20 Questions With…Ray Fearon

After drama school and cutting his teeth in regional repertory, actor Ray Fearon joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he worked regularly for ten years.

His many RSC credits, in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, include Murder in the Cathedral, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, Don Carlos, Moby Dick and The White Devil as well as title roles in Romeo and Juliet, Othello and, most recently, Pericles.

Elsewhere, Fearon has appeared on stage in Venice Preserved, Blues for Mr Charlie, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cloud Nine, School for Scandal and The Tempest.

Fearon’s films include Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Clandestine Marriage and Hamlet, while, on television, he’s been seen in Keen Eddie, Waking the Dead, The Life and Times of Shakespeare, As If, EastEnders, Band of Gold, Brothers and Sisters and Prime Suspect amongst other programmes.

This week, Fearon opens at the Donmar Warehouse in the London premiere of World Music, Steve Waters’ new play about the troubled and bloody relationship between Africa and Europe.

Date & place of birth

I was born in London, in Park Royal, but I don’t really want to say when if that’s okay.

Trained at…

Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama.

Lives now in…

I have a London flat in Wimbledon and a house in Warwick, where my six-year-old daughter lives.

First big break

I don’t know. I suppose I’ve had lots of great breaks really. I’ve been at the RSC for ten years, I’ve done lots of TV. But I don’t actually consider them as breaks. I’ve just been lucky and grateful to keep working, and the work has gotten better all the time.

Career highlights to date

My daughter being born was my life’s highlight. In terms of my career, playing Romeo at the RSC was a big highlight. The season before that, I played one of the lead characters in The White Devil. And I played Othello. They were all huge things. After that, did quite a bit of TV, and I was in Harry Potter. It’s hard to single things out because they’ve all been very good in their way. I don’t think I’ve done anything rubbish. It’s just great playing the parts and working with the companies.

Favourite co-stars

Richard McCabe did The White Devil with me and he played Iago to my Othello. He’s a great person and we had a terrific partnership. Nigel Hawthorne was fantastic on the film of Clandestine Marriage. I also enjoyed working with Kenneth Branagh on the film of Hamlet – he’s a very very nice man – and with Helen Mirren. These are just names people might know.

Favourite directors
The RSC in general has been very good to me. My last production there was Pericles, which I did for a year and a half, and I had a great time with Adrian Noble on that. Michael Attenborough, who I did Othello and Romeo and Juliet with, is terrific too. And Gail Edwards, who directed The White Devil. What makes them great directors? Their ability first to cast well and then to get on with the cast, to allow your process and theirs both to happen. All of them work in a very free and caring atmosphere. There are no arguments, no one is made to feel terrible. You feel safe in their hands, you trust them. Day to day, you sometimes don’t even realise that what you’re doing is putting together a play and then suddenly it’s there. That’s a great feeling. I’ve always been a great admirer of Michael Grandage’s too, I think he’s doing great things for theatre. Hence, why I’m at the Donmar now.

Favourite playwrights

Shakespeare, definitely. For someone who never studied any Shakespeare at school, it was the last thing I thought I would have grown to love so much. But I do love it, and when you get offered great Shakespeare parts with great directors, you can’t refuse. I also like Tennessee Williams, though I’ve never done any. And I’m very impressed with the writing of Steve Waters – World Music is a great play. We need more new playwrights like Steve, who write plays about now.

What roles would you most like to play still?
It’d be nice to do Hamlet or Macbeth someday, but if no one offers me the part, then tough. Hopefully, you’ll get a job playing something else instead.

What’s the best thing you’ve seen on stage recently?
After Miss Julie. It was great. A great script, very well directed and acted. And I love the Donmar space.

What would you advise the government to secure the future of British theatre?

Give some more money to the arts, especially regional arts. When I finished drama school, I went on tour with Oxford Stage Company and then did rep at the Liverpool Everyman. Rep was very good for a young actor – you’d get lots of experience doing great parts in great plays – and it was good for audiences too. People came. Regional theatres can’t afford to do rep these days because they can’t afford to keep a company on for a full season. No disrespect to soap actors, but now the thinking is you’ve got to have some TV face to bring punters in. Whether the actor or the production is good or not, it’s like that doesn’t apply anymore. I think punters should get their money’s worth in terms of quality and diversity of theatre. As for young actors, regional rep isn’t an option now, it’s just not there. If they want that kind of experience, they have to go to the RSC or the National straight off. That’s really daunting and there’s a lot of competition. Assuming they get in, they’re immediately in at the deep end and a lot will fail, because you can’t be great first time out.

If you could swap places with one person (living or dead) for a day, who would it be?

Nelson Mandela. He’s a great man, a phenomenon. Just being alive now to see what he’s achieved is extraordinary. He’s great for the world.

Favourite holiday destination

The Dominican Republic. I went there once a few years back. It was hot and tropical and they danced salsa – nice. And at the time, you could get some very cheap deals!

Favourite book

Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

Favourite after-show haunts

I used to have haunts, but I don’t go out anymore. After the show, all I think about is going home and seeing my daughter.

If you hadn’t become an actor, what would you have done professionally?

I don’t know. I used to place tennis for Middlesex County and even represented Britain a couple of times. I wasn’t that great, but I would have enjoyed being a pro tennis player. I have no idea what else I could have been – hopefully not an accountant.

Why did you want to accept your part in World Music?

It’s a great play! My character is a local politician in a fictitious African country. He’s really into agronomy and land reformation. That’s what he’s about. But I can’t tell you too much or I’ll give the game away. Let’s just say he’s not what he is on the page.

Though fictional, World Music is closely related to the histories of Rwanda & Burundi. Have you ever visited those countries?

I’ve never been to Africa at all, but I remember the media coverage of the genocide in Rwanda (in 1994). I’ve learnt a lot more about it all now. I think most of the news people didn’t really know what was going on at the time. All the footage with the bodies and the refugee camps, the people dying from cholera – that was happening on the outskirts.

Did you do much research in preparation for World Music?

Yes, we did quite a lot of research. We read Fergal Keane’s book and saw his documentary. We spoke to a woman who’s family was killed and to Clare Short, whose development organisation went out there to try to help. But they had no one supporting them. People just turned their back on the situation. And it could happen again. I hope it doesn’t. But once you find out what it’s actually about, that it’s all about history, you realise it could happen again anywhere. Clare Short said that too. These are horrors people think are so far removed from them and where they are, but they aren’t.

What was the most shocking thing you discovered in your research?

All of it was shocking. The fact that a million people got killed in 30 days, and then their bodies were just left there. People said it was a tribal war but it wasn’t. The truth is, there aren’t tribes in Rwanda. It was the old Belgian colonial masters who decided that these tribes – the Tutsis and the Hutus – existed, when really it was about class. The Tutsis, the ones who had cattle, were the higher class. When the Belgians left, they left the Tutsis in charge to rule over the Hutu. That was only like 40 years ago, but it all stems back to then. There was an uprising and the Hutus took over to drive out the Tutsis and then the Tutsis mobilised and came back from exile. If you look back, responsibility really does come back to Europe’s doorstep. And, yet, suddenly we’re dealing with ‘savages’ even though it was our colonialism that created the situation in the first place. It was frightening to find out all of that. When big things happen, it’s easy to forget about the history. We take the facts from a certain point but don’t want to look back any further.

What would you like people to take away from World Music?
I don’t know what people should take away and really it’s wrong for me to say. My job is just to play my part, that’s it. Theatre is about having different opinions so I wouldn’t like to pre-empt anyone else’s judgments.

What are your plans for the future?

I have a film lined up – if it happens, we’ll see. But I try to concentrate on what I’m doing now. You could be in Hollywood blockbuster or you could be unemployed for a year. I have no power over that. I do plan to do more theatre, of course. As an actor, I love theatre. That’s where I trained, and I love the live performance. There’s a great danger and a great satisfaction being there, in the moment, and maybe changing people’s lives for a day – or maybe not.

World Music opens on 16 February 2004 (previews from 12 February) at London’s Donmar Warehouse, where it continues to 13 March.