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Jan Goodey on why Oscars mean
little to movie Jesus Robert Powell
 How often do you get the chance
to talk with Jesus? I grabbed mine with open arms - here was
Robert Powell, the quintessential English actor and star of
Franco Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth, on the other end of the
line.
And it's not just the Nazarene.
Powell was also Richard Hannay in The Thirty-Nine Steps, as
well as Gustav Mahler in Ken Russell's revered film about the
Austrian composer, Mahler. And if you're still drawing a blank
there's always BBC's comedy The Detectives where he was foil
to Jasper Carrot.
Powell started out in rep at
Stoke on Trent, later moving on to the Royal Shakespeare
Company. Not for him the debilitating trawl from pub job
through to waiter as work dried up. He's always been in
demand. "It's what I do best," he says. "I
didn't follow anyone in particular from films - from the
stage, yes, the obvious ones, the Oliviers, the Gielgud's, the
Richardsons, nothing obsessive though."
That much stands out a mile.
Powell is a measured man, each sentence is interspersed by
heavy, pregnant pauses. Here's a man who couldn't be remotely
obsessed about anything, it is not in his nature. Shortly
after the award-winning Jesus of Nazareth (1977), there were
invitations to go to Hollywood. He wasn't completely sold on
the idea. Industry-driven, big money projects did little to
inspire him and he stayed a few months, made a couple of
movies of little note, then returned to Europe where he found
more challenging roles.
His views on Hollywood,
coloured by this earlier experience, have hardened. I put it
to him that it's an actors' Holy Grail to receive an Oscar.
"Shit no, just the opposite. Total nonsense they're
absolutely zero to do with anything that is important. It's an
industry based award that is to promote the industry. We know
that - it's only people in the press who seem to think they're
of any intrinsic value."
This word 'important' crops up
a lot with Powell and it has that actorly connotation,
reflecting on a work of substance not something trifling,
easily dismissed. Just as the classically trained Gielgud had
his lighter moments, starring opposite Dudley Moore in Arthur,
so has Powell, notably alongside Mr Carrot who he desribes as
"like a brother".
The Detectives ran for five
series but if you're secretly harbouring hopes for a sixth,
then sorry to disappoint but it ain't gonna happen.
So what are the parts he has most enjoyed over a career
spanning 37 years? "Oh God it is very, very difficult. I
don't even remember half of the things I've made. Starring in
Ken Russell's Mahler was terrific, absolutely excellent. And
we had fun making Pygmalion. I was reminded of that the other
day with Twiggy." How about Tommy, in which he played
Roger Daltry's mute father? "I'd been in Mahler the year
before, so Tommy was very much a secondary part." Maybe
fellow star Moon-the-Loon, Keith Moon, The Who's wildman
drummer, de-bagged him once too often.
I move swiftly on to the
current state of British film, which elicits only a mildly
ambivalent response in stark contrast to his views on the
industry of yesteryear: "In the Seventies and Eighties
the film industry here was, (he pauses): absolute shit. It's
alright now, not terribly exciting. They're falling into a
trap of trying to repeat the last success every time. Which
means you just have a whole series of gangster films getting
increasingly bad. Anthony Minghella has a lot of talent, as
has Guy Ritchie, but I'd like to see him tackle something
other than the stuff he has. I'd like to see him do something
else to see if he can really direct."
Powell's future is far from
mapped out. Now living in London with wife Babs, an ex-Pan's
Person, the 57-year-old Lancastrian "I was born a
Schmeical's clearance from Old Trafford" holds to chance:
"I just throw everything into the air and see what comes
down. One thing at a time."
It's worked so far and for
someone who can move betweeen stage and TV "without
really thinking about it", who's to say Powell's name
won't be added to the pantheon of great British actors. As he
says, "I don't have any attitude whatsoever on whether
I'm a stage or film actor. An actor is an actor is an
actor."
Robert Powell is in Murder by
Misadventure, Aug 28-Sept 1. Tickets: 01273 328488
copyright New Insight
2001
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