Design for giving

The question I’m most often asked is this. How did I end up living and working in south London instead of doing what most reasonably successful movie actors tend to do — sitting around a kidney-shaped swimming pool in Beverly Hills, sipping cocktails and collecting cheques? The question I most often ask myself is a little different. How did a kid from South Orange, New Jersey, end up being artistic director at the Old Vic in London?

The answers to the two questions are interrelated. I work at the Old Vic because I believe passionately that theatre can help society. And the reason I believe that so strongly is that it helped me so much.

In fact I think that theatre, and culture in general, is so vital to the health of a country that if the coalition is going to cut arts funding, it must encourage philanthropy instead. The government should adopt the American model, giving better tax breaks for corporations and individuals who are willing to sponsor the arts. I’m going to be knocking on the door of No. 10 before too long to make that case.

I was lucky; I grew up at a time in Los Angeles when there was an enormous amount of funding for arts in schools. I was also lucky in that I found acting at a very young age and had some extraordinary mentors and teachers. The programmes that I got involved with through my drama class involved going to professional plays, workshops, seminars, weekend festivals, one-act festivals, Shakespeare festivals — all of it made possible because of arts funding.

At 13, I was taken to a workshop in Los Angeles being run by my idol, Jack Lemmon. We had to do a scene from Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey.