Few actors are more eloquent, honest or entertaining about their life and their profession than Simon Callow. He traces his stage journey from the letter he wrote to Laurence Olivier that led him to his first job, to his triumph as Mozart in the original production of Amadeus.
Callow discusses his occasionally ambivalent yet always passionate feelings about both film and theatre. Being an Actor is a guide not only to the profession but also to the intricacies of the art, told with wit, candour and irrepressible verve.
Reviewed by Helen Richardson in Slightly Foxed Issue 64.
All the World’s a Stage
HELEN RICHARDSON
When I was a child, people of a certain age who met my father often remarked, ‘You look just like Simon Callow.’ I had no idea who Simon Callow was, so my father bought me his autobiography, Being an Actor (1986). Over the years it has become my battered treasure, all creased corners and cracked spine, highlighted and annotated, lent to friends and quickly sought back. Callow takes us into a singular world where the emotions and anxieties of ordinary life are exposed, examined and amplified. He offers insight into what it is to be an actor and, I would say, what it is to be human . . .
Extract from Slightly Foxed Issue 64, Winter 2019
All the World's a Stage
When I was a child, people of a certain age who met my father often remarked, ‘You look just like Simon Callow.’ I had no idea who Simon Callow was, so my father bought me his autobiography,...
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