Shakespeare References in Magazines: Movieline, Premiere

I’ve been going through more old magazines (I collected a ridiculous amount of Star Wars-related items between 1977 and 2005), and of course found more Shakespeare references. In the May 1999 issue of Movieline, there is an interview with Liam Neeson. When asked if he had any preconceptions about the film business, Liam said: “My ultimate aim was to be Iago for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Theater was what I wanted to do” (p. 49). A little later he is asked about whether he considers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg geniuses. Liam hesitates to call anyone in the film business a genius, so the interview asks, “What about playwrights?” Liam answers: “Genius? Shakespeare and Chekhov” (p. 49). That issue also features a piece on James Earl Jones. At the beginning, it lists some of his accomplishments, including “Shakespeare’s King Lear, Macbeth and Othello” (p. 55). And then partway through the interview, he is asked: “What about the Othello rumor – that every time you played Othello you slept with your Desdemona? Is that something you’d like to put to rest?” James Earl Jones answers: “I don’t know. I might want to perpetuate it” (p. 58). The interviewer says, “Two of your Desdemonas were Jane Alexander and Jill Clayburgh.” And then the interviewer says, “In 1964, though, you did break up a marriage when you fell for your Desdemona, Julienne Marie.” The interviewer also mentions James Earl Jones appearing in Looking For Richard.

In the February 1997 issue of Premiere there is a small blurb about William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet (the one with Leonardo DeCaprio and Claire Danes): “It seemed like a nonstop festival of iambic pentameter his year, what with Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and three takes on Richard III available. But Absolute Ballroom director Baz Luhrman’s reworking of this romantic perennial boldly went where no Shakespeare production had gone before, making thrilling use of surreal Mexican locations, exciting young stars with teen-fan cred, and MTV-style packing. Young women lined up in droves” (pages 48-49). The caption to the accompanying photo of Claire Danes played on her earlier role in My So-Called Life: “My So-Called Death: A jazzy Romeo & Juliet brought in the kids.” And then a piece on Kate Winslet has this brief introduction: “Star turns in Sense And Sensibility, Hamlet and Titanic have taken her around the world, but Kate Winslet still phones home every day” (p. 77). Trish Deitch Rohrer writes, “Kenneth Branagh, who directed Winslet as Ophelia in his recently released Hamlet, says that when he first met the actress – she was eighteen, and auditioning for a part in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – he knew he was in the presence of a star” (p. 78). Rohrer also writes, “It didn’t bother her that Branagh slapped and shook her hard before cameras started rolling on the ‘Get thee to a nunnery’ scene in Hamlet; that was improvisation” (p. 78). Hamlet is mentioned again a little later: “She was also photographed by a tabloid kissing her Hamlet costar Rufus Sewell in a restaurant, though she has said they were only friends” (p. 79). That piece also contains a photo of Kate Winslet and Kenneth Branagh from Hamlet.