00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely
00:06to speak to Sam Woodhams. Now, Sam, you are on the road with Death Comes to Pemberley,
00:12which is P.D. James's continuation in effect of Pride and Prejudice, isn't it? And you came to
00:18this not particularly knowing Jane Austen, not particularly knowing P.D. James. And in a way,
00:24that's an advantage, isn't it? Yes, I felt like coming into this production without any preconceived
00:38ideas of characters or how things should be. And, you know, I feel like often fans of these
00:46very famous books have really set in their minds with how a character is. And, you know,
00:53I came in thinking, well, George Wickham can be whoever I want him to be.
00:59And that gave you a license to fill in the lines, didn't it? To think about his backstory.
01:07Yeah. I mean, you have to honour everything that's said about the character in the book,
01:14by other characters, by the author, things they say about themselves. But thankfully,
01:22there wasn't a huge amount about George Wickham. He is spoken about a lot, but you never actually
01:30get to be with him that much in the books. So yeah, there was a lot that was unsaid about his
01:38childhood, his family, his upbringing. So lots of room for me to fill in with my own ideas and perhaps
01:47some tragedy. Given that this is now a murder mystery. So don't give away anything. But what
01:58do you make of George Wickham? Is he the bad boy? How bad is he?
02:03No, no, no. I mean, you know, as an actor to justify choices that a character makes,
02:15you sort of have to see where they've suffered and follow the chain of events to see why has he made
02:20that choice. And okay, I can empathise, I can see why he's ended up in this position where he's making
02:27what are selfish choices. Yeah, it's difficult because the truly great malevolent monsters in
02:37this world, we could do the same for them, I guess. And there is a danger to that. You can't just forgive
02:44like a monstrous person for everything they've ever done. But understanding
02:52where they've come from, the choices they've made, without a doubt. And I can't, I can't go on every
03:01night and play George Wickham without sort of feeling lucky. He's just entirely misunderstood.
03:10You know, he just needs a big hug. But let's talk about your backstory. You are from Hastings,
03:19grew up in Hastings, and absolutely vital to that upbringing in Hastings. Your two granddads,
03:26an influence on you as the actor that you are now. Yeah, absolutely. I'm really lucky to still have,
03:37you know, one of my granddads, Alan, he, you know, he built classic racing cars, that was his career. But
03:45he is the most playful granddad, he was constantly, you know, keeping straight face,
03:55trying to make me laugh, trying to not make me laugh, trying to, you know, outwit me out to, you know,
04:02he'd be sat at the dinner table, and he'd start crying. And he would ask me if I was,
04:08if I thought he was joking. You know, am I laughing? You know, constantly playing games,
04:15trying to be a character of some kind. Yeah, he's so playful. I feel like that was an introduction to
04:25theatre from a very young age. Absolutely. Alan is still with us.
04:30My dad. And your other grandfather. Yeah, yeah. I love going to see him, you know.
04:36Yeah, my other grandfather, he spent his life doing amateur dramatics in Hastings,
04:43and consequently, my dad did as well. So there was an introduction to theatre from a very young age.
04:49Even though I was just playing sport, I wasn't too interested in it at that point. It was very much
04:55threaded through my family. Fantastic. So, yeah, I've got a lot of friends,
05:02a lot of friends in theatre in Hastings. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, Sam, really lovely to speak to
05:12you. We have survived a slightly dodgy Wi-Fi connection, but great to speak to you. And
05:17Death Come to Pemberley comes to Brighton Theatre Royal, and it's also playing Guildford Yvonne Arno.
05:26Sam, great to meet you. Great to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers.
Comments