“Shall we sit in this place alternatively?” asks Felicity Kendal, folding down a luxurious,rich color of blood,shade looking like such a color seat and patting it invitingly. “Itrsquo;s so
much more comfortable.”
She sinks inside the chair, and individual elegant leg sheathed in a knee-high black hide boot entwines the other. But even so, itrsquo;s not clear what Felicity Kendal is speaking. Is it the beauty and twice-garlanded Rear of the Year difficult,bothersome to cosy up to her questioner? Or the 63-year-old twice-grandmother lacking,inadequate a plusher seat on what to park her famously small posterior?
Wersquo;ve met at the Comedy Theatre in London, where, instead of the big,abundant, characterless room allocated, Kendal chooses the back of the dress circle. Itrsquo;s a scene,background at once intimate and expansive, affording a birdrsquo;s eye view of the stage where tonight Keira Knightley will initiate young fans of her blockbuster films inside the joys of Moliegrave;re, and where in a fortnightrsquo;s time Kendal will take the title role in Mrs Warrenrsquo;s Profession.
Itrsquo;s not George Bernard Shawrsquo;s nearly all frequently performed play. In fact, so disreputable was it at the time — the profession in question is that of prostitute and madam — that it was outlawed for two decades. But Kendal is adamant that itrsquo;s individual of Shawrsquo;s best, and without doubt individual of his nearly all relevant.
“Shaw was a maniacal socialist,” Kendal says, “and mad for women's rights, passionate that women should have a right to choose in what method,technique or manner they live and in what method,technique or manner and provided that they work. Also the playrsquo;s about hypocrisy, about that bubble of integrity. And wersquo;re exactly the same now: we seem to be obsessed with infidelity, and whoredom of individual kind or another, and the role of women — either they are naughty tarts who do belongings with their bodies they shouldnrsquo;t, or either they are wedded and therefore respectable and therefore honoured.”
Kendal talks about the subject with such passion and energy,enthusiasm, itrsquo;s clear the play struck a chord. And though she wonrsquo;t talk about the matter directly, that chordrsquo;s echoes shake,quiver in sound over everything she says. Two decades in the past Kendal scandalised the business of plays world when she left her wedded man, the business of plays director Michael Rudman, for the person who writes for the theater Tom Stoppard, who was also wedded at the time (to the agony aunt Miriam Stoppard). A decade later Kendal did it again, in reverse, going back to Rudman, who, in a further twist, is now directing this play in what his once-unfaithful former married woman plays a retired prostitute.
“The problem men seem to have,” Kendal continues, “and women too, is that they have this very structured entity understood,projected,or that we should find a human being who takes part with another and settle down and be, you know, faithful. And yet clearly this is,” and in this place she laughs her being erotically attractive to another naughty laugh, just like she does in her iconic 1970s sitcom The Good Life , “really, really
hard for anybody to do!
“Quite frequently you do know of a very happy partnership, wedded or not, but equally there seems to be the same portion,allotment of people in any line of work who find it difficult to ... to be entirely, um, what is the word without getting too — ha! ha! — inside detail ... who donrsquo;t quite find that their life is enough,adequate without an extra excitement of some kind or another. The difficulty is we donrsquo;t accept that, wersquo;re just not being honest.
“So the question is, do we have the freedom to make a life that we choose? Or do we have to stick by societyrsquo;s rules? And it seems to me we still have to stick by societyrsquo;s rules or we pay a penalty. Like any good play itrsquo;s a question, not an answer.”
Is it strange being supervised by onersquo;s partner? “Yes, indeed. The director is God, and Irsquo;m a great arguer. Rather boringly so, I think, about difficult,bothersome different things. And the alone,barely,exclusively thing that is different active,occupied with Michael is I feel that I can alone,barely,exclusively argue so much, otherwise it may appear to people that I am arguing alone,barely,exclusively because Irsquo;m in a position where I can argue longer. Itrsquo;s also the balance of the other actors: like a curved group,crew, you are a group,crew, and he is the coach. You canrsquo;t start having tea with the coach and effective,significant him about the group,crew, you have to keep that separate. So we have a very boring time at home, two little silent people going slinking home following in position or time rehearsal.”
Kendal was innate outside the rules. Her father had basic moved to India to join a traveling rep company not long following in position or time her nearly all senior female sibling was born. This gave his married woman an agonising Sophiersquo;s Choice — either to abandon baby or husband. She chose the former, leaving the child for a few years in the care of her aunt.
Kendal, still,nevertheless, was innate a absolute 13 years following in position or time her sister, right inside the delightful, infuriating madness of an roaming dramatic lifestyle later immortalised in the Merchant-Ivory film Shakespeare Wallah
. She made her stage basic public appearance as a baby in arms. For an woman actor, this upbringing was priceless preparation. For a woman, not so much. Her parents had “desperately” wanted a boy to make a male star of production, not a girl; her family informal title was Fatty Foo; and she felt for ever overshadowed by her nearly all senior sister.
“She was amazingly good at everything,” Kendal says of her beloved Jennifer, who died of cancer at 51. “She was an amazing mathematician, she sang like an angel, she read all the important books, she knew everything about sounds that are acceptable,friendly,harmonized. And she was beautiful,magnificent. She had a stream of boyfriends, each more sophisticated in style than the individual before she wedded the Bollywood superstar Shashi Kapoor. She was the image of what I couldnrsquo;t be.”
So when Kendal became the nationrsquo;s person whom another loves as The Good Lifersquo;s sexy-but-tomboyish, independent-but-loyal dungareed domestic goddess, she had to pinch herself. Shersquo;d left India at 19, much to her fatherrsquo;s displeasure, but took years to find work. And in another idea,stimulus for Mrs Warrenrsquo;s Profession , she soon found out just what the rank of actor was in Britain: “At a party yoursquo;d say, lsquo;Irsquo;m an actressrsquo;, and the eyebrows would go and at once you would get that
look. It wasnrsquo;t a respectable profession; they knew you were up for commission for responsibility,use. Like a taxi!
“But even now, provided that you are on the stage, fundamentally you are being paid to entertain. Itrsquo;s a deal: therersquo;s my ticket, and now you dance. And that isnrsquo;t whoredom in the wrong way, but it isnrsquo;t the same as writing a book.”
As for her own pin-up rank on The Good Life
, she demurs. “I distinguished me to my female sibling because she was amazingly good at everything and 13 years older, and everybody adored her. So she was the image of what I couldnrsquo;t be.
“ The Good Life was such fun, but during that period the people who were thought of as hugely successful were Julie Christie and Monica Vitti, the beautiful ones in the movies. So it quite glad me that people thought I was ... quite fun. But it was the part as well, it was very funny and well written. When I look at The Good Life
every now and then — I canrsquo;t watch a whole individual through, mostly because it makes me sad about Paul Eddington — the thing that I find odd,bizarre is this a little 1940s accent Irsquo;ve got. It doesnrsquo;t belong unspecified area.”
Kendal loves writing — and writers. Her father “drilled inside her head” as a child that the words were everything. She is a very hungry,greedy reader — J. G. Farrell is her current fixation,consumption with belief,desire — and once reliable to write a novel, set in Calcutta during the Second World War, but discovered that she just “hadnrsquo;t got what it takes”. After her basic legal joining of two people,a union foundered because of her husbandrsquo;s mental disease,bad health, she went out with Robert Bolt: “Wonderful language, I desire people would do his plays more. Irsquo;ve forever,continually pronounced the individual I wanted to do was Vivat Regina
.” And later Stoppard, of course.
I tell her that Stoppard at first turned down Steven Spielbergrsquo;s offer to write Empire of the Sun , explaining that he was too busy writing a play for the BBC. “But thatrsquo;s just able to be seen with eyes and audio entertainment transmitted by method,technique of radio waves,” came the angry answer,reaction, “and this is Hollywood.” “No,” Stoppard replied, expressionless. “You get the wrong idea. Itrsquo;s for the radio
.”
Kendal reveals that Spielberg auditioned her for the very same film, but she didnrsquo;t get the part. She never did have a movie career, didnrsquo;t want it enough, wasnrsquo;t ready in body or mind to move to Hollywood. And the two disciplines are very different. A few years in the past there was a storm in a media teacup over suggestions that Kendalrsquo;s new,immature looks were down to secret plastic medical procedure, what Kendal convincingly denies. “I think provided that yoursquo;re a film star in America, provided that yoursquo;re going to be magnified and glorified with every little detail apparent,seeable on a move very quickly glass for vision, Irsquo;m afraid I think yoursquo;ve got to. But I wouldnrsquo;t, I really wouldnrsquo;t. You canrsquo;t have a frozen face, yoursquo;ve got to have expression for stage acting.”
And though Kendal looks fantastic for her age, her characterful wrinkles are readily apparent in the flesh. She does, still,nevertheless, confide individual unexpected piece of beautifying,relating to appearance surgery: “Irsquo;ve got a tattoo, and thatrsquo;s probably wrong!”
She has? Really? Where? “Donrsquo;t worry,” she says, smiling wickedly seemingly mentally checking off the more interesting places on her body where a tattoo could go. “Itrsquo;s on my foot. Ha, ha! Itrsquo;s a star, but itrsquo;s just the beginning, therersquo;s going to be other things. Irsquo;m looking for a turtle but I canrsquo;t find one.”
And she had this done recently? Shersquo;s turned 63 and suddenly decides now is the time to get herself tattooed? “Yes, and itrsquo;s the basic time! The thing is, I now know what bits wonrsquo;t go too wrinkly because theyrsquo;ve already not present,no longer in existence. You know where therersquo;s a place left to put tattoos.”
Then the next minute, somehow, we are on to her grandchildren, who are staying the weekend, and with the youngest of whom Kendal is having a clash of wills: she has to dress her as a sea nymph for the school play, yet the seven-year-old wants a mermaidrsquo;s costume, “and being a sea nymph is not a mermaid. But at 7 she is compelled,persistent that it is
. Irsquo;ll have to battle that out with her.”
And there you have it. Kendal is half free-spirited tattooed beauty and half indulgent,serving gran. But individual thingrsquo;s clear, as reviews of Mrs Warrenrsquo;s Profession
on its regional tour last year yet again noted: Kendal is all actress.
Mrs Warrenrsquo;s Profession
is at the Comedy Theatre, London SW1 (020-7321 5300), from tomorrow to June 19
