Is it the first time that you’ve tackled an Oscar Wilde play?
I may be the only Englishman who has never acted in a Wilde play before. I say “the only Englishman” rather than “only actor” because even people who work in banks have acted in a Wilde play at least once. All in all, I have to say that it was a very pleasant experience. The fact is that something strange happens to Wilde when it is adapted for film. While it certainly loses something, at the same time, it is enriched. Theatre and cinema are very different and hard to compare. But I think that theatre is easier. You have rehearsals, audience reaction, and events unfold chronologically. In the theatre, you go on stage after weeks of rehearsal in which you checked everything and everything is under your control. In movies, things are very different; for example, at nine o’clock, I’m supposed to kill my wife, then at ten o’clock I have to marry her. Scenes can be cut merely due to bad weather. Of course you are somehow freer because you don’t have the limitations of the stage. You have th
