Samuel West: Angel of mercy
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| Samuel West as Zak Gist in Eternal Law Photo: Des Willie/ITV |
Which probably explains why he is currently doing his second stint as an Equity councillor and is one of the union’s most high-profile speakers. Last year, the actor was one of the key faces at the March for the Alternative protest, during which he gave a rallying speech about preserving future funding of the arts.
The issue of arts funding comes up in his interview with The Stage, as does union membership and the £9,000 fees that are set to be implemented by drama schools in 2012. He could be a politician. But if he was, it’s clear he would be in opposition.
Take the issue of student fees, for example. Speaking about what this will do to the industry, he borrows something his father, Timothy West, says on this issue.
“My father puts it very well,” he recounts. “At the moment, we are training rich talented students and poor talented students. But if the fees remain as they are, then in five years’ time we will be training rich talented students and rich untalented students.”
He continues by comparing the situation to playwriting courses in the UK, which he says, like acting, need to be supported so “we don’t just have plays from people who can afford to stay at home with their parents”.
“That means you lose the voice of a particular part of society, and probably a particular region,” he says. “The richer areas that can afford to have someone in their 20s living at home, not earning, will produce different plays from the people who are told, ‘You’ve finished school and university, now get out there and earn a wage’.”
Despite his concerns about the fees drama schools will charge, West, who never went to drama school, admits that he wishes he had gone. Although he auditioned for a place at Bristol Old Vic, after completing a degree at Oxford, he did not get accepted. He did, however, find himself offered a place at Webber Douglas, but could not take it up because of a role in a film he was offered. West asked Webber Douglas if he could defer his place, but the school declined, and so he promised himself that if he wasn’t working in a year’s time, he would apply again.
“But by then I was in the BBC Narnia series [Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader] so I thought I might as well keep working,” he explains. “But I wish I had gone. There are lots of things I am not very good at. I am not a very good dancer and I am not physically nearly as fluent as I should be.”
West, as this comment about his weaknesses demonstrates, is extremely honest. He is equally as honest about whether or not he is choosy about a role he takes (“It depends on if I am skint or not”) and also honest about what he thinks of the own projects he appears in, his latest of which is Eternal Law, an ITV drama series which started last week. It is written by Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, the men behind Life on Mars.
In Eternal Law, West plays Zak, an angel who is placed on earth to do good. Zak is a lawyer working for a legal firm in York and is tasked with helping humans to understand the consequences of their actions.
When we speak, I have seen part of the first episode, and this prompts an honest reaction from West. “That is not my favourite episode,” he says. “The second one is much better. Like all first episodes it has a lot to pack in - a lot of information. I think it’s good but the second one has more breath around it.”
He adds, perhaps because he’s concerned he might have come across as too critical about the quality of the first episode: “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, but I prefer the second one in terms of the story having more time to breathe.”
When he received the breakdown from his agent about this drama, the role of Zak was described as “intelligent, grumpy and cynical”. This, he says, had his name all over it.
“I thought, I can’t really speak for the intelligent bit, but if I can’t get on to the shortlist of someone who is grumpy and cynical, then my agent is not pulling their weight,” he laughs.
Playing an angel, however, might seem, to some, a strange choice of parts for West, given he is openly atheist. However, as he quite rightly points out, he doesn’t believe in talking mice either, but he still took the part in the BBC’s Narnia series.
He adds: “I have played roles in which I have seen ghosts and dragons, and I love the extension of the imagination that you have to make for them.”
But is there anything he wouldn’t do? Anything that his beliefs would prevent him from playing?
He thinks for a bit then says: “There is not a role I would not play as long as that character, if I disagreed with what they were saying, was not seen to be right. I have played Nazis and serial killers and free market capitalists, and none of these things are things I agree with, but in every case they have been seen to be mistaken or mad.”
He adds: “I am fairly left wing, but I am not a communist, and yet when I was in the BBC’s Cambridge Spies, the Daily Mail said it was an interesting show but that you don’t get a sense of the monsters these people were. I thought, you can’t play someone like they are a monster. You have to play them like they are right. A Nazi, for example, has to believe in what drives them. That is my job. I can’t comment on them being wrong, but as long as the piece shows them to be wrong, I am fine about it.”
Returning to the drama he is promoting, Eternal Law, West says he was not interested in saying, through his performance, whether or not he believes in heaven, adding that he is just playing someone that comes from there. Which leads me to ask about whether or not he is choosy about the roles he takes, in terms of their quality.
Here he admits his financial situation at any given time plays a big part in what jobs he does, but he adds that “trying to remain solvent so you don’t have to do rubbish” is one of his golden rules.
He then recounts a story about some actors he met in South Africa while on a recent job. These actors were complaining they had been in things they did not like, prompting West to ask them why they did them.
“They said there is not enough work to be able to choose, so you have to do what comes up,” West explains. “That made me realise we are lucky in this country as there is just enough work to be able to choose, but not always.”
And he acknowledges that the number of people wanting to work as an actor is always growing, stating that Equity has more members than ever before.
“I hope there will be jobs for them, but we might have to see a major reorganisation of the industry in order for that to be true,” he says.
For example, he thinks actors might need to take work into the communities more, to provide more work to performers and to engage people with the theatre experience.
The arts should not just be based in “buildings specially built for art” he adds, and says: “It’s important to recognise a large proportion of people never go into a theatre, and yet almost nobody would say they don’t like hearing stories. So if there is a story you can do in a goal mouth, then perform a short play before a football crowd. If there is a play you can do in a pub or a steel works or at an athletics track, do it. Art should be something that permeates all of our lives, and not be something we dress up for and go to see in the evenings.”
He adds: “It’s up to actors to be more flexible. You have to be ready to help out and to go to places that might not lead to stardom but lead to less time between jobs.”
Speaking about his own jobs, West reveals he has signed up to do two more series of Eternal Law, should ITV want them. But he seems frustrated that should a second series get the go ahead, he is unlikely to be paid more than he was on the first series. He assumed the salary would be negotiable, but it transpires that it wasn’t.
“What happens now is that, if a series is successful they [broadcasters] recommission it with less money,” he says. “You don’t get more money for a second series and that is the way it is. I think that is wrong, as if an actor is successful they should get more money for something that has managed to sell, but that is not how it works.”
But he is quick to add that the show was “one of the most enjoyable jobs” he has ever done, and he hopes he will return as Zak for a second series. For now, it all depends on whether audiences take to the show and his role in it. Not that he personally will know what people think of his turn in the drama until series one has concluded, because he doesn’t read reviews.
“I read them when a job is over as I like knowing what people think of things eventually,” he says. “But I don’t tend to read them when a show is running. That is because the good ones makes me smug and the bad ones make me depressed.”
But what about his parents, Timothy West and Prunella Scales? Does he seek their approval?
“Oh yes, all the time,” he laughs. “Less than I used to, but when I was starting out, trying to establish myself in my own right rather than someone who happened to be their son, I always got them in for previews.
“Now that I direct myself, I would insist their notes went through the director rather than me - lovers’ notes as they are called. But I always need to be strong and confident to take notes from my parents.”
Eternal Law started on ITV1 last week and continues Thursdays at 9pm
The Stage - Angel Of Mercy
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