Looking for Richard Page #3

But in Shakespeare, you have

an entire company on the stage...

...good actors not knowing where

they're going. Where they are!

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PACINO:
As Americans, what is that...?

That thing...

...that gets between us

and Shakespeare?

That makes some of our best actors

just stop when it comes to Shakespeare?

The problem with being

an American in Shakespeare...

...is you approach it reverentially.

We have a feeling, I think...

...of inferiority to the way

it has been done by the British.

I think Americans

have been made to feel inhibited...

... because they've been told so long

by their critics...

... by their scholars and commentators...

... that they cannot do Shakespeare.

Therefore they think they can't,

and you become totally self-conscious.

American actors are not self-conscious.

But they are when it comes

to Shakespeare.

Because they've been told they can't

do it, and they foolishly believed that.

Perhaps they don't go to picture galleries

and read books as much as we do.

I think it's the effect

of how everyone looked and behaved...

...that one got a sort of Elizabethan

feeling of period.

Experienced classical actors...

...have a few things that

they can use at a moment's notice.

The understanding of iambic

pentameter, for one thing.

PACINO:

Everybody says, "lambic pentameter. "

What is that supposed to mean?

Some say there are no rules.

I say there are rules...

...like the iambic pentameter,

that must be learned...

...and can be rejected once learned.

"Pentameter" means "meter,"

and "pen," meaning "five. "

So there's five beats.

Which, at its worst, sounds only like:

"Why, so. Now have I done

a good day's work. "

De-da de-da de-da de-da de-da.

And iambic is where the accent goes.

That's de-tum de-tum de-tum de-tum.

And five of them:

Da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da.

Make a pentameter line, five iambs.

An iamb is like an anteater.

Very high in the back

and very short, little front legs. Da-da!

Shakespeare's poetry and his iambics...

...floated and descended

through the pentameter of the soul.

And it's the soul, the spirit of real,

concrete people going through hell...

...and sometimes moments of great...

...achievement and joy.

That is the pentameter

you must focus on...

...and should you find that reality...

... all the iambics will fall into place.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul.

Here Clarence comes.

Brother, good day.

What means this armed guard

that waits upon your grace?

His majesty tendering my safety,

hath appointed this conduct...

...to convey me to the Tower.

- Upon what cause?

- Because my name is George.

Clarence...

...what is the matter? May I know?

Yea, Richard, as I know. But I protest

as yet I do not. But, as I can learn...

...he hearkens

after prophecies and dreams.

And from the cross-row

plucks the letter G.

And says a wizard told him that by G...

...his children disinherited should be.

And, for my name of George begins with

G, it follows in his thought that I am he.

These, as I learn,

and such like toys as these...

...have moved his highness

to commit me now.

Why, so it is,

when men are ruled by women.

'Tis not the king that sends you

to the Tower, Clarence.

'Tis my Lady Grey his wife, 'tis she

that tempts him to this extremity.

We are not safe, Clarence.

We are not safe.

PACINO:
Now, if Richard's

brother Edward was king, right?

And then he dies...

...Clarence, his other brother,

is next in line.

No, the kids were next in line.

After the king's kids came Clarence.

So Richard figures, "I get rid of Clarence,

then work out getting rid of the kids. "

Meantime, this deep disgrace

in brotherhood...

...touches me...

...deeper than you can imagine.

- I know it pleaseth neither of us well.

- Your imprisonment shall not be long.

I will deliver you, else lie for you.

Meantime, have patience.

GUARD 1:
It's time, my lord.

- I must perforce.

BALDWIN:
Must.

- Farewell.

PACINO:
It looks like Richard's plan

is really starting to work.

He got the king to put Clarence

in the Tower...

... by poisoning the king's mind

against him.

So now he's got one brother locked up,

the other brother, who's king, is sick.

So he's in good shape.

He can move around.

He can maneuver. He's got room.

Go...

...tread the path

thou shalt ne'er return.

Simple, plain Clarence!

I do love thee so...

...that I shall shortly send

thy soul to heaven.

GUARD 1:
Prisoner approaching.

GUARD 2:
Prisoner Hastings exeunt.

Who is this?

The new-deliver'd Hastings?

- Good time of day unto my gracious lord!

- As much unto my good lord Hastings.

Well are you welcome to this open air.

How hath your lordship

brook'd imprisonment?

With patience, noble lord,

as prisoners must.

You can do something

from Shakespeare...

...think that you're feeling it or whatever.

HARRIS:
Mm-hm.

You love it.

You think you're communicating it.

And the person you said it to

has not understood a word you said.

You can't believe they didn't.

"Thoust" and, you know...

...just the way it's worded,

that confuses the people of, you know...

...this time period.

HADGE:
Shakespeare used a lot

of fancy words. You know?

And it's hard to understand,

to grasp them.

They're not fancy words.

That's where we get confused.

But they're poetry. It's hard

to grab hold of some rap slang too.

It's hard to get hold of it until your ear

gets tuned. You have to tune up.

In a contemporary play, someone says:

"Hey, you. Go over there,

get that thing and bring it to me. "

That would be the line.

Shakespeare says it:

"Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels...

...and fly like thought

from them to me again. "

The King is weak and sickly...

...and his physicians fear him mightily.

- By Saint John, that news is bad indeed.

O, he hath kept an evil diet long.

You shouldn't have to understand

every single word.

Why? Do you understand every...?

I mean, it's not important.

It doesn't matter.

As long as you get the gist of it.

Just trust it. You'll get it.

ALLEN:

And if he were dead...

...what would betide on me?

No other harm but loss of such a lord.

The loss of such a lord

includes all harm.

They're trying to soothe her

because she is an hysteric.

- She is way out of control.

ALLEN:
But does that weaken...

...the reality of what's happening?

KIMBALL:
It strengthens

the incompetence of others...

But why should they be incompetent?

- Why make them weaker?

KIMBALL:
Because they went to Ludlow...

...with little train

and got their heads cut off.

But then it's no great deed on his part

if you make them weak.

PACINO:
They're not weak.

ALLEN:
They're not weak...

...nor do I think that they're stupid.

I think...

By diminishing their importance,

you diminish his actions.

- It's bound to happen.

- It's a very human, familial thing to say:

"Calm down. It will be all right. "

But underneath it...

...they know what the scoop is, and I

keep throwing back at them:

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