Sir Ben Kingsley

Q: What is your involvement with Taj Mahal and what Moroccan food do you most enjoy?
A: I didn't sign on to do Taj Mahal, I have written the script with David Ashton, a beautiful writer, and that is all we know, so now we have got some important interest from investors and I need other investors to sign on now.
As regards Moroccan food, my favourite is pastilla and then harira is my favourite soup. My favourite wine is Guerrouane Gris de Rose. I find visiting the ancient Kasbahs is really talking about travelling of time. If you go to a Kasbah you can go back to the time of Christ or Mohammed or Ramese or Moses. All of those buildings are put together all with straw and mud bricks. It is extraordinary and biblical. I love these old Kasbahs. I am very fond of Ouazarzate and Marrakech. I have also filmed in Erfoud and Casablanca and I have had very enjoyable times there. The people, I don't know if you are aware of this but there is a saying " if you want to get to know Morocco, bring a child". That is very beautiful because the way the Moroccans love and look after children is very beautiful and I think that this is a saying which Moroccans should be very proud of. I am passionately angry about child abuse so to hear that saying against the child abuse that is going on in the western world is something we should really think carefully about. It is the complete opposite of "don't bring a child it’s not safe" its the opposite "if you want to know more bring a child".

Q: You have played Ghandi and villains and Don Logan and John Lennon said you should have been a musician-how do you reconcile these things?
A: I did meet the Beatle's recording manager and I was part of my own little rock band at the time and I have recorded some songs with the BBC and on stage. What happened was that I managed to retain my musical ear which is why I love doing very opposed rhythms of speech and accents and you very kindly mentioned Don Logan who has a machine gun staccato South London rhythm and Mahatma Ghandi who was like Ravi Shankar's music and because I have a musical ear I still feel that music is a very strong part of what I try and do. I was referred to as Bi Polar which was because I played Mahatma Ghandi and Don Logan. It was a delight for me. The good and the bad. It is my belief and forgive me if I am wrong that Mhatma Ghandia and Don Logan, the good and the bad exist in each and every one of us. We spend most of our lives living in the grey area between the two. It depends on circumstances whether we become violent or whether we have to use our grace and intelligence to guide ourselves and our feelings but I think one of the many things I love about acting is the confidence. I think I am right the confidence and understanding that these roles illustrate are in each and everyone of us. It all depends on life what is pushed to the front. Life pushed something wonderful to the front in Mahatma Ghandi, he was thrown of a train and he made a decision and life did something terrible to Don Logan and portrayed him as, I referred to earlier, an abused child. The role of Dan Logan is the scream of the abused child. If the abused child is not healed, he will go on to abuse others so all human faces; hopefully, I will have the privilege of exploring. The extremes and the middle grey area.

Q: Do you think you will ever play a role like Mahatma Ghandi again: are there any peace makers left?
A: Do you mean whether a contemporary equivalent exists? You know I think he might. In 2005 I had the enormous privilege of being in Ramallah in Palestine where, thanks to the foundation and the Jeff Skoll Foundation we screened Ghandi translated into Palestinian Arabic to the young people in the Palestinian territories. It was also screened on the Ramallah wall which separated the Palestinian territories from the Israeli territories. Two of these screenings in Palestine were presented very humbly to them, not presuming for a second to tell them what should be, just "we believe you should see this story". Ghandi had never been screened in Palestine until that moment as beautifully translated and every single actor was dubbed into Palestinian Arabic. There were, believe it or not, young Palestinians, whom we know had gone through terrible violence to make themselves heard, approaching us and asking us "how can I become the next Ghandi?”. So there is hope, there are young people out there ready to face the challenge.

Q: What theatre do you like and how do you take a story in a book and transform it into a film?
A: As I said before regarding a question on "Shutter Island " I am a film producer and an actor and I spend a lot of time focusing on my film work . I don't have many occasions to go to the theatre and when I do, because my wife is a Shakespearian actress, we tend to go to the Globe or Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) we tend to see the great classics. Harold Pinter leaves an enormous vacuum behind him. He was a giant. I loved Harold and was very fond of him. I can’t really say "where is the next Harold Pinter» I think he will always be unique.

As for the migration of a book to the screen I also had purchased as a producer the rights to certain remarkable books one on the life of Shakespeare and a terrifying naval sea battle form World War One. I am hoping to guide those pieces of literature to screen writers whom I really trust and admire and then take the essence of the story to the screen. Cinema is part of the creative story telling tradition and I think that one has to be cautious of a person who responds to the book because that maybe their most gratifying experience, they might almost prefer to reading the book to going to the cinema anyway. The cinema will always perhaps be a disappointment. There are however other people who would infinitely prefer the film after reading the book and they will say "oh no I found that the film was a far more satisfying experience than the book".

I have recently had the great pleasure of reading «Elegy" a Philip Roth novel and “The Dying Animal" which is very much from a man's point of view, the director was a woman. So whilst you have the dying animal by Philip Roth as very much being seen from the man's point of view, on the screen it is much more balanced, you don't see male misogyny, you see male vulnerability. That is using a beautiful novel that can be broader and wider as a result of being on the silver screen; all the men in the film become a study in male vulnerability as opposed to entrenched male attitudes. Philip likes the film and this difference between cinema and literature shouldn't be contentious, one serves the other and it’s a very healthy situation which I personally as a producer am participating in.

Q: Do you have any special rituals you perform before the performance?
A: Because of my work in the theatre I do love the script. The script for me a very important document and I am not one of those people who arrive on the set and say to the director "I think I should say this and I think I should do that”. No, because of my work with theatre and my training, my pleasure is to make what's on the page work. It is there for a reason when it is a good script and I try very hard to make what that person has put on the page work. That is a very big part of my preparation is to be secure in my dialogue and through the language begin to feel the material life of the character and if I am fortunate enough, to find the character's, his starting point and first steps, a motivation which is so deep in him he may not be aware of it himself. It is a paradox that the starting point for the journey for Mahatma Ghandi, being thrown off the train, was anger. The starting for Don Logan in «Sexy Beast " was a cry for help. So the starting point for my character in Shutter Island, for example, is if he is capable of unconditional love. If I can find the first step with some accuracy, it doesn't matter when I find it. I could find it a week into filming, but I have to find that first step. I know that the journey will be worthwhile and it will have a beginning, a wonderful middle and a logical end. Balance and symmetry, I look for the symmetry. On the set, everyone has there own way of doing things and there maybe some actors who are pacing up and down saying" I've got to get into the scene". I go to absolute zero. Zeo emotionally, Zero in my head. All I have is the words and then I react completely openly. Although at zero I can be completely responsible for the situation. If I bring too much to the scene it is already old and stale. If I get myself to absolute zero and allow me to be completely affected by what is around me which is action and cut then me hope the camera will capture some life as opposed to some acting. So it is interesting that I don't try and artificially create the scene inside myself. I let go of things and take after take I let it go, so every take is the first take for me.

Q: How do you see the future of Cinema?
A: That's a tough question! It is definitely going to change, but I hope that one of the most important agreements of cinema will never disappear and that is many people enjoying the same experience at the same time rather than individuals with a device that won't allow them to share their feelings and their reactions because there is something very bonding about story telling and about being in an audience. There is something very isolating in watching something on your IPod or a laptop. My hope as a story teller is that the story teller has a terrible role and I think that mustn't be lost. You don't get the tribal role if someone is watching you on your blackberry, it's one on one. It is nothing to do with sharing with the tribe , it is a null and pathetic experience , so I think audiences will also resist that and I always love to share the joke with people in a big cinema. It will always be an event to go to with friends or partner or with the family. I think that will always be there. Beyond that I am a little bit unsure about the direction of cinema. I hope it continues to be narrative and I hope it is not plot, special effects and violence driven. Where you have to have a crash or a fight every twenty seconds in case the audience goes to sleep. I think that’s a bit patronising to the audience anyway. I hope for the best!