Derek Jacobi Quotes

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

• What was so good about it was that the set that they originally built stayed there, and weathered over the five years. It got five summers and five winters of weather. It became more and more authentic as we worked in it, and they added bits to it.

  Derek Jacobi

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

• They were totally supportive, always saw everything I did. One of the thrills of my life was when they went to the theater to see something that I wasn’t in. It opened doors for them that otherwise would have been totally closed.

  Derek Jacobi

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

• Reputation is fine but you have to keep justifying it. In a sense, it makes it harder because people’s expectations of you are higher. So, you have to fulfill those expectations. Or, try to exceed those expectations. But, it becomes more difficult as time goes on.

  Derek Jacobi

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

• Originally they wanted it to be bigger, but I pleaded and pleaded and pleaded to have the smallest tonsure that they could get away with. A tonsure that could still be seen, but, I worried about my social life!

  Derek Jacobi

• One of the last episodes was all about a flood. We were working in the rain till all hours, and it was muddy and it was cold and it was damp, and it was hours under the hoses. That was not pleasant. That was not pleasant.

  Derek Jacobi

• My first course came and I put down my book, and I just happened to put up my hand to scratch my head and discovered that my toupee had been blown by the wind and was folded over backwards on the top of my head!

  Derek Jacobi

• Knowing that we were doing good work and the stories were good. They were original and charming. They weren’t particularly violent or sexy or any of that. They were just unique and that had a good feel to it.

  Derek Jacobi

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

• It’s often difficult to slough off all that we’ve acquired, all the comforts and safety nets modern life provides for us, and realize that in those days, people were living very much on the edge – life was incredibly hard!

  Derek Jacobi

• It was never physically dangerous except when I nearly fell off a horse, but it was physically arduous – especially when you were working late at night.

  Derek Jacobi

• It was doing very well; it was doing particularly well outside of England. It was a very big seller for Carlton Television. But it was getting more and more expensive to do.

  Derek Jacobi

• 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!

  Derek Jacobi

• 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.

  Derek Jacobi

Derek Jacobi (37)

Birth:	22nd October, 1938
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Actor, Film Director

About

Sir Derek George Jacobi is an English actor and film director. A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King.

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Today's Anniversary - 24th May

Births

• 1940 - Joseph Brodsky
• 1819 - Queen Victoria
• 1955 - Alain Prost
• 1873 - Leon Czolgosz
• 1928 - William Trevor

Deaths

• 1725 - Jonathan Wild
• 1879 - William Lloyd Garrison
• 1996 - Joseph Mitchell
• 1850 - Jane Porter
• 1612 - Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury