It's all you want as an actor: to have a story people want to be told.

Jamie Parker

Categorized in : You Story People Want

J. K. Rowling has already got a whole generation reading.

got generation reading whole

Wizarding is technical to me. When you get something that adds up to more than the sum of its parts, that feeling is magic to me. That's a kind of alchemy.

feeling me you magic

I think it's harder to write about joy than pain, isn't it?

i-think think pain joy

You can't go into parenthood as a battle wearing armour. It doesn't work that way.

you battle work way

Normally, you spend the play convincing people of the world and the characters.

you play people world

Isn't it a rare thing, telling hopeful stories now? I think we need more of that, to be honest.

need more now think

I like Monoloco in Petersfield, Hampshire, and Little Dorrit in London's Borough Market. Everything's delicious, healthy, and inexpensive.

everything like london healthy

If you are not getting people who have never been to the theatre before to come, then you are not doing your job.

never job you people

For my money, all theatre should be free.

free theatre money should

I don't think people should be priced out of going to the theatre... But we have to recognise that it is a show business.

think theatre business people

I will take to my grave with me the atmosphere of the first 'Cursed Child' preview, because no one knew anything. Only very rarely have I been able to deploy the phrase 'audible gasps.'

only will child me

Theatres that are stuffed to the gunnels leave me feeling rather peaceful - that's when things are going right. When you're playing to 40% and trying to make the budget, it's more difficult.

feeling me you trying

I know I'm only as good as the material I've got to work with. I'm not an alchemist, not when it comes to writing or production.

good know work writing

New York really does know how to welcome you through its gates - if they decide that's what they want to do.

new know you welcome

I'm making it up as I go along, like everyone else. There probably are some actors who are quite methodical or at least take their time about what particular footholds to find on the rocks next. There are always choices, even when you're not getting seen, for how to spend your time. It's only after 10 years that I got any kind of traction at all.

your you choices time

Spoilers are inevitable.

inevitable

Generally in the theatre, you spend some portion of the performance convincing people they have done the right thing in buying the ticket, that this is the play they want to watch.

performance you theatre people

If you want to do good material and you're lucky enough to get a chance to do it, then chances are probably somebody pretty nifty will have been there before you.

will good you chance

When I got the job on 'Cursed Child,' I was doing another show in the West End, and I was playing a part that Marlon Brando had played.

end doing job child

You're always trying to find common ground with whatever you do, but you want to not be thinking about yourself when you're performing a play. The job is getting yourself out of the way and letting the character go about the scenes.

yourself you character thinking