"Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Hamlet!" announced an American friend excitedly the other day. And it's true - the Sherlock star will play the Danish prince at the Barbican Theatre in London next year. And he'll be fantastic, I'm sure. That's because all English actors are essentially theatre actors. You can tell from their voices. Deep, powerful, designed to reach the cheap seats at the back. When Peter O'Toole shouts: "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!" in the film My Favourite Year, the script is doing him a disservice. O'Toole attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, a school for stage actors. Like Cumberbatch, his very first roles were on stage, not screen.
It's difficult to imagine Brad Pitt or George Clooney playing Hamlet. American acting tends to be more naturalistic; smooth, subtle and ready for its close-up. But America is also the home of Broadway, with its song and dance spectaculars. Watch actors at New York's Juilliard School in the upcoming Arte documentary (on April 27) and you'll see that they are being trained for Broadway. A good singing voice is an insurance against unemployment. But Kevin Spacey came out of Juilliard, and so did Meryl Streep. In America, the cinema screen seems closer than it does in the UK. Every actor must be aware of its magnetic pull. So while English actors have theatre in their blood, Americans have Hollywood.
