Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley is an English actor. In a career spanning over 40 years, he has won an Oscar, Grammy, BAFTA, two Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He is known for his starring role as Mohandas Gandhi in the 1982 film Gandhi, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He is also known for his performances in the films Schindler's List, Twelfth Night, Sexy Beast, Lucky Number Slevin, Shutter Island, Prince of Persia: The...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth31 December 1943
CitySnainton, England
You don't go to a town to present the play and have applause at the end of it, but that's benign conquest. It's a glorious way of exploring other landscapes and other cultures in a very life-affirming way.
Fifteen years before I became a screen actor, I was in the theatre. A lot of my work was comedy, which I loved doing. It's harder.
There have not been any troughs as regards my work. There's never been a trough of my assurance.
They're a very strange lot actors, very strange people.
Millions of children are disempowered and we need to empower them.
I think the actor has a tribal role as the archetypal story teller. I think there was a time when the storyteller, the priest, the healer, were all one person in one body. That person used to weave stories at night around a small fire to keep the tribe from being terrified that sun had gone down.
One of the greatest things drama can do, at it's best, is to redefine the words we use every day such as love, home, family, loyalty and envy. Tragedy need not be a downer.
I think the cinema you like has more to do with silence, and the theater you like has more to do with language.
If we hit the collective nerve of the audience on that night, that they would be standing up and rushing towards the stage to hug us.
I have done three makeup tests and I'm very, very happy with them. I am completely unrecognizable.
I am not a classical actor; I am an entertainer. I fell into classical acting by mistake and actually started out as a singer. I wrote the music for a musical play and it transferred to London and I sang the songs in London.
I may return to the stage, but not in the foreseeable future.
In my own experience, in portraying other men and earning my money by pretending to be somebody else, it has stamped me with what the actor is-tribally central and socially peripheral.
I think a great director is able to conclude things with grace... and I remember Gandhi ending in a very similar way.