And the Elephant Man, in a sense, embodies everything which is misunderstood in us all. It was a wonderful script, I have to say. I think it's a really beautiful moment in the film. GROSS: When you say, romance - oh, yes, at the end there, there's so much yearning in the voice that you communicate. HURT: (As John Merrick) Romance - oh, yes. The theater's the most beautiful place on earth. Kendal) You've never been?īANCROFT: (As Mrs. HURT: (As John Merrick) Well, it must be wonderful just to work there. Do you live there?ĪNNE BANCROFT: (As Mrs. Treves tells me that you're in the theater. And he's very excited to meet someone of the theater. But this is a scene where Anne Bancroft, as a great lady of the stage, comes and visits John Merrick and introduces herself. Is slurred so our listeners might have a little bit of trouble following the exact speech. And I should say before we hear it that your character's mouth is deformed, and his speech. GROSS: I'd like to play a short clip from this movie, which I think just illustrates this refinement of spirit that you have in the film. Yes, I mean, the simple thesis of that film is that people are not what they seem to be by - according to their looks. That's certainly what I felt, and I think that David Lynch felt the same thing, the director. HURT: That's something that I felt it was. Was it written that way, or was that something you read into the character? You played him as someone who, although having a grotesque exterior, had a refined, elegant, artistic spirit. He was the man who became known as the Elephant Man, who was severely deformed - grotesquely deformed. Well, let me explain who John Merrick was for our listeners who don't know. GROSS: You played the Elephant Man, John Merrick. So I sometimes wonder what is in my personality that makes people think of me in that direction. HURT: Mind you, I have been offered Caligula three times, and that was the time that I played it. HURT: I certainly don't see myself as Caligula. GROSS: Do you ever see yourself that way, as being.
I have played, of course, many other parts that are not in that area of flamboyance. I suddenly can't deny that from, say, Caligula in "I, Claudius" to Quentin Crisp in "Naked Civil Servant," that these are not anything other than flamboyant people. JOHN HURT: It's never been designed on my part. GROSS: You've played several roles of outcasts and extravagant personalities - "The Elephant Man," "The Naked Civil Servant." Do you feel like you have a special affinity with that kind of role? I spoke to John Hurt in 1989 when he starred in the film "Scandal." He also appeared in the films "Aliens," "Spaceballs," the "Harry Potter" films and the film "Jackie," which is currently in theaters.
And in "Midnight Express," he was a strung-out English junkie.
Elephant man script series#
He starred as the deformed John Merrick in the 1980 film "The Elephant Man." He played the defiant, gay writer Quentin Crisp in "The Naked Civil Servant." In the BBC series "I, Claudius," he starred as the emperor Caligula. Originally known as a promising stage actor in the 1960s, he went on to give acclaimed performances as outcasts and extravagant personalities in movies and TV. The British actor John Hurt died of pancreatic cancer last week at his home in England.
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