Ben Whishaw was raised in Clifton, Bedfordshire, and graduated from Rada in 2003. After playing Hamlet in Trevor Nunn’s 2004 Old Vic production, he starred in a number of TV, film and stage roles, including Nathan Barley, Bright Star and Paddington. This year, he has co-starred in new the Bond movie Spectre, Suffragette, romantic science-fiction thriller The Lobster and portrayed Dionysos in Bakkhai at the Almeida theatre. Next, Whishaw stars in London Spy, a five-part BBC2 series that starts on Monday 9 November at 9pm, in which he plays a young, down-at-heel Londoner who forms a relationship with a mysterious investment banker.
1 | Book
The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower
I am telling everybody about an Australian writer in her 80s: Elizabeth Harrower. I read about her in an interview with Eimear McBride, who wrote A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing – she mentioned Harrower’s novel The Watch Tower. Harrower mysteriously stopped writing 40 years ago – she does not know why, apparently. I found her books incredibly moving and feel an affinity with her. She seems hyper-aware of currents under the surface of human relationships, the conflict between having to keep up a certain social normality and the burning emotions underneath.
2 | Theatre
I’m looking forward to seeing Lines at the Yard, in Hackney Wick. I’ve seen two wonderful plays there: Beyond Caring and The Mikvah Project. This is the latest in-house production by director Jay Miller. He is about 28 and established the theatre with his girlfriend. They built it out of stuff they found. It is like an amphitheatre in a warehouse. I live nearby – it is my local. The place feels as if it’s made of odds and ends. The seats are all different and there is no backstage – you can see the man working the lights. That rawness seeps into the productions.
3 | Film
Carol (2015)
Carol is based on a Patricia Highsmith novel and directed by Todd Haynes. It knocked me sideways – it is not out here yet [released 27 November], I saw it at Cannes – I was there for the premiere of The Lobster. It is a love story between two women, played by Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett. It is Highsmith’s only non-thriller but it has suspense. It is exquisitely directed. Mundane gestures carry emotional weight. You notice everything Cate Blanchett does: the closing of her blouse, the way she touches her lover’s shoulder and because their gay relationship is still illegal, these things have an incredible charge.
4 | Website
I’d like to talk about a small company that releases DVDs: Second Run. I got led to this when filming The Lobster and managed to see its director Yorgos Lanthimos’s previous films. This company, run by Mehelli Modi, specialises in releasing little-known films from all over the world. It has recently celebrated its 10th birthday. I’ve just ordered a bunch of stuff from them – I don’t know half the directors but I’m excited by what they are releasing. They make available films never released in the UK, films that had a very limited release and films that have been unavailable for decades.
5 | Art
Maria Lassnig, an Austrian painter, died last year in her 90s. She had a recent exhibition in Barcelona. She was extraordinary. She painted herself and her process was to do with sensations in her body. If she was unaware of her ears, she would paint herself without ears. Paintings show her morphing into animal, alien or abstract states. They are to do with how it feels to have a body. I’m fascinated by bodies – how I feel about my own. When I saw her angry, funny, vividly coloured paintings, I couldn’t believe they were by a woman in her 80s. They seemed more like the work of a 20-year-old. She had a punk spirit.
6 | Poetry
Economy of the Unlost by Anne Carson
I have been interested in Anne Carson’s work because I was recently in Bakkhai and she did the translation. I have read almost all her poetry. I’d choose Economy of the Unlost. It sounds obscure but it isn’t. She makes your mind work in exciting new ways. She draws connections between the ancient Greek Simonides, the first poet ever to be paid for his poetry, and 20th-century Paul Celan, who wrote strange, stripped down, despairing poems. Her poems work almost as an essay. I’ve got a bit obsessed with her.
7 | Music
Clear Spot by Captain Beefheart
I’m eclectic musically, though a little out of touch with contemporary pop. Anyway, I bought a record player for the first time this year and got excited about buying records and bought the re-release of three Captain Beefheart albums from the 70s. Clear Spot was the only song I wanted to listen to for the whole run of Bakkhai. It has an amazing, dirty kind of riff – energising and sexual. It got me earthed and excited before the performance. I would lock myself in the loo at the Almeida and listen to it before going on stage.
