POIROT AND THE CASE OF THE STAR WHO FOUND GOD
By Lester Middlehurst, Daily Mail, 6/21/2007
"In this moving interview, actor David Suchet reveals how his discovery of religion has transformed his life...This Easter, on Maundy Thursday, David Suchet reached the end of an incredible journey -- one that began 21 years ago when he was 40. He was finally confirmed as a Christian. For the actor who has become the definitive Hercule Poirot as a result of his TV portrayal of Agatha Christie's detective, it was a life-defining moment.
'Once you have stood up publicly and said "I turn to Christ", by the very utterance of those words you are confessing your faith -- and that is quite something,' he says. 'I have been through 21 years of real struggle to come to this place, and now I have a faith that is the most important thing in my life. It governs how I behave, how I think, and makes me who I am."
Suchet is normally reluctant to talk about his religious beliefs for fear of being misunderstood. In the past, it has been reported that he converted from Judaism and that he is involved with the Alpha course, which has been dismissed by critics as 'a happy clappy sect'.
Neither is true. Although his father was Jewish, Suchet was an atheist before he became a Christian, and he has never participated in the Alpha course.
The only reason he is prepared to discuss his faith is that he is about to open in London's West End in a religious political thriller, The Last Confession, in which he plays a cardinal in the Vatican who is struggling to come to terms with his religious calling.
Suchet is renowned for researching his roles with painstaking fervour and this latest project was no exception. He and his wife Sheila visited Rome for a week so he could witness the influence wielded by the Vatican.
'We were there the day the Pope did one of his public greetings, and there must have been 4,000 people on their knees in St Peter's Square. I can't think of that happening in any other city in the world. It just shows what a hold the Vatican still has on Rome -- and on the world.'
Suchet also went on a five-day retreat, but he says it was as much for his own spiritual well-being as it was part of his research.
'I think there are times when all of us need to have silence and solitude. It's good to find one's own space for a little while.
'I have always believed that we go to the gym to exercise our bodies, we read and do crosswords to exercise our mind, but we do very little in this cynical, secular age to exercise our souls. On retreat, I was able to be alone to reflect and pray. Not to have to talk and feel on show was very important to me.' It was in 1986, when he turned 40, that Suchet first turned to Christianity. At the time he was in Seattle making a film.
'I was in a hotel room and I picked up a Bible and read Paul's Letter To The Romans. By the end of that letter, I had seen and read about a way of life to which I wanted to aspire. I thought: "This is what I have been looking for all my life."
'But I then had to study Christianity because I couldn't just accept it on face value. I have never had blind faith in anything.'
Inevitably, Suchet's religious compulsion put pressure on his relationship with his wife and two children, both now in their 20s.
'The journey of faith is not an easy one, and my wife and I did go through difficult times because of it. But as long as you are not fanatical about it, and if your faith can make you loving and kind, then it's a bonus to a marriage and family life.'
Next month, the Suchets celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary -- an achievement of which the actor is justly proud.
They met when they were both appearing in The Alchemist in Coventry and lived together for four years before they got married.
'We were very attracted to each other straight away. Four years living together is quite a commitment in itself, but getting married made me feel totally different-It made my commitment to Sheila so much stronger.
'I love being married and I think marriage is a wonderful institution. I have always said: "Happy wife, happy life." And although we have had long periods apart because of my work, I have tried to make Sheila happy by cherishing her and laughing with her.
'But marriage won't work by itself. You have to work at it. It's not about candlelit dinners every week, but about having struggles, coming through them the other side and believing in what you first believed in when you met.'
Suchet's devotion to his wife is mirrored in his relationship with his children. Himself the middle of three sons -- his elder brother, John, is a TV newsreader -- he was brought up by a disciplinarian father who sent his children to boarding school when they were just eight years old.
A Harley Street surgeon, his father was hugely opposed to Suchet becoming an actor. In fact, it was only because of his mother, a former actress, that he was able to persevere with a stage career against his father's wishes.
'My father was very strict, and probably because of that I have not been so strict with my children.
'I missed my parents very much when I was sent away to school at such a young age. But I don't blame them. It was post-war and they were doing the very best they could afford to do for us in a country that was absolutely in a mess.
'Whatever my children have wanted to do in life, I have encouraged them -- which is probably a reaction to the fight I had against my own father to become an actor. I loved both my parents very dearly and didn't want to go against them, but I knew I had to act.'
SUCHET is today one of the finest character actors in Britain. His performance as Cardinal Benelli in The Last Confession is particularly powerful and compelling. The play, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, is set in the Vatican and concentrates on the time immediately before and after the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I, whose reign as pontiff lasted just 33 days.
A controversial work, written by New York lawyer Roger Crane, it is based on factual events of the time which suggested that the Pope was murdered because he would not give in to the extreme Right-wing element among his cardinals.
The play received rave reviews when it opened at Chichester Festival Theatre. The Catholic weekly journal, The Tablet, described it as 'a Da Vinci Code for adults'.
When the play finishes its run in September, Poirot fans will be delighted to hear that Suchet is contracted to make more episodes of the detective series. The show is so popular that even the repeats get bigger viewing figures than many new programmes.
He has starred in all but ten adaptations of the Poirot novels, and his life's ambition is to film every one -- ending with Curtain, in which the character is killed off.
'I have no doubt that Poirot will be the enduring legacy of my career,' he says. 'It would be something that I'd be happy to leave behind. I am getting letters from fans who weren't even alive when I first started filming the series.'
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