When I first read ‘Othello’ and saw the film with Laurence Fishbourne and Kenneth Branagh, my first thought was for a play called ‘Othello’ the more interesting part was Iago. Sure the play’s about an honest man who gets his life torn apart, but for me I was far more interested in the man doing the tearing- Iago. So knowing I had Christmas to go through before return to studying I decided to look at Iago myself and asking that timeless actor’s question- how could I do it?
My initial question was- why is Iago doing this? He gives reasons (a fair few) such as racism, jealousy of being passed over for promotion, fears that Othello seduced his wife, and commentators have listed many, many more ideas of why Iago does what he does. I found a great quote by the actor Andy Serkis (aka Gollum from Lord of the Rings) from when he played Iago and he came up with this:
“There are a million theories to Iago's motivations, but I believed that Iago was once a good soldier, a great man's man to have around, a bit of a laugh, who feels betrayed, gets jealous of his friend, wants to mess it up for him, enjoys causing him pain, makes a choice to channel all his creative energy into the destruction of this human being, and becomes completely addicted to the power he wields over him. I didn't want to play him as initially malevolent. He's not the devil. He's you or me feeling jealous and not being able to control our feelings."
I think that, yes, this is an interesting interpretation, and makes Iago more of a sympathetic figure, who succumbs to power. As good as it is, it’s just not how I’d play it. I don’t think I could play an honest man who breaks down like that. Something I agree with him though is that Iago certainly is intelligent, very much so. So I began to form my interpretation that Iago is a psychopath. He uses this great intelligent negatively to destroy several people’s lives out of some narcissistic desire. I think that Iago really seems people as a means to an end, almost as if when he speaks to people he knows that if he says ‘x’ it will produce reaction ‘y’, which makes him seem so cold and viewing others as little more than machines.
When I began to think about Iago as a psychopath, I began to think about the show ‘Heroes’ of which I am a fan, and I thought about the character of Sylar. Now I think that Zachery Quinto puts in great performances ever week as the psychopathic Sylar. He really fit’s the ‘classic’ mould of a psychopath- cold, detached and without empathy. The reason why he kills is that he believes that he is ‘special’ and so steals other people’s superpowers people who he doesn’t believe are worthy of them.. So I began to think of Iago like this- believing that he is owed more than he gets, that he is ‘special’ and cannot understand why unworthy people (Cassio and Othello) get more than he does. So to him it must seem logical to get rid of them.
But my whole Sylar analogy began to fall apart when I looked upon his manner- isolated from other people. Iago certainly is not an isolated figure, in fact other characters seem very fond of him (“Honest Iago” oh, Will, you ironic devil, you), so if he is this cold and detached person then why the hell would people like him? And why the hell would Amelia marry him? What would she see in him? So I want back to the drawing board.
I found inspiration from another source after days of pondering over how on earth I could make my Iago work when I watched the film ‘10 Rillington Place’. At Christmas I try to keep my watching of Christmas films at a minimal (all that sugar-sweetness, snowy, jolly goodness doesn’t mix well with me) and so ‘10 Rillington Place’ seemed very much an anti-Christmas. It’s based on a true story about serial killer John Christie, played magnificently by Sir Richard Attenborough. When I was discussing my Iago dilemma with my best mate and said I’d been inspired by a Richard Attenborough performance he was taken aback as, like most of my generation, he thinks of Richard Attenborough as the kindly old grandfather in ‘Jurassic Park’ or Father Christmas. But his career wasn’t always like this, oh no, most of his early career was based on playing violent hoodlums (go see ‘Brighton Rock’- a British film noir).
Anyway, Richard Attenborough was fantastic as John Christie who was a serial killer in the 40’s and 50’s. What struck me was that he didn’t appear to be a ‘traditional’ psychopath, Christie was even married, like Iago, and she, like Amelia, discovered all too late what her husband was up too. I got the dvd of the film so I could watch the interviews with Attenborough about the role, and he made point that Christie wanted people to trust him and spoke in a very gentle tone of voice that was also sing-songy. It was how he lured people but speaking gently and telling them what they wanted to hear. So I began to try and read Iago’s speeches in a gentle voice and sing-songy way, which was hard at first to try and not sound too much like Salad Fingers.
There’s a moment in the film where Christie tells someone that he has a background of medical experience and I (like the victim) didn’t question it. It was only towards the end of the film that’s revealed as a lie, and the audience realises that Christie must be a pathologically liar. This suits Iago so well, that he just lies and lies to get what he wants from that person. So Iago is never sincere in reality, but he must always seem sincere to those he speaks to, not like Richard III who can afford to give the audience a wink. Now, I did see similarities between Iago and Richard, but they’re very different roles to play as Richard has so many wonderfully black lines I find it’s hard not to play him with a smile.
Not so long ago I had a drink with a friend who had studied Psychology at college, and in conversation I mentioned that I’d been looking into the character of Iago over the break. Luckily he knew the play and gave me his interpretation that Iago is not a psychopath, but a sociopath. He argued that Iago is not a psychopath because he isn’t violent enough, whereas I think that he is. But the sociopath idea is an interesting one as it fits with my idea of his narcissism and his clinical view of other people.
So all of it boils down into what I want to channel into the part of Iago that he’s so sure of what he’s doing (destroying lives) and believes it to be right and logical, and must appear to others as very sincere and, hell, even nice and helpful, but inside he is plotting, quietly and calming. I suppose I could have made things easier for myself and just read one of those True Crime books, but I really don’t want to read anything like that because I think those sort of things would upset and disturb me. It was only as I was looking into the character of Iago that I realises just how many films, programmes, books are about psychopaths and cast them as villains, like I saw ‘The Dark Knight’ at last and The Joker is clearly insane, and ‘No Country For Old Men’ when Javier Bardem’s character function and works on his own brand of logic.
Well, that’s one way of fending off boredom over Christmas.
No comments:
Post a Comment