00:00I'd leave that coat on if I were you, George. We've got a long way to go.
00:07Well, you're not me, Peter.
00:09Yeah, he did. He put me up for it. I know he did.
00:12He wouldn't admit it, though, ever.
00:14He didn't have casting approval, but we thought it'd be helpful to know
00:19if there was anybody, for instance, that he actively didn't want in the company.
00:25And we were talking about Gwilym, and he said,
00:28I think Michael Jason might be useful.
00:33Michael, consummate actor, an actor who gives an awful lot.
00:41He doesn't take it.
00:43The success of that relationship is Michael's generosity.
00:50I mean, as an actor, he gives, gives, which is great acting.
01:01Four o'clock in the morning, you're right, the telephone rang.
01:04I sat bolt upright, not thinking that, you know, some emergency, you know, something dire.
01:10And it was Alec, and I said, Alec, what's the problem?
01:15And he said, I haven't found him. I haven't found Smiley.
01:19I said, well, you know, I've seen the rushes.
01:23I know you don't need to see the rushes because you told me you see them long before I do.
01:28I've seen the rushes, and you are Smiley.
01:31He said, no, I haven't found him. I can't find him.
01:34I don't think I'm fat enough. I haven't put enough weight on.
01:38I am drinking lots of Guinness, but I haven't, I haven't found him.
01:43I said, it's four o'clock. We're on set at seven.
01:47I want to turn over at eight.
01:49I'll see you on location, and perhaps we can discuss it then.
01:53But I would like, if you don't mind, to get an hour of sleep before I get up.
01:59And click, I put it down. I was furious.
02:03So I tried to get to this location.
02:07I told my AD, keep everybody back.
02:10I said, where is he? Is he here?
02:12He said, yes. Makeup, yes.
02:14And I saw him at the top of Primrose Hill, walking, pacing backwards and forwards.
02:20And I went up the hill and shouted at him when I was about 20 paces from him.
02:27And I said, Alec, this is your start, Mark.
02:31It's a two shot, no cuts.
02:33It's a tracking shot all the way down the hill.
02:35I hope you know your bloody lines.
02:38And I was furious.
02:41And we never discussed from that moment on, never once again,
02:45did we ever discuss his embodiment of George Smiley.
02:53Once in a while, he would add a word to the script, like sumptuous,
02:57running with that greasy spoon.
02:59Well, that was sumptuous.
03:03That was his line.
03:08But in the business, I mean, he was meticulous.
03:13Patrick Stewart was Carla.
03:16And Carla, being the prisoner, was released into a room to meet Smiley.
03:21Could we take those things off his hands?
03:26And when he came in, he sat down and Smiley passed him a lighter.
03:38When John Irving saw the rushes, he wasn't happy with Carla's hand
03:42because he'd been in prison for a while.
03:44And he thought the hand was too, too new.
03:49So he decided that he'd do it again.
03:52Of course, Patrick Stewart was on for another job.
03:55So Lizzie Rowell, who's the makeup lady, did an audition of hands.
03:59And I got the part.
04:01Guard.
04:07So I had to sit down and take the lighter.
04:11lighter from Alec.
04:13John Irving, the director, said, Alec, Alec, you don't have to be in this scene.
04:17It's just the lighter coming across the table.
04:20And then Alec, in his being Alec, he said,
04:22I'm not going to leave a fellow actor to sit at a table on his own
04:27without an eyeline, John.
04:29I've got to be here for him.
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