INTERVIEW: Miriam Margolyes

Livelier than life

British actor Miriam Margolyes discusses her life and career with Richard Watts.

When asked why she is touring Australia over the next three months with a one-woman show based on the work of Charles Dickens, a writer who has been dead for over 130 years; Miriam Margolyes cuts straight to the chase.

“Because he’s Dickens,” she says, in a tone that brooks no argument.

“Because he is the best writer who ever lived…a journalist who was blessed with a dazzling imagination, so his writing combines his sharp observation, coupled with that enchanting, dazzling imagination that allowed him to create convoluted and amazing plots and extraordinary characters.”

Would she say that Dickens’ characters, such as Fagin from Oliver Twist and Great Expectations’ Miss Havisham were larger than life, as well as extraordinary?

“I don’t know if they’re larger than life,” she ponders. “They’re livelier than life.”

Margolyes, too, is livelier than life: prone to laughter, and with an unruly mop of curls crowning her plump, friendly face and sparkling eyes. Her visage is well known, thanks to a 40 year career that’s included a BAFTA award-winning performance in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence; and roles in such popular films as Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; although one of her earliest roles was providing voice-overs for female characters in the 1980s TV series Monkey, aka Monkey Magic.

“Good Lord, that was a long time ago,” she laughs, when I mention the program was iconic for anyone who grew up in Australia in that era. “It was hysterically funny doing it; we were just pissing ourselves. I’m very happy that it’s been enjoyed by lots of kids all over the world since, but I never thought it was anything important.”

When asked to what she ascribes her sustained career in a notoriously fickle and cut-throat industry, Margolyes again responds with laughter.

“Huge talent,” she quips; then says, more seriously, “and amazing luck.”

Margolyes is invariably described as a character actor, rather than as simply an actor; though evidently its not a label that rankles her.

“It’s a shorthand, for saying that I’m not the love interest,” she explains, before adding that she would never want to be the love interest. “It’s much more fun to do what I do, because I have to have fun too, not just the audiences.”

Consequently, Margolyes explains with characteristic frankness, she tends to take more interesting, lower-paying roles over blander but more financially rewarding work.

“For example, doing this tour in Australia, it’s about four months and I’m getting $5000 a week. That’s a very low salary. I could make a lot more money if I stayed in England, or worked in America, but I want to do this. I want to go around Australia, and I want to do my show, so I’m doing it.”

Margolyes is no stranger to Australia, as she lives here part time, in properties in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales and in Bondi.

“I have considerable investment in this country, and I love it,” she says proudly.

Given that Margolyes is cautious of speaking on the record about her private life, despite acting with the Gay Sweatshop Company while in her 20s, it is with caution that I ask her if that includes being emotionally invested in Australia, as well as financially.

“Emotionally, financially, I just like it. I’m now at the age that I can do what I want, and I want to come here and live here. I like it very much,” she says.

Her openness encourages me to ask Margolyes about her sexuality, and after an initially cautious reply (“As an artist, I don’t want to be labelled; I don’t want to be hived off into a smaller group. I’m whatever is required to create a character; that’s my job.”) her answer, ultimately, is direct and disarming.

“What I think you should say is, I have lived with – not lived with - but been adored by and adoring of a woman for 40 years. There’s nothing more needs to be said.”

Dicken’s Women at the Arts Centre, September 18-23, and Frankston Arts Centre, October 9-10. Bookings on 13 6100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au.

This interview is an expanded version of a feature running in MCV #349 this Thursday September 9.