The admired character actor has come to terms with never quite finding the stardom he craved as a younger man
Charles Dance was laughing out loud. It's a great sound, one that moviegoers and television viewers rarely ever hear from the star of Last Action Hero, The Imitation Game and Game of Thrones. Interviewers hear it only slightly more often from the venerable character actor, a dapper fellow who often plays smooth, genteel, well-spoken villains. The 69-year-old Brit plays pricisely such a character, Karellen, in Childhood's End, a three-night, six-hour miniseries that will debut soon on Syfy.
The character is the leader--initially heard but not seen--of an alien race that peacefully invades Earth. The aliens, who come to be known as the Overlords, and Karellen, referred to as Supervisor of Earth, offer an end of poverty, war and all manner of illness.
Karellen comes across as calm, erudite and wise, so - as it was pointed out to Dance during a recent conversation - it's amusing to hear Karellen utter the words "My bad", a thoroughly modern, colloquial phrase. Cue the laughter. "I have to tell you, that's a phrase I had never used before", Dance admitted. " I said, What does this mean ?" They said, "You never heard that ? It means my bad, my fault, my problem". I said, " Oh, really ?"
"Now the odd thing is, I'm doing a film in Prague at the moment, and one of the guys on the crew, the key grip I think it was, got a move wrong. And he said, "My bad". I thought, 'Oh, my God, people do actually say that'.
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Thruth be told, tough, there's precious little laughter to be had in Childhood's End. The miniseries is based on Arthur C. Clarke's 1953 novel of the same name. In addition to Dance, it stars Julian McMahon, Colm Meaney, Yael Stone and Mike Vogel. Vogel plays Ricky Storm gren, the everyday human Karellen picks as his liaison in dealing with mankind. Meaney portrays Wainwright, a powerful newspaperman who deeply distrusts the Overlords' motives.
Dance, who spoke about Childhood's End on a day off from shooting Underworld 5 in Prague, acknowledged that he'd been unfamiliar with the Clarke novel until the project came his way. Once it did, he sat down and perused the book.
"I never been a particular fan of science fiction", he admitted, " but Arthur C.Clarke is kind of the god of sci-fi. When I read it, I actually couldn't put it down. It's extraordinary. Basically the story says that there's a price to pay for utopia, and I would say the miniseries captures 100% of that.
"If someone comes and promises you a pot of gold or everything you've ever wished for..." he said, and stopped mid-sentence. "You know that saying, Be careful what you wish for ?' That's the crux of this".
Further discussing Childhood's End, and especially Karellen, Dance chose his words carefully. In the book Karellen's true form is described as demon-like, and his appearance in the miniseries is basically a spoiler.
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"Without giving too much away, the biggest challenge was hopefully retaining some humanity through these layers of latex and various other bits of prosthetics", Dance said. "The make-up was about a four-hour job. For me it's not a question of working against the make-up. It's a question of working with it and using it as a tool. Obviously, if you've got finely detailed, heavy make-up, the kind of visual aspect of one's job has been done for you. And then it's just a question of me making sure that the human being inside it is going to be visible and workable and believable.
"As I haven't seen any footage of the piece yet, I hope I've pulled it off".
Beyond Childhood's End, Dance has an impressive slate of current and upcoming projects. He co-stars with Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy in Victor Frankenstein, which comes to Thaïland in the new year. On the way are the features Despite the Falling Snow, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Me before You and Underworld 5, as well as the miniseries And Then There Were None.
"Victor Frankenstein is one of my hopefully telling cameos", Dance said. "I worked with James McAvoy, whom I'd worked with before, and I rate him really highly. I was only on that for a couple of days, but they were pleasurable days because I was working with James.
"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, that was a hoot. Even the most devoted Jane Austen followers I don't think will be offended. I haven't seen very much of it, but just doing ADR[ post-production dubbing] and seeing stuff on the screen, it looks sensational. When it's supposed to be frightening, it's bloody frightening , and when it's funny, it's very funny. And it's got its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.
"And then Me Before You is Thea Sharrock's first film. Thea is agreat theatre director. I'd never worked with her in the theatre. As I say, it's her first film, and I hope it's not her last. Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones is the star of it and she's so completely and utterly different to who she is in Game of Thrones".
Dance has been acting on screen and stage for 40-plus years now. He's a respected, go-to character actor, one who's immediately recognisable for his countenance and voice. Early in his career, though, Dance aspired to be a star. He recounted an anecdote about that very topic involving Burt Lancaster, who played his character's father in a 1990 television adaptation of The hantom of the Opera.
"Burt asked me, 'Do you want to be an actor or a star, Charles ?' And I said, 'Both'. He said, "That's really difficult, and I hope you pull it off".
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A quarter of a century down the line, Dance has come to terms with the fact that he's never quite made it to stardom. "When I started, I wanted to find out how I could be" he said. "After a couple of years, I thought, 'No, you're not cutting the mustard. Get out and do something else'. What else I'd do, I haven't the foggiest idea. I just wanted to be the best actor I felt I could be and to keep working, because I love doing it.
"I'm very lucky to be able to do something for a living that I love doing. I just hope I do it until the day I die."
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