Actor Charles Dance: Lord Venitiari

Interview from TV choice, may 2010 :
http://www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk/interviewextra/charles-dance-david-suchet-going-postal

David Suchet and Charles Dance square up to each other in Going Postal, the latest Terry Pratchett Discworld adaptation to make it to the small screen

Charles, Terry said that he was very happy with your portrayal of Lord Vetinari, but he also said that he could imagine other actors tackling the role.

Charles Dance: He gives with one hand and takes with another.

Do you feel any pressure from Terry Pratchett fans to get your role right?

Charles Dance: No. It’s very nice for Terry Pratchett and for us that there are so many fans of the piece, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I believe Jeremy Irons played Lord Vetinari before, so there’s probably a whole legion of fans who mourn the fact that Jeremy Irons isn’t doing this one. I’m cheaper probably.

Do you both have experiences with fans?

Charles Dance: There’s a wonderful website called Charlie’s Angels, which is run by these wonderful women. They all meet up from time to time, I’ve become a kind of catalyst for them but it’s nothing to do with me. I’ve met Mary, the woman who started it, and her long-suffering husband Paul, a few times. She’s terrific, she runs a very tight ship.

Does Terry Pratchett get the last word?

Charles Dance: Indeed he does.

Terry said it took him six takes to get it right.

Charles Dance: [laughs] At least, if I remember.

Lord Vetinari sets in motion the whole adventure of Going Postal because his game of Thud keeps being interrupted by the Clacks going down. Does the game actually exist?

Charles Dance: I’ve got it — it was sent to me. Don’t ask me how to play it. A package arrived with a hexagonal board and a box of pieces. It’s rather like chess and all the rules are in a book that’s about one inch thick. It’s sitting at home on the table, looking like I play Thud all the time.

Going Postal has fantastic production values. What do you both look for in a role these days?

Charles Dance: Anything that’s well written that I haven’t done before. The more against type the better. We’re all victims of what we look like — you are what you are seen to be. I said to the director Robert Altman when I was doing Gosford Park, ‘I should be downstairs not upstairs!’ And he said, ‘No, the way you look Charles you’re not going to be downstairs’. But that’s where I come from. My mother was an underhouse parlour maid but I never get asked to do stuff like that.

Legendary British thesp of stage and screen Charles Dance is no stranger to the world of sci-fi and fantasy having previously appeared in Alien 3, Merlin and, of course, The Golden Child. Most recently Dance has been seen playing Lord Vetinari in a lavish adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. In this interview Dance talks about his great respect for the revered author.

How would you describe Lord Vetinari?

He’s patrician and he basically runs the place. He’s controlling, a man of few words, and he has a reputation for being a bit of a monster, which he’s not really. He just quietly runs things his way and if things don’t go the way he wants them to go then he creates a situation where things do go the way he wants them to. He’s not the archetypal villain – he doesn’t go round abusing people and so on, he just very quietly gets done what he wants done. If things go against his plan he does something about it, especially when it interferes with his game of Thud, which he takes very seriously.

In a previous adaptation the character was played by Jeremy Irons. Did you study his performance?
No. I didn’t know he’d done it, actually. Plus it’s best to come to it fresh.

Why does Vetinari choose Lipwig?

Because he’s a conman, he lives by his wits, he’s a survivor up to the point where he gets hanged – and the only reason he survives is because Vetinari knows the executioner and he knows how to fake his death. Lipwig is a likeable rougue even though he lives on the wrong side of the law slightly. He’s useful to Vetinari.

Have you chatted with Terry about the character?

He’s a fascinating guy who has this extraordinary imagination. He created this world which is quite Dickensian and he writes in a Dickensian way. He has rich characters with onomatopoeic names – names like Moist Lipwig are amazing – and this world he’s created that’s kind of pseudo-Edwardian/Victorian is a weird nowhere place. My god he’s prolific, and it’s terribly sad he’s now afflicted with Alzheimer’s. He’s still up and buzzy. I expected him to be about 6ft 3ins for some strange reason, then this little guy comes in with his black hat, his black shirt and his big beard – he’s like one of the characters out of Discworld himself, really. But in terms of chatting about the character, the books are very clear, the script is a really good adaptation, so there aren’t many questions to ask. It’s all there on the page.

It must be nice having an author on set who isn’t interfering in the filmmaking process?

Yes, but most authors don’t interfere. The interfering they do is usually during the adaptation stage if they’re not doing the adaptation themselves, which they rarely do. I did wonder why Terry’s work hasn’t made it to the screen before now, and the big screen especially, and it’s principally to do with him. I believe one of the film studios optioned one of his books and his opinion of the script was it was s**t so it never made it off the page. That’s quite brave of him; he could be making a fortune. God knows how many books he’s written, I’ve lost count now, but prolific is the word.

Do you take the traditionalist line on letter writing?

Every now and then I think it’s nice to use snail mail, to put pen to paper. I quite like receiving letters, and I think most people do. This instant thing of emails, you feel compelled to reply immediately, but instant isn’t always a good thing. We’re kind of obsessed with speed.

Were you familiar with the other cast members?

I’d worked with Timothy West two or three times before and David Suchet, too. It’s a great cast. Richard Coyle has a wonderful quality, Steve Pemberton… They’re smart people, very talented.

http://www.syfy.co.uk/blog/charles-dance-interview-going-postal