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home in the former Soviet Union when he was in his teens.
Eventually, they settled in Canada. Kingsley’s background is famously diverse too. He was born Krishna Bhanji in Yorkshire, son of a Kenyan-born doctor of Indian descent and an English- born fashion model.
Pinpointing the effect of his background is something he finds hard. “It’s very difficult to be objective about one’s child- hood because you have no per- spective on it. I have nothing to compare it with. The only way I can lead any kind of a compar- ative life is to portray other men,” he says.
“In my own experience, in por- traying other men and earning my money by pretending to be somebody else, it has stamped me with what the actor is - tribally central and socially peripheral.
“I enjoy this status so much, feel- ing that I’m close to the heart of the tribe as an actor, a storyteller, a troubadour, but socially quite dis- tant because I don’t fit into any particular comfortable slot.
“There’s always a part of me that’s migrating. That’s so much part of my attempt to portray all these different men. The sense of being displaced from my home, homeland and language is a very real part of my working life, but I’ve never suffered from it in the way that Behrani has. I have never felt bereft of anything. I’ve never gone through anything remotely like that.
“Everything that’s made me what I am today is part of that process of being intrigued and curious. But I really couldn’t put my finger on any specific trigger from my childhood.”
His film commitments rule out returning to the stage for the time being and, besides, he’s not des- perate to tread the boards again. The reason is because he’s completely in love with film as a medium. He likes the minimalism
it forces on the actor, the econo- my and the truth that the cam- era insists on.
“I’m very in love with the fact that the camera is revolted by act- ing and loves behaviour,” he says.
“So I think if I were to go back on stage I might be in great dan- ger of acting. I avoid that at all costs and love it when the cam- era is watching the behaviour of my character.
“Who knows? I may return to the stage, but not in the foresee- able future.”
While he continues to snag such a diverse collection of screen roles, he’s likely to remain faithful to the cinema. Since his first leading film role, in the title role in Richard Attenborough’s epic Gandhi – for which he won two BAFTAs and an Oscar - he has appeared in a variety of screen guises whose scope is equalled by few other actors.
Here’s a man who’s given us everything from an Oscar-nomi- nated turn as a gangster in Bugsy to the US vice-president in Dave;
from a Jewish accountant in Schindler’s List to a Nazi-hunter in Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story; and he even provided the voice of a frog in the animated Freddie As F.R.O.7.
No wonder he resists naming a favourite part as he’s had the “most extraordinary opportuni- ties”. Eventually he commits him- self. “In terms of fondness of a portrait that I’ve done of some- body, I think Behrani is possibly the portrait I’m most fond of in my whole career,” he says.
“Maybe because it’s recent, fresh and the response has been gratifying [he has been Oscar- nominated yet again]. But when I watch the film, it’s a man I deeply care for on the screen.”
His upcoming role as the vil- lainous Hood in the summer movie release of Thunderbirds, the live action version of the cult puppet series, offers yet another side of Kingsley. Not that he approached the project any less seriously than he did House Of Sand and Fog.
Making Thunderbirds was a “joyful experience”, and he has nothing but praise for the American director Jonathan Frakes. “That was a film for chil- dren and directed by a man of great taste. He never once trivi- alised what we were doing,” says Kingsley.
“There’s nothing worse than taking your children to a bad pantomime where they are hav- ing more fun on stage than the
kids are in the audience. It’s insulting, it’s demeaning, it’s excluding.
“This was a genuine piece of 60s mythology about heroism and anti-heroism that was made with a big heart and we all had a wonderful time making it.”
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