David Suchet

By Becky Wicks, lastminute.com, 2006 

Keen to know the man behind Hercule Poirot, Becky dialled the digits of charming thesp, David Suchet for a chat about life, Bigfoot and the role in Harry Potter with his name on it...

Q: I saw the play last night and was surprised at how funny it was. How's it all going at the moment, are you pleased with how people are responding to it?

A: I was in it 27 years ago at the Aldwych Theatre, so obviously the National is bigger - it holds about 1200 people. We're only three quarters through the round but I think people see it as an entertaining production - I mean it's not quite a musical, not quite a play, it's more of a comedy which mixes a bit of everything. I would call it "a non-intellectual event at the National", it's more two and a half hours of being given to!

Q: Well I definitely felt like that, especially clutching my wine. How much rehearsal time did you have for this?

A: Not as much as the others actually - I was still filming Poirot three and a half weeks before the previews started. But the others were very good at letting me in. I'd already played the role before, obviously, so it was like slipping back into it, only slightly different because you respond differently to how others around you are playing their roles. Of course I'm 27 years older than when I played Herman Glogauer before, so it didn't take me as long to adjust this time round!

Q: He's a bit of a meanie, isn't he!

A: He is, he's awful, but you know I've met people like him!

Q: No way!

A: Yes, in Hollywood it's still very much like that. Behind closed doors there are some frightening characters that would put you off ever trying to get into the industry. I was on a movie once where the Producer stormed in and fired a very well-known cameraman. Hollywood is not that far removed from what you see on stage, although of course, we present a satire here. It's not all like that.

Q: So in this play you sing, and I thought you were good!

A: Thank you.

Q: No sweat. Have you ever sung before and how scary is it to do live on stage?

A: Very scary. I've spent 37 years in the business and only sung twice... the other time was when I played Sid Field in What A Performance. Sid was one of the greatest comedians in the 20th century and when he died in 1950 there were more people at his funeral than that of any other entertainer, ever. It was a bit of a big deal to play him. I think I'd like to do a proper musical, but only if was really good, I'm not sure that singing is my specialty...

Q: So how many cigars do you think you will have smoked by the end of the run?

A: (He laughs) Do you know, I'm not even a smoker. I don't have that thing in my mouth one moment longer than is necessary and there's always someone backstage with a little ashtray who takes it off me. I don't like it because it smells. We probably get through about two of them for each show but I never smoke them all!

Q: In 1996 you were given a Best Actor Award for your role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Have you seen the latest version in London?

A: Not yet because I haven't had time, but I can't wait to. I think Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is one of the greatest plays ever written. I remember when I saw it in 1972, I could only afford the rubbish seats, high up in the heavens, but I loved it. I swore to myself that if I ever got given the chance to play George that I would be the luckiest man alive, so when I was offered the role I was over the moon, but it was also the most frightening experience ever. I really prepared for it though, I took the role apart and learnt it inside out, and Diana Rigg was an inspirational actress.

Q: So tell us, what's the worst role you've ever had to play?

A: (Thinks for a moment) Oh I don't know, I suppose when you've been so long in the business you come to know that things always go wrong when you're on stage. Handles come off doors, phones ring when they're not supposed to, but I think audiences love that. They enter into the spirit of the whole thing. I think they like to be reminded that they're watching real people imitate life, and life goes wrong sometimes.

Q: So will you be keeping any of those fetching stripy suits?

A: (laughs) No I don't think so, I wish I could. I think they're a bit too loud for the real world though, although I could take a trip to the zoo and hide in front of a zebra, no problem!

Q: You must need a break, will you be using lastminute.com to take you on your next holiday?

A: I most certainly will be using you in the future. Do you know my wife and I haven't been on holiday for six years! I'd like to go out to the Italian lakes soon, I absolutely love the UK's waterways too. Going out on a narrow boat along the canals is always wonderful.

Q: Sounds it. So, a lot of us in the office were excited to discover you were in the film Bigfoot and the Hendersons?!

A: Yes, it's become a bit of a cult classic hasn't it! It was a brilliant experience. I actually went along for the role of an ex-Vietnamese soldier, who was to be a trapper in the Canadian forest. But I said I couldn't play the role like that. I said I would play him as a mad French Canadian with a shaved head and he looked at me, laughed and gave me the part! It was so good to be re-united with John Lithgow again in that film too - we went to LAMDA together in 1968 so we had a lot of catching up to do.

Q: So what are you up to next?

A: I'm actually going to South Africa to film for an Independent Channel, a drama called The Flood. It's all about what happens when London floods and there are lots of wonderful special effects, it sounds exciting.

Q: That sounds scary, why is something about London being filmed in South Africa?

A: Most of it will be on a sound stage and with the special effects we could be anywhere! I think it's because of the costs... sound stages and things are all cheaper outside of Britain so a lot of things are filmed elsewhere.

Q: Ah right, penny pinching. Good to know it happens across the board! You received a Tony nomination for your part in Amadeus, what do you miss most about home when you work abroad?

A: My family, definitely. My children were in their late teens when I was in Amadeus and I didn't see my wife for six months. But they all came over to New York for opening night and we had a wonderful time. But you know, audiences are very different over there to here. I think New York has a bigger theatre audience, whereas most of the people who go to the theatre in London are tourists. I think it's probably because the UK has more in-home entertainment, more tv channels and the like than any other country in the world, so there's more to keep people in their homes. It's sad, but people just don't seem to support theatre here like they do in New York.

Q: Well we're doing the best we can and we have lots of adoring fans. When can we expect to cheer you on in Harry Potter?

A: I would love to be in a Harry Potter film, I've been for several roles but never quite made it yet. I like to think that by the seventh film, I'd have worked my way in there somehow...

Q: You must! Hey, you know in Once in a Lifetime, all the girls wear really amazing shoes, all shiny and vintage from the 20's. I couldn't stop looking at them. Please can you get me a pair when the run's over?

A: I will certainly do my best, of course.

What a nice man. It's so refreshing to speak to someone as interesting and fun as David Suchet, who also appreciates a woman's natural shoe priority.