00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, fantastic
00:06this afternoon to nearly speak to Mick Jagger, to speak to Jasper Talbot who is playing Mick
00:12Jagger in Redlands, the final play in the main house season at Chichester Special Theatre,
00:16the story of the Stones' 1967 drugs bust. Now quite apart from the excitement of being
00:21Mick Jagger, the point Jasper is that this is also your professional stage debut. What
00:27a wonderful way to start, you've come straight from graduation in fact, haven't you? Yeah,
00:33graduated two months ago, it's incredibly exciting. And here you are as Mick Jagger.
00:40Yeah, nearly, nearly there. It's an absolute gift, I feel very fortunate and it almost,
00:48you know, we're getting into tech and previews and it still doesn't quite feel real. But
00:53you know, for it to be that extension of the training that I've just finished and to allow
00:58myself in this job to keep learning, this is a wonderful opportunity in the stage that it is,
01:05you know, the Festival Theatre stage, being so wide and broad and large, and also to fill
01:11the shoes of such a, not physically, but sort of, you know, characteristically. Absolutely,
01:17you were saying about learning, you're learning so much more about Mick, but you were brought up
01:21in a Stones loving household, weren't you? Which is obviously a possible upbringing, isn't it? But
01:27how are you going to find your way into being Mick, do you think? What have you got to get?
01:33Where have I got to get? Well, yeah, just to get Mick across authentically at that point.
01:39I think existing in, you know, it's the classic thing of an actor of existing
01:44within the real want and what the character really wants at all times.
01:49I think being honest with who he was at that moment and not trying to make
01:56too clear or overt that this is Mick Jagger, but really it's just a young man who had the
02:03world at his feet and was in danger of going to prison. I think a lot of it exists in bravery,
02:11you know, the simple choices tend to tend to be the most truthful. And of course, putting in the
02:16work of the vocal stuff, the physicality and growing my hair out a little bit.
02:24And you also have to convey, don't you, the fact that this was enormous for Mick,
02:28wasn't it? The threat of prison was devastating for him in a way it wasn't for Keith, wasn't it?
02:33No, yeah, exactly. And when the verdicts were released and when the jury announced or the
02:41judge announced that he was guilty, he cried and he was very publicly terrified. And I think
02:49that's a perfect example of the fact that these two versions of Mick were existing at this point
02:55in the late 60s. There was, I believe, the more honest version of himself, which was the public
03:02schoolboy who could hold very intellectual conversations. And then there was stage Mick
03:10who could light up a room and sort of broaden out completely. And actually, that Mick was revealed
03:17in that moment in a public space, which wasn't very common at that moment.
03:22And when we were speaking just now, you slightly hinted you've clearly got the voice, haven't you?
03:27Yeah, I am. There's two versions of him, you know, and there's that one,
03:34you know, it's sort of far back in the throat, it's sort of nasal and he elongates his vowels.
03:40And then there's, you know, the version of him that could talk, you know, like this to anyone
03:47at any moment. And it's uncanny, you know, the difference between the two.
03:52Fabulous, you've got it. Well, congratulations on your stage debut. What an exciting way to start
03:57and I can't wait to see the show. Lovely to speak to you, Jasper.
04:01Lovely to speak to you. Thank you.
04:03Thank you. Thank you so much.
Comments