>> from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." herenneth branagh is directing "macbeth" in the

country from manchester. and has received extraordinary reviews. invokedrdian" said he golden memories of laurence olivier in the role. here's a look at the trailer. >> what? can the devil speak true? >> you look like an innocent flower. this -- this dagger which i see before me. ♪

the doors are open. mocking their charge. >> the dagger. order. [laughter] >> i'm pleased to have sir kenneth branagh back at this table. have you been waiting to do this? >> i have. circling it. the copy of the play it first came across was on our kitchen table when i was about 10 or 11 years old. my brother five years older than me was doing it at school and i saw these three weird sisters on the cover. that was my first introduction to macbeth. it's the same copy i have every

night. it's it's on my dresser. >> do you need to do it at a time in your life? actingd a great old school mentor her used to run the royal academy of dramatic arts. you have to wait whenever you are the right age. he said to me in my late dirties that i was still too young. i did not understand it. i listened to him. i revered him. -- he said to me when i was in my late 30's that i was still too young. you need to find the right elements like alex kingston to be lady macbeth. things start to fall together. it became the right time to do it. like you had had a 10 year absence from shakespeare. things in my career, others may view it

differently, but these accidents happen. you find yourself on wonderful diversionary tracks. my wife jokes about it. , does he read shakespeare all the time? i tell them you do because you are always doing that. there's always macbeth, king lear, something. 10 years away but quite a lot of years of just reading, being exposed to it. it's always in my life. >> how is this macbeth different? different group doesn't it's different -- does it it is different. i take a speech at the beginning of the play spoken by essentially the description of a battle in which macbeth is extremely brave and heroic, fearless for an interesting

character that will be fearful most of the play. we dared to take that away and put what he describes onstage. we wanted to do it for a couple of reasons. he said when you meet macbeth, you know a little of what they really mean about this fearlessness, the savagery. should notmagine have the problems he turns out to have later on when faced with another murder. in battle, he seems fearless. we wanted to introduce to the audience a theatrical energy hectic and you could viscerally be in part of these fundamentally good people at the beginning of the play watch them make bad decisions. >> eisai you hurdle forward i the beginning of the play ended

have that kind of energy. >> you are always so interested in terms of what goes on in the corridors of power. when one thinks about why and how these two people could do this extraordinary thing, when one thinks about it, it's easy to think about it in melodramatic terms but he kills a friend of his who is the king, the president, whatever. people describe him as being conscienced. perhaps these things only happen quickly, without thought. >> she accurately describes him as not without ambition but without the sickness without the milk of human kindness. there are remarks about essentially good-natured. amazing success.

the reviews are brilliant. going toantastic, i'm plant you and you will have all sorts of rewards. great big even, a honor, but i'm giving my job to him, my son. immediately, macbeth is suddenly a man with a witch's pronouncement in his mind. if you showed moments ago, why should he be in the way? ago.few short moments i must fall down or else or lea p. leap means murder in this context. it's a wonderful way to put these in these extremely weird position. >> the witches are great. you see them in the round. their prophecies are one by one.

the lives of the good and great, the power of suggestion. some people would say that macbeth is a silly play because it's about a man who believes his horror scope. it is someone for whom everything is going on. >> powerful men and women believe in myth. >> the idea of what the legacy is. macbeth and lady macbeth have not had success making children so immortality is not guaranteed by family so now perhaps it can be seized by having your name in the history books. during thetionship two, is she more ambitious than he? we wanted to bring in the savage world when she says goodbye to him and he goes off to battle, the idea whether he comes home or not is very heavily questioned. when they do come back, we

wanted to present this very functioning relationship. they fancy the pants off each other and it's very passionate. >> the passion comes out clearly. like there are no successful marriages and shakespeare except the macbeth which is strange because they both die and kill the king along the way. the first conversation i had with alex about this, to me central to the show and the performance that he adores her. she's a natural companion for him. >> issue stronger or weaker? she stronger or weaker? >> she is the first one to invite evil into the room. we are in a room where we believe in it. the audience has seen it because they were hanging around those stones. she has balls enough to do it

first timeout. the balance of power within that relationship switches. from ahis interesting theyfemale point of view, get it in he becomes president, as it were. now she says to leave everything aone. >> was the part of the prophecy from the witches? he's scared because of what they said so therefore he goes off essentiallyody trying to square the circle with all of those things. to be the father of the kings, he tries to kill both him and his son. -- predict it to be the father of kings. it means he will not ever sleep again and there is no satisfaction. the first moment we see him as king, they celebrate. they walked down the production house in the coronation and he

sits down and said to be zealous is nothing but to be safely -- to be thus is nothing but to be safely thus. i'm here with a crown and a throne but it's nothing. --and then athus splurge of paranoia and in his royalty of nature. >> no one that i know of is more identified with shakespeare than a living actor today. because of so many things, producing and acting, there is this question. when you prepared to do macbeth, do you look at every production that you can get your hands on to see whatever form you can get your hands on? >> over the years, i suppose i have, but i did the opposite for this. i knew that i was going to do it or at least i wanted to do it

any much when i stopped looking at other productions. >> that is when you thought the time is for me. >> i did not want my brain to be full of the greatness of other people. we needed to find our own way to it. i stopped with the growing understanding that i felt ready to have a go. >> you thought about doing it way up in the future, a very futuristic version. what drove you away from that to where you are? you come up with a strong concept for the world of the play, and all of these are very elastic. shakespeare survives anything that we might try to trip him up .ith many times, the idea ultimately has summary. of quality. you set the merchant of venice and the new york stock exchange and you might get a fantastic

resonance with the world of money but it's also about love. the whole fifth act is about whether the girl will choose the boy or whatever it might be. the futuristic macbeth felt as though it potentially just denied the savagery and the primitive nature of some of these motivations. right at the end of the play, malcolm says we are going to make those who helped me here girls, the first that scotland ever had. there is a journey from a primitive world into a more civilized world. we will give them honor. >> what's fascinating to me, i think i read somewhere that james the fifth would come to shakespeare plays? yes, indeed, and was the offer of a famous book on demonology. he was obsessed with the subject macbeth deals with. >> some people he got it from

the hollingshead chronicles? quick shakespeare was fantastically pensive and where he went for all his stories. he knew how to borrow and he knew how to be inspired. alex kingston and i did antony and cleopatra on radio. there is a famous speech where she sits on a burnished throne, burned on the water. >> there's a comparison made for the two. >> the central focus on a between two complicated people, a powerful man with a brilliant woman and they have a balancing impact. in lives of the ancient romans, etc. shakespeare filters fairly comprehensively. pilfers comprehensively.

>> every writer steals. >> yeah, yeah. soliloquies always that you have. tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. did you approach does differently? mindset about them that you wanted to, not because you want to be a or different from anyone else who had in that but some sense of how you wanted to take these pivotal moments? .> it's an interesting question for instance with tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, it seemed that it grew organically out of this idea that aside from this vast and dense existential howl you might describe it as being it is also specifically in particularly at the beginning of the speech, a speech of mourning for his wife and in our

production, it is so underlined, the passion between them, the dynamic between the simple, painful, personal loss of a woman that he adored through his and idiocy,g informed the way. it became very personal. we wanted to take away but i've seen in some versions which is not to my taste but that it be too dry, too intellectual. >> you did not want that. you wanted it to be what? much emotional intelligence in the play as there is philosophical intelligence. it can get so dry because the poetry is so dense, so complex. the double up with shakespeare is if you can connect all of that brilliance, all of that

intellectual firepower at this incredible level with the sense that you are watching real-life human beings and their but for the grace of god go all of us. -- there but for the grace of god. >> jealousy, rage. guilt. >> people. my goodness me you can feel the atmosphere of the audience. they're sort of backing away from the thing it is just robbing. they've done it. it that the cold steel in the flesh of the person they knew. killed one of our friends. and now what do we do? they become like children almost. that irrevocable moment, people understand in their own lives. they may not kill the king, but they do things from which they might never recover and in one nanosecond, life will never be the same again.

you feel all of his people go -- oh my god. that could he may. >> it or because of a choice you made what things thrust upon you. >> it's terribly moving. why should you feel moved dory even sympathetic to characters who perform such heinous acts? shakespeare's mastery allows you by the end when he loses her and when he can convey, either in lady macbeth dissent into what may appear to , you already cents with macbeth at the end, sound a grand thing to say, but the bleakness in his soul is so profound that it's chilling. the glimpse of a kind of dark eternity that he shows us is so terrifying that you cannot help but be moved. the price he has paid for this

isent of reckless ambition shakep and profound as to one to the very core on his behalf. >> would talk about how he's fearless in battle at the beginning. through the power of suggestion, he is fearful, sleep primed for most of the play. what does he have left that shakespeare seems to admire and some of his mail characters, particularly the soldier poet -- antony, a fellow,. he has guts -- antony, othello. i'm going to kiss the ground before malcolm speed. the forest move dan you were not born a woman in there against me -- you know what? come and get it. it's a bit of a ridiculous

quality but shakespeare says, what else you got? show me. he hangs in there. as a profound respect for this. i never ran away. he complements them both. usestems he uses where he dauntless. whateverthose who take life throws at them. get up. what else can you do? it ought to feel grander than that, but sometimes that's all there is to do -- show up. >> in your pantheon, is there a 1, 2, 3 of shakespeare's work? >> your life changes. you react to things. it is so comprehensive. you've had many brilliant conversations with harold bloom. shakespeare invented the human.

him ourcholar called contemporary. the process of living. it applies across many of these. one's soul is shaken by what macbeth does to the audience. we are the lucky vessels through which this thing passes currently in this particular show. >> five minutes before you go on, what are you doing, what are you thinking, what are you saying to yourself? >> i'm meditating. >> clearing your mind. >> my favorite quote is at the end of hamlet. "the readiness is all." my whole day dedicated to getting ready to that moment. are you having a wonderful time in new york? yes. andin the theater hours hours before any sane human.

i do meditation. i do lines every day. that you do the whole clay and varying ways. the five minutes before you go on, you meditate. i swear to god i think this is just the most fantastic thing to be able to do. it is really tingly. it's not an easy thing to do. theare aware of the sort of efforts of it in terms of what we do, but it is absolutely a glorious thing to do. like you're in the annel waiting to come out for huge game like tournament tennis or something. some of it's up here. we start with a five minute battle. >> it revs you up. day. have to fight every

coming at usows with steel. i have learned more about the discipline required on this job they are never before. a wonderful learning experience. >> yoga, meditation? >> it is all not the service of the thing itself. its built-in to getting to that moment, believing you can bring as much preparation and technique as you possibly can. then you create the condition to where tonight via mr. even beare, it might inspired. >> it might even be insp ired. were you born to do this? iu think of yourself now, could not have done anything else. as some people say, it is when you were put on earth to do. >> i guess now, i think. i used to be perplexed by it. i feel as though this is a who i

am. this is what i do. why are you going to the theater so early? this is me. this is who i am. to be able -- when did you think of doing this play or that play? i've never assumed anything about this. i'm profoundly grateful. >> my sense of you is you had confidence in yourself. you have both ambition and it.idence, that you wanted >> you never the confidence came from though, charlie? the sense of doing something that you are happy to be doing. that's the gift that i had. i'm about 16 years old with no sort of real goal ahead, i realized i can act and i want to act, just as simple as that. >> what i want to do is what i'm good at and get great pleasure.

likes it sounds hokey but it's completely and utterly the case. it's more enjoyable than it's ever been. completely, he gives unconditional love, i have to say. i'm very happy when i'm working and enjoying it. .tuff gets in the way i love life. working,ying versus doing things along the lines of excellence and using all of your powers along that line gives you sort of a unique mind of satisfaction whether it is at work, family.

>> that's very well could. basically, i try to look at every moment in life like that. help but sounding like a fortune cookie. it's all a gift. i suppose one has the tangible examples of it sometime in something like macbeth. the work is so much bigger and richer than anyone could ever dream of and its incident -- it is infinite. by how full of wonder it is and you have the chance to do it. it becomes zonal. you are in the zone. you have flow and it is acting on you. you have this marvelous extra gift that is the relationship to all of those people there at that time. when the magic happens, my

goodness, when something goes wrong or shakespeare kicks in. he's a writer who has a fifth gear, a sixth, and then a seventh as well. the hairs on the back of your neck go up. and you areged aware his work is changing the lives of other people. >> and another 10 years you will do lear? >> who knows. and thanks you just have to decide when the right time is. on my dances to be card, and i hope it is. wait to get it especially when it was on dvd, the entire literal text. it made me remember that so many people edited. joy, as an absolute thing i am as proud of as anything i've ever done.

i really cannot believe we managed to do it. god bless all the people who wrote the check and had the faith. >> it's great to have you here. we take a break and come back with the cast from the best that the armory here in new york. ♪

♪ armory.an call it an you can call it whatever you like. >> it's a theater. it's a place of anna c. >> the park avenue armory posts events.er of cultural during the gilded age and has to the seventh regiment, the silk stocking regiment. vanderbilt, rhinelander, that world. like they spent $1 billion in today's money to build an armory. most spectacular gilded age rooms in new york. >> we talk about this being a military place. with a room like this, you can

see that it was real. there's a 55 square foot drill hole. >> now you walk into the huge group and you have hooded figures that are leading you. >> it's almost like stonehenge. >> it's not in scotland so we are often reminded of this. >> you can smell the mud in the air. you see the wet mud on the floor you walk past the bog, the rocks. then suddenly you're in the theater. of a medieval feeling. it sort of militaristic. it is the medieval pew look,

very simple, very straightforward. >> i asked robertson why she felt this was an appropriate setting for macbeth. >> it has a military history. it has the pageantry, the whole notion that goes along with military. you feel this really working with the fighting, the swords, the metal, the clash. it seems to be symbiotic. it works together as a place. then where else will you build this in new york? we try to make the audience part of whatever is going on. you are in the mud. you are in the action. you are moving. you see thek in and

stones, that light, that glow, that really creepy heat that has the witches rolling around in it, it's a different world. park avenue armory where macbeth is being staged. rob ashford is the codirector of macbeth. he has won emmys, tony's, and an olivier award. she's best known for her role as dr. cordrey on "e.r." thank you for joining us. what is the melding of talent between you and you? defined.er this is my first shakespeare other than in college. i played polonius. it's the first.

what a great teacher. what a great partner. >> explain how it came together. not in terms of how you ended up in the deal but how you approached the deal in you complement each other. >> we first met to talk about the play and a very specific playabout the feel of the or the time, the kind of rawness, visceral nature which is very clear and sounded great to me. we work together on making an edit of the play. it has no intermission, great. sign me up for that. >> we've talked about pacing. as a lot of that what he does? my distinguished colleague here does is a determination to feel as though you can act on the lines in the audiences enjoying having to be fairly

fast thinking because these characters inc. fast. was just having trust in each other. i did not mind occasionally saying things about how people moved around the stage and rob did not mind saying, what does that word mean? what don't you say it like this? we would pop into the other's territory. edit,n we first made the we read totally and then the casting. we did not say specifically we want a mcduff who does x, y, z. we both have the same taste in the same things we like about casting cement came across easily. the design was so easy. >> how was it for you? you're getting rave reviews, too. >> i'm coming onto the last

question you had. as one of the actors, it was amazing having ken and rob directing us because they are so incredibly complementary. ken is on stage pretty much all the time. to be ineasy for him the role but also be watching us and directing us while he is in the role. he was sort of able to focus and work on his relationships with the other characters knowing .hat rob was there as the eyes in terms of the staging and choreography, the feeling. even the feeling. even though rob has never done shakespeare before, he understands the emotion. he's not as experienced with text but you have to have a motion. it sort of worked brilliantly. it is sort of like the most

awesome partnership these two could have done. >> what did you want to bring to lady macbeth? >> i had never done this play before. school.udied it in i had certainly watched some productions over the years. i had to have an instinctive feeling about who i thought she was and who they were as a couple. when i met ken, i'm going to be honest about how i feel about the character of lady met death. either how i feel will be right for this particular production they are going to put on or it's not. if it's not, then i'm absolutely not the right person for this role because i see it in a particular way. it was lucky that we both seemed .o have the same feeling

i have this theory about the play of macbeth. it is one of shakespeare's later plays. >> 1605? >> before this he had written amazing female roles, really complex. i think that the interpretation of the play and of this couple is always made them pretty two dimensionally evil. my daughter said, she's pure evil. she's been taught that by teachers because that's the interpretation that people have sort of put on the play. my theory is that shakespeare was far too brilliant of a writer to write characters who were so, in a way, two

dimensional. he's not that person. war when english civil theaters were closed down, d,akespeare was banne mcbeth was one of the only plays that was allowed to be performed eth was one of the only plays that was allowed to be performed as a morality play. she was this evil figure, this like temptress. if it were not for her, mac beth would not have done it. the shadow of that interpretation way back then has stayed with the play. i think it's not right. i don't think -- >> she's more than evil. >> she's not evil. as ken said, i think they are two characters who are in love, passionate, who are complex but

make a wrong decision. >> he kill the king. >> i know. it's something that they regret. there's nothing they can do about it. if they were just evil, you would not care. >> they both go mad from the deed in their way. growny were evil people to be evil, they would grow into that and not spiraled down. >> it's a far more interesting play if you see them as good people who've gone bad because everyone can relate to that. >> why did they go bad? was this little opportunity that was presented to them. it is the apple. >> why does she want to do it

now? this evening? it's happening. it so fast. they are not thinking. >> in their own home. it's been predicted. the weird sisters have basically -- if you think about the time, people really believed in .pirits, witchcraft society was paranoid. if you are going to be told this is going to happen, you are going to believe it. she is someone who is like, let's just help it along. >> how is this play different that will be performed tomorrow night than the first play in manchester at the church? >> it's richer. the actors have sat with it for a while. it's primarily the same cast. we have some additional new people but they have actually truth to ita great

that everyone has picked up on and we have grown with it. the time has passed with the play. the armory itself, this vast stones representing the pagan world, it pulls the play more and it makes it hired her in the same way. >> you think you are walking into history. way to's an interesting put it. to partially answer your robtion, in addition to a is saying, the space has allowed for the epic dimension of the .lay to be there it also emphasizes the cinematic quality. we use traverse staging. they look there and see alex and then she goes and suddenly we are down here. a simple sleight of it is effective.

they have put in a vast space and i think it means a close-up, wide shot him a intimate spectacle. play. the dynamic of the >> the audience likes it. they like to throw their focus there. they want to stay where the focus is in shift back and forth. they seem to really go for it. >> it's almost like it's been edited but it hasn't because it seems to merge so beautifully. such an essential part of this. combat was such an essential part of macbeth. is there more to that? >> survival is at the heart of it. the very early lines -- >> it's critical. battle world of relative primitive miss where he he -- primitiveness where who hacks longest wins. there are some no acting

required moment in this battle that just introduced the audience who are, themselves, - -no one is going to get hurt but they are physically very near the danger. it's a real danger. sparks come off the swords. stuff happens and it immediately changes. and have just been wooed they come in --what i think is exciting about what is different, they come in with a real sense of events. they see this huge set. you can somehow feel them relishing it and it's a different atmosphere of listening. >> be on the fact that she's good and not evil, what do you like about lady macbeth -- beyond that fact? >> i love playing the journey, her journey. her, or at least my interpretation, at the

beginning of the play she is on her knees lighting candles their playing --praying for the safety of her husband. she does not know if he's going to come back. she's longing for those letters telling her what happening. from seeing her starting off in that respect and then very quickly the excitement of this ,eed that will just repel them give them something -- talk about legacy -- they will have something they can hold on to and be proud of. they have no children. they have nothing else. the slow descent into loss, losing the person that is the great love in her life, the other half of her.

>> losing him in the end to death or losing him into madness? >> she would not consider herself going mad but it is just her not connecting. he starts not sharing with her. she was his confidence then. she's trying desperately to stay close to him and he is starting to just do little things without involving her. that is not who they were before as a couple. it is the slowly starting to pull apart. >> do you believe as harold bloom said and as can referenced earlier that this is the happiest marriage in shakespeare -- as ken referenced? >> it begins like that, doesn't it? [laughter] >> is one of the most passionate . the passion is there. >> it's also the way you two play it. matter what happening to you, you keep trying to find each other through it. my dearest partner in greatness.

>> yeah. she's is equal. >> he adores her, worships her. that is part of how he knows who he is because of what he feels for her. he loves her. this relatively simple soldier who loves his wife. you have the great honor. just stopped about conversation and if i had been able to convince you, we would proceed no further. let's take a few months of having the parties. >> if we were to use the even evenality, when she opens up the can of worms that is their child, that's the apple. he goes,hen suddenly ok.

>> ok what? >> we'll do it. >> this matters to me as much as kids do, so what do you think of that? when he sees that to her -- >> that would be more land anything i don't have. i'm trying to give you this image. give me this. >> we had a child but he died. that's it. no more. it,erms of actors playing if you are a very young mr. and mrs. in a production, that cannot resonate really. they are childless. they cannot have more children. barren.ery in -- she is when yous much more are of an age where it really

matters. you are aware as actor's of your ability to have children or not. >> and shakespeare cleverly wrote, with a wife and children, with the sun. everyone else has a family. >> that's the case when there are other things that they would qualify as completely filling the person with unconditional love that you would never have the time to think about whether you were going to kill them. >> you have never bought into the superstition about macbeth. >> i was always cautious about way. my daft irish i will not walk under the latter. >> do you ever referred to ma acbeth? >> you go through phases. it does not matter at all, but i won't say it just in case. i don't believe it, but i won't

be too cavalier with it. i've been a little more bold this time. it's been the scottish play for a long time but now that you've brought it up, i want to say the name now. [laughter] andxture of healthy respect irreverence about it is ok. you have to remember with this sometimesortune is associated just with something that often takes place in the dark with lots of steps. there are many ways in which you can hurt yourself doing macbeth so sometimes the superstition has a practical justification. >> i do a lot of shakespeare here in terms of trying to talk about the characters because there is so much. they are so rich for me and one human being at a table who wants to talk about whatever he wants to talk about. i went each of you to answer this question. why shakespeare? why is shakespeare shakespeare? don't know why he is so

sturdy. i don't know why he is still so profound. --on't know why other than growing up what me in a small town in west virginia, why is shakespeare the one play we studied in school? why was it julius caesar? have no idea why but it was the only one. instead of diminishing, he somehow stacks it all up and it continues to be strong and vital somehow. i don't know why but i'm thankful for it. >> it's good to do it. >> it's thrilling. was, i am shakespeare away bylly just blown aat a genius he was at such sort of early time, in a sense,

as are growth of a society, as a people. i mean, it's just extraordinary the depth of feeling and connection he seemed to have with the human spirit in the understanding. all i know is that i wish he was watching our production because i'm really proud of it. i think he would be so proud of it. i would love him to see it cause i just think he would be so moved. i would really love him to see it. [laughter] >> that would be a nervous night for me. apparently he's in. he's back. he knows the play very well, so no paraphrases. [laughter] >> you especially. entertained,ently by which i mean he stimulates, provokes, makes us laugh and cry

, goes beyond words. evoke's the presence of the words which are after all words on a page. that's all they are but they trigger these explosions in the human imagination and the human spirit. the truth is he just repeatedly proves that he's not just good for us. he's just good. >> thank you. >> thank you. at the armoryeth if you can. thank you for joining us. see you next time. ♪

>> this is taking stock for thursday, june 19 2000 14. im pimm fox. the theme is strike. republicans tried to name a new leader in the u.s. house. kevin mccarthy of california is elected as the new majority leader. the chief executive of bowlmor amf, we will see if strikes can be turned into profits. would you strike a pose in a $250 bathing suit? all that and more in the next hour.