Mark Rylance: 'Playing other ethnicities on stage helps develop empathy'
By ITV News London reporter Sam Holder
The Oscar, Tony, Olivier and BAFTA award-winning actor Mark Rylance says performers should be able to play genders and ethnicities different to their own on stage despite “political issues about correctness”.
In an interview with ITV News London, the former director of Shakespeare’s Globe said that theatre must remain “free of boundaries” and that limiting roles based on race “runs contrary to the spirit of acting”.
Rylance is a trustee of Intermission Youth Theatre, which provides opportunities for disadvantaged young actors. The company is putting on a new show, titled Juliet and Romeo, which reverses the gender roles in Shakespeare’s classic tragedy.
“I think we must keep imagination and play in theatre free. I know there are a lot of political issues about correctness and stuff, but it must be possible for people to play different things from who they really are and experience those things”, Rylance said ahead of the first performance.
The actor, best known for his Academy Award-winning role in Bridge of Spies, told ITV News London that playing different genders and ethnicities helps performers develop empathy. He added that he understood why, in response to a lack of opportunities, roles are being protected for actors from diverse backgrounds.
“I think there is a real issue that there hasn’t been enough diversity in casting. At the moment, one of the ways they’re [ensuring actors from diverse backgrounds get roles] is by stopping white men playing black people and then increasingly playing Jewish people or Arabian people. I hope there’s a stage we’ll move past once we’ve got a little bit more fair and equitable.”
Rylance said that the theatre industry is “crying out for diversity at the moment” and that in his entire career, he’d only worked with one black stage manager.
His previous roles include playing Cleopatra at Shakespeare’s Globe, an experience he described as allowing him to get more in touch with his mother’s side of his personality. He said if he were starting out his career now, “it would be different, I'm not sure how wanted I would feel”.
Critics have accused William Shakespeare’s plays of promoting misogyny and racism. Rylance said he “didn’t think Shakespeare was racist” but acknowledges his antisemitism, adding that during the 16th century, “England was not kind to Jewish people”.