Fake noses, lucky tokens and a bed of nails – Sarah Jessica Parker, Joseph Fiennes and other stars reveal their secret dressing room routines

 

Sarah Jessica Parker: ‘The details matter.’
Photograph: David Levene

Fake noses, lucky tokens and a bed of nails – Sarah Jessica Parker, Joseph Fiennes and other stars reveal their secret dressing room routines

This article is more than 1 year old

Sarah Jessica Parker: ‘The details matter.’ Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Whoever wins next month’s Olivier awards, global stars will continue to flock to the West End of London to give the stage their all. We take a peek behind the curtain …

By David Levene and Miriam Gillinson

Sat 9 Mar 2024 07.00 

At what point does the transformation process start, as an actor prepares to get into character backstage? For Jared Harris – who recently starred in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming – it begins en route to the Young Vic, with a meditative stroll across Golden Jubilee Bridge. While performing as Gareth Southgate in Dear England, Joseph Fiennes began his preparations with a quiet cup of tea. Ken Nwosu, playing Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, delays getting into role until the very last moment: “I wanna be me for as long as I can before the show begins.”

Jared Harris / ‘I’m pacing as I’m waiting in the wings’

 

• Jared Harris as Max, with co-stars Nicolas Tennant and David Angland (above) and waiting backstage

  
  

  
  

  ‘I’m pacing as I’m waiting in the wings’

  Jared Harris, The Homecoming, Young Vic

  
  

• Above left: personal items, including Harris’ wedding ring, are bagged up backstage. Above right: on the stairs behind the stage. Below: Harris in the corridor that leads to his entrance

The preparation process starts with me walking to the theatre. It’s a 20-minute walk, which I really like. It’s a discipline of concentration. Then everyone gathers on the benches outside and gossips. Then there’s the warm-up. A fight call. An intimacy call. Then we just hang around on the sofas on set. It’s a very fun and silly atmosphere. Finally, we start getting into costume. If the room at the end of the corridor is free, I go in there and start warming up my voice. Then I’m just pacing. You’ve still got nerves. They never really go. Even on a matinee, when you’re thinking, “Who the fuck goes to a matinee? I can’t believe I’ve got to do this twice today!” But the second you go on stage, it’s bam: “Can we get them?”

In the early days, I had a lot of anxiety about losing my place. Going blank. But eventually you realise you know the story well enough to keep things going. We all forget at some point. You can see saucers popping up in another actor’s eyes. Oh shit, they’ve forgotten!

Sometimes I’m pacing as I’m waiting in the wings. Or goofing about. Looking at the monitor. Trying to get a feel for the energy of the house. At this point, you know the play so well, you can mess yourself up by thinking about it too much. So I try not to think. The first line. Once you’ve got that in your head – that’s the train leaving the station and that’s it.

THE GUARDIAN

Jared Harris / ‘What do I dislike about my appearance? Everything. I have a weird eyebrow, red hair, freckles … ’

Jarred Harris
Photo by Steve Granitz

Jared Harris: ‘What do I dislike about my appearance? Everything. I have a weird eyebrow, red hair, freckles … ’

This article is more than 1 year old

The actor on being on set with his famous father, his dislike of Vladimir Putin, and why the police gave him a bed for the night

Rosanna Greenstreet

Sat 8 Feb 2025 

Born in London, Jared Harris, 63, appeared on television in Mad Men from 2009 to 2012. His other TV series are The Crown, The Terror and Chernobyl, which won him a Bafta in 2020. His films include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Lincoln and Reawakening. Tonight, he returns to the RSC stage at Stratford-upon-Avon where he plays Claudius in Hamlet until 29 March. He is married and has homes in Los Angeles and New York.

Zoe Valery / Vanishing Time: Portable Country

 

Vanishing Time: Portable Country

BYZOE VALERY

I. The Drain

Vanishing Time (VT) = seventeen years 

My father went to an art house cinema in Caracas that used to be teeming with young people. I wonder if that is what he sought there, the youth slipping from the faces around him. That night, he only encountered puro viejo: the old, left behind in the mass exodus, escaping into the movie theatre. The expression my father uses is “The country’s gone down the drain.”