Actor interviews

When theaters shut down during COVID, actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen performed Hamlet inside Grand Theft Auto Online. Filmmaker Pinny Grylls captured it all in a documentary, Grand Theft Hamlet.

Called “the finest actor of his generation,” Beale has played just about everyone in Shakespeare’s canon. He reflects on the roles that have shaped his career and how his approach has evolved over time.

Olivia Hussey was just 15 when Franco Zeffirelli cast her in Romeo and Juliet. When the film was released in 1968, it catapulted Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the young actor playing Romeo, to global stardom. For many, it’s still the definitive film adaptation of the play.

Actor Colman Domingo takes us behind the scenes of the making of his new film, Sing Sing, the inspiring true story of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the maximum security prison.

Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea talk about Dench’s experiences playing Ophelia, Gertrude, Lady Macbeth and Titania. Plus, parrots, Polonius, dirty words, hijinks with Sir Ian McKellen, and more.

Legendary comedian and actor Eddie Izzard tells us about her one-actor performance of Hamlet.

We talk to Sir Patrick Stewart about his Yorkshire youth, auditioning for the RSC, and his most famous roles on the stage and screen.

Michael Patrick Thornton joins us on the podcast to talk about his experiences navigating the theater world in a wheelchair after recovering from a spinal stroke.

Read a few favorite quotes from actors who have  joined us on our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Lolita Chakrabarti, the late Glenda Jackson, Sir Derek Jacobi, Paterson Joseph, Adrian Lester, Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Page, the late Antony Sher, Harriet Walter, and Stephan Wolfert offer their insights on everything from backstory to the famous bits to the question no actor should ask.

Actor Adrian Lester walks us through big moments in his illustrious career, including Cheek by Jowl’s all-male “As You Like It” and Peter Brook’s “Hamlet.”

Patrick Page tells us how he gets inside the mind of Lear in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 2023 production.

Theater-maker and past Folger Fellow Debra Ann Byrd tells us about her solo show.