Feature: Jim Broadbent - 'Ken Campbell encouraged me to be extraordinary’
Published: 28 April, 2011
JIM Broadbent, who lives in Belsize Park, told me he first met Campbell in 1976 and recalled: “I had seen him perform in his Road Show – I rang him up and went to see him at his flat in Haverstock Hill for a part in Illuminatus! I did my Sean Connery impersonation. And I was in.
“He was a very exciting and extraordinary person. At that time he was undoubtedly a genius, bursting with inspiration, creativity and drive. He had this huge energy and theatrical vision that was so surprising and totally against all the normal ways of acting in those times.”
One story told in the biography is how Broadbent was staying on the top floor of a hotel in Amsterdam with a group of actors led by Campbell. As they all squeezed into the lift, Campbell instructed them to lie on the floor with their legs in the air.
And when the lift doors opened at ground floor, astonished guests waiting for it to arrive heard Campbell shout, “Cor, that came down at a hell of a lick!”
Broadbent says: “It was all part of the game that went on in the theatre and in life. Ken treated life as a piece of theatre in the most extraordinary way. I had never met anyone like him before – and no one since. He gave me a chance and I grabbed it.
“Up to then I had been appearing in regular rep up and down the country and in small theatre work. They were hard times. I hadn’t reached the stage yet where I had thought of chucking the whole thing in.
“And it was Ken who helped to inspire the fringe theatre in the country and give opportunities for unknown actors to show off their talent. He was in many ways responsible for my success, and that of many other actors. He encouraged me to be extraordinary – and I was.”