Page 13 - Ritz Issue 50

The Yacht was anchored off Cap d' Antlbes at
a royal distance from the mllllonalras and little French sail boat owners. KING EDWARD THE EIGHTH was relaxing on deck, cigarette in hand-, and wearing only Immaculately pressed safari shorts and panama hat. He was Immersed in a lengthy discussion with his companion, who was similarly attired, about Illnesses and medical complaints. "I find, sir, that whenever I bend down to pick anything up, I get the most excruciating pain,In my back. Do you find this?"
THE KING draw long and hard on his clgaratte and frowned slightly musing deeply on the problem. After a long, Indolent pause he replied, "Do you know, I don't think that I've aver bent down to pick a_nything up. . .. "
EF: I've only read Ritz once, I ought to have read it a lot more times. Somebody showed it to me and said ;,Oh, you must read Ritz, there's a picture of you in it!" And there I was with JOE LOSEY outside ANTONIA and HAROLD's (PINTER) house saluting and it said 'EDWARD FOX finds it difficult to get out of character.' It's rather nice The Ritz, isn't it?
DL: I think it's wonderful - I love it. I don't know why, but most hotels look the same now.
EF: Absolutely. It's curious to me that theatres have followed the style of hotels. Maybe they always have - I mean one can think of theatres rather like this •
'which is very nice. •
DL: What's the little one in Piccadilly Circus?
EF: Criterion
DL: Yes.
EF: But this is just lovely the minute you come in here. I do think it's funny how threatres go with hotels. The National Theatre is like a hotel.
DL: (lau_ghing)Yes. ,
EF: And not a very nice one. Do you hate it?
DL: Oh, I can't stand it. •
EF:•Disgusting bloody place, isn't it?
DL: I have a friend who works there and we were discussing the architecture once and he told me that the original scheme was to put a certain amount of
•lime in th_ecement that was then supposed to seep through onto the outside and bleach it. This was • sort of part of thei design feature and I said well,
perhaps it's gone wrong because it's all dripping through into the underground car park and he said what do you mean? So we went down and had a look and it had huge_stalactites! The whole thing is gently running down into the car park.
EF:(/aughing) No. I don't believe it.
DL: Yes. And they're also got that revolving stage there that's never worked properly. •
EF:No, it hasn't worked yet.
DL: No. Well, apparently rumour has it that it will
never work properly because that part of the Thames is slipping. Both banks are unstable and basically what's happened is the vast concrete raft that the whole thing is sitting on has shifted half an inch, which puts the axis of the revolving stage out, so basically unless they rip the whole thing down and start again
it'll never work. But they-keep sending maintenance workers in to make it look as if it might work.
EF: But it won't! Wonderful!
DL: Do you lik,ewhat the National tries to do or not? EF:No, and I don't mind saying this at all, that when it was LILLIAN BAYLISS, when it was JOHN GIELGUD and when it was LAURENCE OLIVIER right up to very recent times it was the National Theatre in all but title, it's now the National Theatre in nothing but title.
DL: What are you doing now?
EF:Nothing. It's rather refreshing, actually. I've been doing nothing for months now!
DL: Are you planning anything?
EF:Nope.
DL: Do you want to plan anything?
EF: If I wanted to do anything now I think I should really go and instigate it.
DL: Does that mean directing?
.
EF: No. A little more managerial.
DL: Really?
. EF:Mm. I think so. But that's only my instinc.t I don't know whether it'll happen.
DL: Can you be a bit more specific?
EF: (laughing) I wish I could.
bL: There have been•classic cases recently, of actors and actresses-building a reputation and then going out into a production which is totally opposite to their public image and the whole thing failing t~rribly. EF:Absolutely.
DL: That one that MICHAEL WHITE dia with MICHAEL CRAWFORD about a y!3arand a half ago fell to death because people wanted to see MICHAEL CRAWFORD the comedian and suddenly he's singing and dancing and I tnink that they felt_disappointe<;f.
EF:Absolutely right, - • '. •
DL: How.do you ~ee yourself?
EF: Wf!lb (](!ng pause) . .. ·,,;
DL: I mean you used.to be aJackal and tl;len you
a
comfortable with it. Do you agree? (Cringe cringe!)
EF: I've always been like that, that's t/Je thing.
DL: Yes, but I sense that there were bits of Edward which you rather liked and thought I'll hang onto those, they're rather nice.
EF: Not consciously, truly not consciously. (Grinning hugely) I mean it's rather sweet of people to bother to notice one at all, I think! No really, though, I dress like my father dressed-but if I am like the King, it's . happened quite unconsciously! . , •
DL: You did keep some of the costumes though?
EF: (laughing) All of them!
DL: Yes, but a lot of people in this <;ountry, when they • .- think of the Duke.of-Windsor, think of you they don't
think of the original man. I find it very difficult to
picture what his face was like.
EF: (smiling) It was not at a/I like mine, I assure you.
DL: When you get to the end of a role, like the Jackal, do you ever feel, God I'm really pleased to get rid of this - it was enjoyable whilst I was doing it and it was tremendously successful but it's not something that I'd 1.iketo be stuck with?
EF: They don't get under my skin that much really. I mean, the French people, when we were shooting in France said "Oh, we don't like to speak to you, you're
king! • s •
EF: (Big grin) Yes. Yes, that's apout the size of it. I feel
lucky f!ecause I have a tremendous amount of
versatility'and I say th,at in the mos,t conceited way. I
know that I'm versatile because of what I've done but
it's been consumed by a very small public. The interest • so like the Jackal" and I said Tm not at a/I like the
became
that I have in acting is that versatility.
DL: It ~asquite' inte~esting actually, because at the time that EDWARD and MRS. SIMPSON was running on television I met a woman called BRICKTOP who was the person that COLE PORTERwrote Miss Otis Requests about, and she had a club in Paris that the DUKE and DUCHESS OF WINDSOR used to go to a lot and she knew him very well, and I spent about eight hours in the playboy Club with her, believe it or not. EF:I do believe it.
DL: She was absolutely fascinating.
EF:She did a show which was wildly acclaimed, didn't she? I feel that she's always wonderfully herself, isn't she?Riviting woman.
DL: She was absolutely fascinating about the DUKE OF WINDSOR and her ideas that the whole situation was rigged - she said it all failed when he went to Wales and showed socialist leanings and sympathy to
the miners and that it was at that point that they realised that he wasn't the type of person that they wanted running the country that this was the perfect excuse to get rid of him. Do you think that this is right? EF: Yes. Without any evidence to prove it.
DL: When you're doing a piece like that which is a long series do you feel that your study of the char-acter can very easily alter from the director's or the script's attitude?
EF: Well, we reallywrote
think that it's a mistake to cross swords with the director because it wastes everybody's time and money and also jeopardises the project, so it was never really any problem, it was very good team work really and it all worked out very well. You've got to have a certain amount of imagination too.
DL: Was it a fairly easy production from a character point of view? Did you all fit together?
EF: They were all very professional, tremendously professional. A production that's as long as Edward and Mrs Simpson reaches a point, if the right ingredients are attached to it, of taking flight and it suddenly begins to lift off the ground and when that happens you know you've got something and your worries are over.
DL: I've talked to people who are friends of yours and have made jokes ...
EF: Have I got any friends? It worried me the other day that I hadn't got any!
DL: (laughing) You've actually-got one or two and they make jokes, and I don't mean this in a nasty way, they probably make them to you too, that you have actually become the King. I mean you were sympathetic to the character and you do behave to a slight extent in mannerisms, clothing, image wise a lot ofwhat you portrayed has stuck with you -you're obviously
Jackal I'm jus,t thinking." But when I'm playing a part like that Ijust can't get involved in the lighter side of life. I also f.orget a part the minute it's
over, the minute it's shot I've forgotten the lines. It's a self preserva·tion thing really. The only lines that you
don't forget is SHAKESPEARE'S lines, funnily enough.
DL: How much do you understand SHAKESPEARE and • how much do you just enjoy the sound of the words
and the way that you ·can interpret them?
EF: I now completely understand it. I can understsnd
any SHAKESPEARE except' some of the low comedy stuff but all the rhetoric I can understand just as if it were modern prose. It took some time to comprehend it though. •
. DL: I remember finding it incredibly boring at school having to translate everything. •
EF: I'm convinced that no school child should be inflicted with SHAKESPEARE.
DL: Really? You think that it ruins people's appreciation of it? • •
EF: Mmm. Absolutely.
DL: Which school did you go to?
EF:Harrow.
DL: Did your brothers go to Harrow as well?
EF: Yes, they both did.
DL: Why did you become an actor. It used to be the first son went into law and second son went into the Church, etc.
EF:Absolutely. Well, we're a·very Bohemian family really.
DL: Your father was obviously fairly successful to be able to send you all to Harrow.
EF: He wasn't actually. My father had been to Harrow himself and then the war came and he was virtually penniless after that and I know that my parents virtually scraped together anything they could to send us to Harrow. They were never well off at all -
far from it. We look as_if we were but we weren't. My father encouraged my brother JAMES to be an actor because he felt he had the temperament of an actor. His real name is WILLIAM actually. •
DL: You've ·all got names of Kings.
EF:I suppose we have really. How observantof
don't think that my parents did that on purpose though.,A lot of families have chosen King's names. DL: In those days they did - now they go for •
Footballers names and Rock 'n' Roll stars names. EF: Yes. (laughing) 'Rod, Tracy, Vince and Clint!
DL: Did you really rise to fame in the sixties?
EF: I've never really risen to fame at all!
DL: (laughing) Well, you have had the odd success here and there!
EF: I suppose I have tve been lucky like that.
DL: There were a group of names that came up during
the script on our cuffs but I
-
you. I
13