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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.