♪ >> from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." >> king charles the third is a future history play from mike bartlett. charles' abilities as a ruler or quickly challenged by both parliament and his own family. ben brantley calls the play flat out brilliant. the play concludes january 1. tim smith, margo lester, oliver chris, and lydia wilson. i am pleased to have them here at this table for the first time.

everyone is talking about this and january 31 is approaching and you have to get there if you can. what is it about the royal family? i do a morning television show. all are fascinated by every generation. what is it? why do we like royalty? >> it becomes increasingly unreal in the modern world. these people exist as a scene in the play where people come to the palace and say why is this still here? if you are in london and you happen to see the horse carts going down the mountain -- it is like a fairy show. it is fantastic. charlie: was interesting is the drama and all that has happened to the royal family is so fascinating. >> the whole of the diana tsonga was lived out in public and our play touches on that area. the one area -- the whole diana saga was lived out in public and our play touches on that area. you could not have made that

story up. charlie: you play such an interesting figure. how would you describe your relationship to her? [laughter] >> i think in the play, she is clearly a wife who loves her husband and that is really the dominant thing and i'm sure that that is true in real life. that is the motor engine for maybe all of the unraveling of the charles diana marriage and all of the things that happened with that love affair that began between charles and camilla when they were young that and do her through her separate marriage, his separate marriage and i do

think that what people are fascinated by the royal family is it's the one overlap, you cannot identify with the prime minister or the president quite the same, they are not the family unit that what they have in the royals is a family like and unlike your own. i would say it's the academy of what they call blended families when you have in-laws and outlaws and stepdaughters and it's very interesting i think for people to watch that playing itself out on a public stage with magazines and now social media outlets. >> is charles perceived differently in america?

>> you can probably answer that better than me charlie. >> there's not a great sense of him here. >> that's kind of what i feel. >> there is no sense of the role that he plays -- or what i know about his passion for architecture and where he has been outspoken -- he's been very influential in terms of drawing in england. he does sometimes three things per day. >> what is it about the man that you know? >> i only meant him once. it's pretty good. i'm impressed by the fact that people tell me over the last six years he's been learning russian or arabic because he feels the axis of arab -- axis of power is changing and he wants to be able

to communicate. >> he spends at least a moment every day of his life thinking how can i prepare for what will come to me. we cannot have any conversation without talking that the queen doesn't have anybody who doesn't like her except anti-royalists. >> and think anyone could begrudge the way she has taken her duties over the next extended. of time. she has taken on beauty with such consistent dignity and devotion. over such a considerable. of time and tim mentioned that maybe the queen elizabeth the second is got's anointed. i think the world was an extraordinarily different place when queen elizabeth became the queen.

homosexuality was illegal. we were not governed in the trade union movement was huge. modern life has changed so extraordinarily under her reign. she has been such a firm fixture. when she does finally go, i think that it will be very interesting to see what will happen because the next one off will be the first of a new age. >> prime minister's comment go but the queen stays. -- prime ministers, and go, but the queen stays. >> in the second world war, the royal family particularly was phenomenally important to the

country and give a sense of support and dignity and went up there and visited the areas that had been blitzed. they try to become involved and my mother -- she was just like one of our family, one of our family. >> it's extraordinary that representation because the queen and the mother -- they have to be a figurehead for the entire nation and their subjects. as times change underneath them the queen very rarely expresses opinions. with the scottish independence thing she refused to get involved. the monarch has to represent the country when homosexuality is illegal but also when it is legal. if she had expressed an opinion one way or another she would've

immediately tied herself in a not that she would've been unable to get out of. that's which is just managed to embody so effortlessly. >> diana introduced that she wanted to enlarge that notion into the queen of hearts thing which is a big area that i will be interested in what william does, the real rinse william -- >> ok i will do it. >> the fact that he chose his mother's engagement ring that a fact that he clearly reveres and loves his mother and i think it would be very interesting to see what he does introduce because she is an icon but very airbrushed out of recent history. it's very much the queen, the tight royal family on the balcony, i would say that she was the joker in the pack in terms of wanting that continuity. >> a lot of this is about the king, king charles. what is the playwright done for

us here? >> he's taken a bunch of commonly held popular perceptions of who these people are and created the situation. when you read the play to begin with you think this is quite amusing and quite clever for about 10 minutes and that's when you think something needs to happen and that's when he is first seed with the primary stir that charles is somehow interested in defending the freedom of the press and that's a great dramatic view. >> from that point on you think, this is an just pastiche, this is a play. charlie: american theater audiences have some appreciation for the king and the queen cousin of what happened in broadway with helen mirren and

meeting with a series of prime minister's. it is a fascinating relationship. i remember tony blair talking about when he first came in to see queen elizabeth because he was telling exactly what you will do as prime minister because you are in the presence of the queen. how good a father was prince charles to prince william? >> when i was chatting to them on the phone yesterday -- [laughter] charlie: does that form an attitude about how you portray him? >> it does. from my research, i was quite surprised to discover -- it's on a popular view in the press because it is not media friendly that the two boys have a

terrific relationship with their father. i think people like to imagine that they were their mothers children and their mother was cruelly ripped from them and their father is cold and attached and the humbling guy who cares more about architecture than his family. but i don't think that's true. i think from all the impressions i've got and from everything i've read, they are a very close family, charles has been a terrifically supportive and loving father. they love and adore him as anybody would with their father. i think the drama belongs on the stage and in the tabloids. the reality is that this is this kid's dad. they love him and he loves them and they are in a very unique

position. charlie: there something every day about what happened to them that they are royalty. >> they were brought up british and don't know any other way. they are born into it. if you're born a tiger you grow up a tiger. >> what influence does camilla have on him today and what influence much you have on him as king? >> i don't know about influence so much as i think of her as an enabler, a source of confidence. i always feel in the used to do what i look at the interaction between charles and his own parents that there is a little boy adored by his dad and i agree with you charles. i think he was never quite mothered in the way that probably little boys need to be and i think that camilla is a

great mothering figure in that way that's a maternal thing -- men can be maternal, the unconditional love thing. >> she was good for him and probably good for his relationship with the boys. but you probably the one person who can say to him you have to be better. >> i think it's probably very accurate. i do think she could influence him as far as her interests or policy. the issue of conflict being the press but i think charles will have difficulty. the environment which is a huge thing for him, suppose that fracking writes come up -- i can

imagine him -- he would find it very hard. >> what can you do? >> it could be tricky. >> this is what mike bartlett told the wall street journal. he told that kate is a hugely -- huge -- kate and camilla are huge outside but are strongly invested in getting things their own way. >> i think kate's privilege and her angle as an outsider who grew up as a middle-class daughter but i think her grandmother apparently had almost a replica buggy to replicate like the one in the papers to the royal family. they grew up with their fantasy with their curtains and their memorabilia and i mentioned that what she is invested in is what the queen means to the common people. in the play when things start to get very shaky for the royal family in the family is trying to get lost in their own neuroses -- i always picture her with this 50th anniversary plate in there and educate, that is something she can keep in mind. charlie: by all appearances, she

has done a terrific job. >> that's the best way of saying it because that is the job. charlie: the job is to appear well. >> she has produced a male heir and a little girl. that is pretty good. >> how would king charles be different from queen elizabeth? >> he has said that he wants to be hands-on. we have the black spider letters, his writing is apparently very spidery and he

writes letters lobbying for his position and this has caused some stress. as the prime minister says, you are not elected, you have no right to do this. but i think he will want to be involved. if he's come to see the play, he might be careful about how he does that. >> which is an interesting question. has he seen it? >> i think it would be a formal evening. i think it would be an uncomfortable evening about the way the monarchy might go.

>> so he has had a chance to see it? >> he said plenty of chances. >> i mean in terms of people videotaping it. >> of the photoshop a wonderful picture of the queen and charles on the sofa. >> what is your per trail of him, what do you want him to come away with?

>> is pictured as a man of principle. >> one of my lines early on is such a brilliant play, i say my life has been lingering for the throne. it's just hanging around waiting. i even imagine sometimes that his mother -- if mother was dead and i was in charge. he could be in his 80's by the time he comes. >> knowing what you know about the life of a royal, would you have found any satisfaction in that kind of life? >> no. for me it seems like a nightmare. i wrote on instagram, if you play kate for long enough at what point are you kate. my son wrote back and said you get to come home and three weeks, kate can never go home. i thought, i am that kind of personality that would find that very frightening. i'm up here and i'm never going back down. >> i think that would be the majority opinion, but my sense is that william can do a lot of things. >> i did not think about the royal family much before this. i devoted a huge sense of respect for the monarchy and

particularly our monarchy that is so specific. you are 14 years old or 15 years old and her mother dies in this horrific dissection, the grace with which a young adolescent dealt with that in the public eye -- it is extraordinary. i would be in the desert sucking peyote out of the baked bean trin. he was a helicopter rescue pilot, he now pilots and air ambulance in norfolk. i don't know anyone else whom i would want to represent me as my monarch. cannot imagine a better person. charlie: don't you want to go see this now? [laughter] here is the play, king charles the third. thank you all. ♪

>> mark strong is here. in 1950's brooklyn, he played in the american dream, irrational love, and the trail -- betrayal. ben brantley of the new york times wrote, it's the most powerful performance you're likely to see this year.

>> they attacked us. in 1998, by sea. from the air in 2001. they murdered 3000 of our citizens in cold blood. they have slaughtered our deployed and what have we done about it? >> congratulations. my warmest welcome to his majesty service. if you speak a word of what i am about to show you, you will be executed for high treason. you will lie to your friends, your family, and everyone you meet about what it is you do. >> i will return from the grave to fulfill england's destiny. listen to the rabble outside. listen to the fear. i will use that as a weapon to control them and the world. >> he's traveling in beirut, it's dangerous to travel.

>> i want you to take them from this hotel, drug him, put him in the front of a car. >> it is good to have you back in town. charlie: i am pleased to have mark strong at this table for the first time. it is a pleasure, welcome.

tell me how this began for you. >> i got a call having not done a play for 12 years. charlie: you began in theater. >> i did a lot of training in the royal shakespeare company. charlie: so you had not been on stage for 12 years because you had interesting film roles? or something else? >> i think that i had done so much theater and it was a kind of genre i was familiar with and contemporaries of mine were making films and doing films. it was a world i realized i could have access to. it's very hard not to continue with that. charlie: so you got a call and someone says i have an offer that you cannot refuse? >> david lamb had asked to see me and he sent me "a view from

the bridge." it was in a pile of film scripts i had been looking at. charlie: what spoke to you? >> it is hard to say why a character speaks to you because it is instinctive. is something that i felt and i knew who this guy was and i knew how i wanted to play him. i knew from what i had read what kind of a guy i thought he is. and i read about it. had never seen the play. i read at university and looked into it. i read something a little bit different. charlie: you are in almost every scene? how hard is it to do that? >> it is exhilarating and incredibly exhausting and difficult. once you are in it, it grabs you by the throat. just before the play starts i feel like, how will we climb the mountain again? every performance i think, we

are in the middle again? by the end, we have performed the play. charlie: have all of your aspirations for acting been fulfilled? >> not yet. there is still a way to go. charlie: in terms of character or professional achievement? >> learning. with every new play and every new job in every new director, you learn something new. something else comes about. just when you think you know how to do it, you challenge yourself and something else happens. i want to keep that happening. charlie: you did television and then you said, no more television. >> having done theater and trained for the theater, that's kind of a club. when you are in theater they offer you other place. if tv comes along, you get lots of offers and television. i spent 10 years doing theater

and then 10 years doing television. then movies came calling. people saw the movies and said, we like that guy. i was suddenly in the movie club. you do not tend to move between them in the beginning. after this, i am off to do a movie and i would love to do another play. i see myself as a character actor. i love taking things on that are not me. anything that moves me away from myself. when i started out acting, those are the parts i gravitated to. i did not know how i would play myself and be a lover and a hero. the u.k. and america have very different attitudes to the characters. here, you revere the hero.

we have richard the third. >> what is been for you the thing that you come on to that makes you as good as you are? >> i just see that my job is to believe and create truth. when you watch people and believe they are connected to what they are doing and believe what they are doing is riveting or fascinating -- think about

documentaries about real-life events, there is something riveting. if you create that friction -- that is the best thing. we had a teacher who said, imagine that it says on the front of the stage, wrote look here -- don't look here. charlie: in this role of eddie carbone, did you go to the docks? >> i felt him instinctively. i went down to have a look. it's very bleak on the water. it is wonderful to look back to manhattan -- there is a line were he says i want to be a no lawyer's office in new york. i always used to point when we were in london i did not know what and then i went there and looked and there are the buildings. it prodded all into focus -- brought it all into focus.

we will be there until february 21. another five weeks. charlie: back in a moment. ♪ charlie: this is the highly

charlie: this is the highly anticipated sequel to the 2001 cult film and owen wilson returns as derek zoolander and hansel. two male models forced into exile as the world's most beautiful people are systematically assassinated. >> he was once the world's most famous male model. even his looks were household names. magnum. blue steel. that was a long, long time ago. >> old? >> we were a joke out there. >> i guess fashion has changed. >> are you a male model or a female model? >> i think he is asking, do you have a hot dog or a bun?

>> i need your help. >> i trust her. ♪ >> they are killing the world's most beautiful people. all of them died with your signature look. we need to infiltrate the world of high fashion. >> hey handsome. >> what the hell is your problem? >> cannot understand a word you are saying. >> [laughter] >> toss me the knife. >> you got it. ♪

>> there is only one criminal mastermind who could be behind this. >> prison changed me. i am bad to the core. where is my latte? >> how am i supposed to stop him? >> you are derek zoolander. you stuck the chinese throwing star with a look. magnum, now! yo0u have this! jon: the writer director and star of the film, ben stiller. >> i wish you had shown more of the movie. [laughter] that's such a little taste.

>> i also have justin throw and nicholas stoler. >> nick and i do have a long history on this movie. we go way back in terms of the sequel because we wrote the draft together in 2005. it didn't make it, charlie. comedy is a long hard process. [laughter] we started working on it, we did the movie in 2001. i don't know if you could even call it a hit. it happened. it came out and that's what it did. for a short. of time. it did ok. charlie: on the dvd world

exploded. >> that is how old the movie is, before the dvd world collapsed. now people are deemed -- beaming it directly to their heads. charlie: so you tried to write a sequel? >> that's right. charlie: people were not interested -- hollywood was not ready? -- people were interested but it was a slow build. hollywood was not ready? it was just a collection of scenes. something happened over the last 10 years where the movie stayed in the consciousness of people who were fans of the movie and it somehow hung around. personally, i think part of it is social media and how our world has changed in that way that derek and cancel -- hansel exist in that world. that self obsessed narcissism.

i think there eight or nine. it's like sweet and innocent and genuine in their self obsession. charlie: white would you want to do a sequel? ask for this one, the feeling was there were so many people connected to the movie that loved the movie and i would get asked about it a lot -- people would say are you going to do another one? it was one of those things that i always loved the first movie but nobody discovered it as it came out so as we talked about it with owen and will ferrell, we enjoyed playing his characters and it was a chance to say, there might be people who would like to see this and it would be fun to explore it. i did not think it would happen because it took so long. after we did that first script and it did not come together we went forward in our lives and

then around 2009, justin and i had worked on tropic thunder together. >> i put my name in the ring and said if it ever pops up again i would love to do that. >> one of the reasons is one of the writers of the original passed away after the first movie and he was incredibly on and talented standup comedian and he really created the character when we did it for the vh1 fashion awards. we did it sketch in 1996 and we did the next year when trey quiz got it was hard to think about doing it. it was a few years after but we start to try to imagine it. that eventually felt like the studio start to get interested i think it turned into its own thing.

charlie: like sequels, everybody -- they are great until you see it. >> that is the challenge. especially comedy sequels. you are to try to give fans of the first one what they liked but then interestingly, it do not necessarily know what they like. you try to analyze it but everybody has their own personal connection with the movie. for us it was an important process of sitting around talking about things that we personally felt connected to for the first one with enough -- enough of a process throwing out those ideas and hearing different points of view. charlie: you sit around the table and write? >> it is a combination of a lot of different things. at one point we are sitting down together and spit falling and never one can just chime in.

then talking on the phone and e-mailing back and forth. the creating dialogue for the same characters and you see the character one way and you see it another. >> you also have derek zoolander in the room shepherding the whole thing. ben is very good at that. he is difficult to pin down. >> he thought the first one was a documentary. charlie: the fashion world, was their feedback from the first time that you did that? celebrity eco-fashion? >> -- celebrity ego fashion? >> the first time that we did it, nobody really knew what was and we did not have the cooperation of the fashion world because they did not know what it was. we did this sketch for the vh1 fashion awards two years in a row and when we started to make the first movie, we filmed on the red carpet -- i think it was 2000. we grabbed interviews of people saying what do you think of

derek zoolander as they were walking in? tom ford, tommy hilfiger, donald trump. trump is in zoolander 1. we try to get him to drop out of the race and do zoolander 2. they knew about it but did not know what it was. as the years went by and the movie lived on, the fashion world started to embrace it so this time around it was great because we were really able to reach out to everybody who are fashion icons and have them be a part of it. >> anna winter. she also has a cameo role. >> anna was very important. she was always a fan of the first one and whenever i would see her she would say, are you going to do a sequel. when we decided to do it, she was one of the first people i called and we sat down and said how can i help you with this? she opened so many doors for us. charlie: she said this will be

good and i am in it? >> she was not in it from the beginning. i would dance around it with her. >> just secretly filming her. [laughter] >> just the fact that she was endorsing it was a big thing. charlie: there is penelope? >> there is penelope. i was happy to help her get on the cover of a magazine. we wanted to give it a different backdrop. the movie exists in a different environment so we chose this european international intrigue idea. she was the first person we thought of. she represents to me this old-style movie star. beautiful, strong, great actress.

i wanted a sophia lorenz and there is nobody else like her. charlie: give me a sense of what she provides for the film. >> i think she is an anchor. you do need someone to be in reality. almost a straight man to them taking them through. my wife christine played that in the first movie. penelope is also very funny in her own way because she is so serious and real. she took the character so seriously because -- she would come to me every day and say what is my automation in this scene -- my motivation in this scene? it was important for her to be grounded to understand why she was doing the crazy things she was doing. i don't ever do that. [laughter] it is cool, all that actor stuff. charlie: what did you learn about him that he did not know about him? ben?

>> derek zoolander? what did i learn? [laughter] charlie: you bring these guys on and that is all that they can give? [laughter] >> this is charlie rose. you know who has been at this table? heads of state! charlie: you said you learned he can jog? [laughter] >> one thing i always knew but was reinforced is what an incredible and hard-working director he is. -- ben is. i'm trying to look at him for his response. he has an incredible reservoir of energy -- charlie: better. >> i'm on the spot. [laughter]

>> i was really starting out as a screenwriter at the beginning of this process and it was a ten-year process -- the emotional core of the story has to make sense. >> the character must have some sort of an arc. >> you're welcome. >> thanks ben. charlie: here is what scott rudin said. i have never seen anybody with such tenacity, with, and wit, and first-rate business sense. that is what scott rudin said about ben. i ask you and you said, he goes jogging. [laughter] one hard day doing on tropic thunder in hawaii. it was one of those 16 hour days where we were up at 4:00 in the morning and at the end of the

day, i was getting home and -- our houses were close, and he was returning from jogging back from a six mile jog. i was beat -- [laughter] that was one of those things where that's why you are ben stiller. >> john does not jog. [laughter] charlie: what was the challenge serious, in i'm terms of writing and creating because you have got an interesting scene. you have three characters back to back been introduced to an audience and they know them and i you have them essentially doing the same thing, satirizing the same thing but it is 14 years later. >> the challenge ultimately is trying to find a good reason to make the film and start scripting it in finding the right spine to hang everything on.

that's what we spend a lot of time going on because at the beginning you could go anywhere and do anything. charlie: they are known characters with chemistry together. >> i think the biggest thing is you want to make a good movie. i think that was the biggest thing that we thought about the whole time that ultimately, i came away with the idea that we had to do what we did on a certain level but take chances like we did on the first one. not necessarily to the same things but take other chances that we did not do and try to figure out the context that made sense today for the characters. charlie: what is the plot? >> i have no idea, charlie. that's why i hired these guys.

it's very complicated and it has many holes, intentionally. >> at one point we did consider doing a tag with a broken on the plot and asked the questions, what about this? >> basically derek and hansel -- there's a huge tragedy. the center collapses and his wife is killed. and hansel is maimed. so derek and hansel are pariahs. derek cannot take care of his son, he cannot make spaghetti soft. he loses his son and goes to the reclusion of the mountains and extreme northern new jersey and hansel has gone

off to a part of uncharted malibu where he is living with an orgy. mugatu is the biggest villain in the world, he tried to assassinate the prime minister of malaysia and he failed by brainwashing derek. the movie was banned in malaysia because of this, even though derek was trying to save him and the prime minister was ok. so he is in jail and there is a whole other cape fear revenge plot brewing throughout. in that max intensity that he has in getting back at derek. charlie: what a perfect introduction to will ferrell breaking out of prison. ♪ >> prison changed me, i am bad to the core now. ♪

where is my damn latte? [screaming] [laughter] charlie: explain that scene to me. >> there is an intense relationship between todd and his assistant that we explored in the first movie. we wanted to go deeper. this is the first on their seen -- they've seen each other in a

long time. charlie: like anybody else who might not have seen each other for a long time. >> a lot of layers. for us it was getting him out of jail was a big thing and having that escape to me was one of the stupidest prison escapes ever. i feel like we did. there is no reason why he should -- >> we like them so much, let's look at another scene. introducing the last character that we want to talk about, kristen. ♪ >> alexandra. [screaming and moaning]

charlie: what is it about satirizing celebrity that so fascinates you? >> that is a good question. it is interesting to me. i feel like it might have to do with having grown up around that world a bit and as a kid being around it and being around the backstage the nightclubs with my parents and on sets -- i always loved it and i go back to sc tv, the sketch show that john candy, jean levy, rick radisson dave thomas did in the 80's which really was the best satire of show business behind the scenes. my sister and i used to watch that behind-the-scenes and love it and it's like there is so much humor and how seriously we

all take it. charlie: this must be the best time for you because of family living in connecticut and traveling around the world, doing comedy and drama working with noah all the things you've done with him together another was another satire on celebrity. >> i feel very happy -- as happy as i feel. [laughter] i am as happy as i can be. [laughter] [indiscernible] i feel very grateful for all the things that i have in my life.

charlie: you wanted to be a celebrity. [laughter] somebody is thinking about you today. [laughter] please come back. [laughter] [indiscernible] are you glad that you came? >> are you glad you had us? >> of course. we needed you as it turns out. it's in theaters february 12. ♪ ♪

>> it is known in hong kong. the yen has risen to levels not seen since the doj surprise people in late 2014. there is a growing risk that they will intervene in the fx markets. oil is maintaining its decline. it is below $27. new sanctions over the last weekend. the u.s. and japan are discussing new measures. south korea has closed it shortly run plant. several companies are withdrawing staff and supplies and workers are staying away.