Samuel Barnett
Interview by: Rocco Passafuime
Samuel Barnett is like many of the relatively unknown actors. He is focused not so much with image or money, but the perfection of his craft in the patient hopes that he'll soon enter a much wider realm of possibility and success.
For two years, Barnett has been mainly known in the world of theater for his work in the very successful English play The History Boys, which he has done not only in London's West End, but on Broadway. Now, Samuel's cast in Alan Bennett and Nicholas Hynter's film adaptation of the successful play as the sexually conflicted Posner.
When he first learned that playwright Alan Bennett was planning to put together a film version with himself as screenwriter, Barnett jumped at the opportunity to do it.
'This project was touted about and Dominic Cooper and I blackmailed Nick into getting us in the room,' he recollects, 'We did the reading and Alan said publicly how bad we were. He added that we must just be terrible sight-readers, which isn't the best thing. It's alright. Dom and I thought his play was first dreadful when we first read it, so it was kind of equal. He was right and it's a great play, so we were wrong.'
However, he found the transition from acting the character on stage to on film quite daunting.
'It was scary,' Barnett recollects, 'I think it would have been more terrifying had I come to this project without having had a year's rehearsal, gotten that kind of dialogue and that script, and turned up on day one with no rehearsal. Having to give a performance like that, I wouldn't have known what I was doing. I think that's partly the reason why Nick and Alan insisted on keeping the same cast.'
Samuel, however, was determined to overcome any jitters about acting on film because of how much he deeply enjoyed performing the story on the stage for two years. 'If we didn't get on, it could have been a nightmare and it wouldn't have lasted like it did,' he reveals, 'And you wouldn't have, as what people have commented on, the depth of the relationships and the chemistry on stage and on screen.'
One particular change the young actor had to get used to was nailing a good-enough performance on film versus being able to try different variations of performances on stage, which allows for a more detailed dedication to the craft.
'It's like with some material, you just reach an optimum way of doing it and then you're bored, because there's nothing more to do with it.' Barnett explains, 'Alan Bennett is like Shakespeare, because a lot of it is spoken in metaphors. There's always another way of doing it.'
By the time the film was finally screened, Samuel acknowledged he had to work real hard to not be too overly critical of his performance on screen.
'In terms of our performances, the core stays the same. It really is only the details.' he concedes, 'So I'm watching the film and I'm going, 'I know how to do that bit now.' But I did it as it was as I knew how to do it then and an audience might not even notice the difference. Just I do.'
While British theater is merely acceptable only to the middle-aged and well-to-do, Barnett is pleased with the reaction The History Boys film adaptation has gotten from younger viewers.
'The young people that we had watch it just loved it,' Samuel gushes, 'Not only because often they're at that stage of getting into universities and they totally relate to it, but they relate to the emotions and the classroom politics. They engage with it.'
He noticed positive benefits to the story being screened for an audience on in a movie theatre versus being acted out on stage, as people began seeing the film adaptation.
'The problem in the theaters is that some of the laughs were so huge that you do miss the next lines or somebody's laughing at something that you're not laughing at for some reason and you miss the next thing,' Samuel explains, 'The film also, because the camera's right up close to you, you get even more what people are talking about. You can really understand people's intentions more.'
When the film premiered in the US, Barnett notes of the interesting responses the film has gotten.
'The room was better in New York. They listened harder because it's not their native culture, so you really could see them listening,' he explained, 'Dom and I were walking in a shopping mall and this 14 year old girl ran up to us. She hadn't seen the film, she had just seen the play ages ago. She just said, 'I can't wait to see the film! I have to come and tell you!' It was amazing.'
When asked of whether or not he was worried about being typecast in the future by playing the homosexual Posner, Samuel said his desire to do the characters he picks goes beyond sexuality.
'This is the first gay part I've played,' Barnett explains, 'Those parts are out there and I'm sure I'll play them again. It was never been about his sexuality. I'd approach any character the same. It's about what their emotional journey is. I've received, especially in the past few weeks, some incredible scripts with incredible parts that are totally different. Nothing guarantees work but all we can do is be totally willing to just turn up and go for it.'
