Sir Derek Jacobi: My working class roots helped me play kings

Sir Derek Jacobi Photo: KALPESH LATHIGRA FOR SEVEN MAGAZINE By Sam Marsden

6:00AM GMT 12 Nov 2013

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Sir Derek Jacobi has revealed that the secret of his success in playing parts such as King Lear and the Roman emperor Claudius is his working class East End upbringing.

The renowned 75-year-old actor said his humble origins had helped him to “play the man inside the king” when confronted with some of the most challenging Shakespearean roles.

Sir Derek joked that he used to tell his friends he lived on the edge of Epping Forest because it “sounded posher” when he was growing up in Leytonstone, east London.

The son of a tobacconist and a drapery store assistant, he was educated at a grammar school and won a scholarship to read history at Cambridge.

He told the Radio Times: “I think my upbringing helped me enormously, because I was a very ordinary, upper-working-class or lower-middle-class, east London kid.

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“And my career has been mainly classically based. That upbringing, that absorbing of the perfectly ordinary, has informed the way I react to a classical character.

“If you’re playing a king, you play the man inside the king. If you’re playing a man, you play the king inside the man.”

As a young man, Sir Derek was talent-spotted by Sir Laurence Olivier, who gave him a job at the new National Theatre. His big break came when he appeared in the title role of the BBC series I, Claudius in 1976.

In a long and varied career on stage, film and television, the veteran actor has also played parts ranging from the crime-solving medieval monk Brother Cadfael to Adolf Hitler.

Sir Derek, who recently finished filming the second series of BBC1’s Last Tango in Halifax, which starts next week, said coping with the pressures of being a distinguished actor could be a strain.

“That can be the hardest, because the expectation is so much bigger. There was little expectation in the beginning. And you’ve been around a long time so the ability to surprise is blunted,” he said.

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Minnie Driver on working motherhood: 'I do feel guilty sometimes'

Minnie Driver Photo: Rex Features By Hannah Furness

1:31PM BST 20 Oct 2013

Minnie Driver, the actress, has spoken of the "guilty" feeling about combining work and motherhood, as she discloses she brings her son onto the set to alleviate the “awful” feeling of missing seeing him awake.

Driver, who was Oscar-nominated for her role in Good Will Hunting and won an Emmy for The Riches, said it was “important” for her five-year-old to see her work ethic.

But she admitted it was “awful” to leave the house before he was awake and come back after he was asleep.

“I do feel guilty sometimes, of course,” she told the Sunday Express. “If I leave the house before Henry has woken up and I’m back after he has gone to bed, it’s awful.

“So I find a way of getting his dad, a friend or his nanny to bring him on set when I’m working.

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“And that’s important too – I do hope I set a good example with my work ethic.”

She added: “It’s important for my son to see that in action, so when he comes to set, he hangs out, he knows when to be quiet and he even calls ‘action’, which is really funny.”

She admitted being an actress was a “fairly self-involved profession”, with having a child the “very best thing that can happen”.

Saying her focus had “broadened”, she added working parents enjoy their career “more because you realise it’s not the most important thing”.

Describing her perfect day, she told the magazine it would be spending time with her son, making breakfast, walking to their best friend’s house and playing sports.

Speaking of their close relationship, she claimed he was still a “mummy’s boy”, saying: “He will brush my hair and he likes to tell me things we are going to do together when he grows up.”

She added her relationship with her son is “really close”, speculating his talent for performing may mean he follows her into acting when he’s older.

Driver, 43, was speaking out in support of Children In Need, as she confesses hearing the moving stories made her “incredibly grateful” for what she has.

She added that being able to help others is the “best side of fame”, as she auctions a signed ornamental Lindt bear to raise money for the charity.

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