hawke: apparently an alternative approach was sarah bernhardt's. she played up the inherent sexuality in the play. pollard: sarah bernhardt was seen very much as a sex symbol, and she really played that in lady macbeth to the hilt to the point where some people found it distasteful. they thought, "no. this woman's evil. "don't make her so appealing. don't make us feel so allured by her." and theirs was a very kind of lusty relationship. mm-hmm. which i think is in the text. i think that works really well. ironically, it's one of the happiest marriages that we see... that we see. i know. in a shakespeare play. i know. it's the only really happily married couple we get. we get people falling in love and breaking up a lot but rarely a portrait of a steady couple. hawke, voice-over: but whether you play her bullying or seductive, this idea of a manipulative woman pushing her man to excess has become iconic. you might remember in 1990s there was an article written about hillary clinton titled "the lady macbeth of little rock." and there's been a long tr