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Published: 30 December 2008

Jim Broadbent

Oscar a serious ordeal for ‘silly’ actor

IN his 40-year career Jim Broadbent has worked with some of the greatest names in film and theatre, including Woody Allen, Mike Leigh and Alan Bennett. His mantlepiece bows under the weight of a pair of Bafta awards, two Golden Globes and an Oscar.
It’s not bad going for a one-time “pig wrangler” and van driver who was expelled from school, as Mr Broadbent was quick to concede during an interview with Matthew Lewin at Burgh House last week.
Broadbent, who lives in Belsize Park with his wife, the painter Anastasia Lewis, was born in 1949 and grew up in a commune in Lincolnshire set up by his father, who was a conscientious objector and a keen amateur dramatist. He converted a local disused Methodist church into a theatre showing progressive drama; young Jim first appeared in Ibsen’s The Doll’s House when he was four years old.
His first act on leaving drama school was to sign up for the Ugly Modelling Agency – “I’m proud to say I didn’t get one job.” He played 12 characters in 12 hours for Ken Campbell’s adaptation of Illuminatus!; wrangled live pigs at the New End Theatre and chronicled the history of the world in the two-man National Theatre of Brent with Patrick Barlow.
He sang his heart out in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, and played the husband of Iris Murdoch in 2001’s Iris. He won an Academy Award and a Bafta for his performance.
Getting the Oscar was “an ordeal” he said, then adds: “I’ve always liked getting laughs. I don’t know if I’ve ever had adulation. Silly has always been easy. To me the big bugbear of acting is when the vanity of the actor is obvious.”
SIMON WROE

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