Shakespearean Actor
(i) Introduction 2
(ii) Structure and Rationale for Case Studies 18
Part II: Critical Framework(s)
(i) Introduction 29
(ii) The Star-Body 31
(iii) The Shakespearean 36
(iv) The Body in Performance 45
(v) Adaptation Studies 54

Chapter One: Ian McKellen, the Established Shakespearean
Introduction: Defining a Shakespearean 62
Monsters on Film: McKellen in the Nineties 69
McKellen in Hollywood: X-Men and The Da Vinci Code 84
‘Real Shakespeare’: Returning to King Lear 111
McKellen and Popular Culture 128

Chapter Two: Kenneth Branagh, Adapting the Shakespearean
Introduction: Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare 144
Branagh in the Mainstream 174
Interpreting Thor: Taste, Cultural Hierarchies and the Shakespearean 187
The London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony:
Kenneth Branagh, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Caliban 215
Chapter Three: Tom Hiddleston, the Beginnings of the Shakespearean Star
Introduction: ‘Quintessentially English’ 227
Thor and Loki 233
The Rising Shakespearean: The Hollow Crown 247
The Afterlife of a Character: Memes, Loki and Hiddleston Online 278
Celebrity and the Body: Coriolanus 300

Conclusion 317

Bibliography
Books and Journal Articles 329
Newspaper and Magazine Articles 339
Internet Resources 345
Archival Material 348
Other Material 348

Filmography 349

Appendix
Published Article: ‘Adapting Coriolanus: Tom Hiddleston’s
Body and Action Cinema’, Adaptation, Vol. 7 Issue 3 (2014). 352

N.B. ‘Adapting Coriolanus’ is currently available online to view as the winning selection for
the 2014 Adaptation Essay Prize. The journal edition will be published on December 1, 2014.
List of Illustrations

0.1 Last Action Hero (dir. John McTiernan, 1993) 2

1.1 Othello (dir. Trevor Nunn, 1989) 72
1.2 X2 (dir. Bryan Singer, 2003) 88
1.3 X-Men (dir. Bryan Singer, 2000) 95
1.4 X-Men: The Last Stand (dir. Brett Ratner, 2006) 98
1.5 Screen capture of Twitter @IanMcKellen 108
1.6 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(dir. Peter Jackson, 2000) 117
1.7 King Lear (dir. Trevor Nunn, 2008) 122
1.8 Title page for Vicious (TV, ITV, 2013-) 138

2.1 Hamlet (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 1996) 169
2.2 Hamlet (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 1996) 172
2.3 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (dir. Irvin Kerschner, 1980) 172
2.4 Promotional photograph of Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets (dir. Chris Columbus, 2002) 180
2.5 Thor (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 2011) 210
2.6 Hamlet (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 1996) 214
2.7 Kenneth Branagh in the 2012 London Olympics Opening
Ceremony (TV, BBC, July 27, 2012) 217

3.1 Suburban Shootout (TV, Channel 5, 2006-7) 230
3.2 Thor (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 2011) 240
3.3 Thor (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 2011) 241
3.4 The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part Two (dir. Richard Eyre, 2012) 255
3.5 Thor (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 2011) 257
3.6 The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part One (dir. Richard Eyre, 2012) 259
3.7 The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part Two (dir. Richard Eyre, 2012) 262
3.8 The Hollow Crown: Henry V (dir. Thea Sharrock, 2012) 273
3.9 Meme. Nelson Fraizer, ‘Odin are you sure Loki is
the adopted one? Hannibal.’ 291
3.10 Meme. Elska Nott, ‘How do I even begin to describe Loki Laufeyson…,’ 293
3.11 Meme. The King Himself, ‘So I Made A Thing.’ 295
3.12 Screen capture of Twitter @TWHiddleston 297

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Introduction
PART I: Presenting the Shakespearean Actor
Introduction
A young boy, Danny Madigan (Austen O’Brien), slopes late into his English classroom after
skipping school to watch the third in a series of blockbuster films of his favourite action hero,
Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger). His teacher (Joan Plowright) introduces a clip from
Laurence Olivier’s 1948 Hamlet, telling her class that some of them might recognise the actor
from the Polaroid commercials or, with slight resignation, ‘as Zeus in Clash of the Titans.’
Despite his teacher’s assurances that Hamlet was one of the first action heroes, however,
Danny quickly grows impatient with Olivier’s Hamlet and as the Dane shies from murdering
Claudius at his prayers, hisses: ‘Don’t talk, just do it!’ The camera cuts from its close-up on
Danny back to the film, but this time it reveals his personal fantasy of Hamlet as a bombastic
piece of action cinema, complete with the genre’s conventional explosions, spectacular
violence and Schwarzenegger’s typically deadpan delivery.

Fig. 0.1 Schwarzenegger contemplates Hamlet’s most famous meditation, deciding ‘To be or not to be… Not to
be.’

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With the voiceover for Danny’s action Hamlet intoning parodic appropriations of the text
such as, ‘Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark… and Hamlet’s taking out the trash’,
Last Action Hero dramatises some of the issues relating to Shakespeare’s use in popular
culture. Danny’s imagined film relies upon its visual similarity to Olivier’s Hamlet in order to
function as a parody. The same monochromatic, dark blue colour palette is enhanced by
sudden sparks of colour, however, which arise from the play’s newly interpolated action
scenes, such as the match lighting Schwarzenegger’s cigar (see above), bomb explosions and
the shards of glass as Claudius is pushed through a window. Similarly, the familiar image of
Hamlet’s graveside philosophising is undercut by Schwarzenegger hurling Yorick’s skull as a
weapon. That the Shakespearean actor as an individual is determined as much by their
frequent movements between ‘high’ and mainstream culture as it is by their high cultural
cachet is also suggested by the film. This is present in Plowright’s English teacher and her
attempts to popularise Hamlet for her students, the description of Laurence Olivier of the
Polaroid commercial and Clash of Titans fame and a later cameo in which Ian McKellen,
implacably blank, stalks nineties New York as Death from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh
Seal (1957). With its recurrent and playful subversion of the expectations surrounding acting,
blockbusters or classical music, Last Action Hero serves as a useful introduction to the
permeability of cultural hierarchies and those texts and individuals who are characterised by
their frequent movements between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.

This thesis explores the significance, signifying practices and cultural reception of the figure
of the British male Shakespearean actor in Anglo-American culture post-1996, with special
reference to the perception of the Shakespearean in popular culture and representations of
masculinity. The three case studies that structure this work focus on the actors Ian McKellen,
Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hiddleston as — respectively— examples of the late, mid- and
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early-career Shakespearean performer. Although there are other British actors who might
have been chosen in each case, I will argue that the careers of McKellen, Branagh and
Hiddleston lend themselves particularly to the concerns of this thesis. Each chapter begins by
considering the way in which my case studies have established their reputation as a
Shakespearean (or, in the case of Hiddleston, began to create a performer identity conducive
to Shakespeareanism). I continue in close critical analysis of their work, exploring in
particular how their relationship to Shakespeare has developed this reputation, or, in the case
of McKellen and Branagh, consolidated the cultural cachet attached to their star persona.
Essential to this and a fundamental aspect of my contribution to original knowledge is thus
outlining the way the Shakespearean actor as a concept is established discursively in culture,
by dint of their acting style, professional theatrical background and their personal manner
(such as a perceived intellectualism or grandiloquence). A hitherto unquestioned descriptor,
these apparent constituent elements of the ‘Shakespearean’ actor can be perceived in their
acting but also the wider way in which their reputation and the idiosyncrasies of the
‘Shakespearean’ are perpetuated by the journalistic and critical establishment.1
In order to examine the adaptability of this quality I use these case studies as a way of
testing the reach of the ‘Shakespearean’: what meaning persists in connection to it and what
meaning may be adapted when an actor, whose reputation has been primarily founded upon
their theatrical career, moves between ‘high’ and mainstream cultural performances. By
considering the transferable commodity value which is ‘Shakespeare’ outside of its
traditional confines of the theatre, educational establishments and highbrow cinema, I am

1 It should be noted that at varying points throughout this thesis I will use the term Shakespearean in inverted
commas and at others times will not. This depends upon the nature of the situation I am describing. In much of
my introduction, for example, ‘Shakespearean’ will be utilised in order to flag up the arbitrary and unquestioned
nature of the term. At other points, however, purely Shakespearean will suffice as it refers to the familiar and
recognisable phenomenon of the Shakespearean actor. In this case my use will reflect precisely the unquestioned
and unspecified but broadly identifiable tropes attached to the name — associations such as ‘high’ culture or
intellectualism.
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