Mr. Fry, have you always known you were funny?
That was always a huge thing for me. I was so terrible at everything at school; I couldn't catch a ball, I couldn't even run without running into a tree. I was pretty uncoordinated. I couldn't paint or draw, I couldn't sing, and I thought I was just hopeless at everything. And then I discovered that what I could do was string words together in ways that tickled people. And the reward of seeing people laugh rather than sneer with contempt was beyond measure. It's the greatest gift that I ever had. Making people laugh just made me feel like a prince when otherwise I would have felt like a beggar.
And you were always funny with words in particular?
Yes, it was always language for me. You see, language was something that everybody else used in such an ordinary way. It struck me that they used it to say, “Pass the mustard,” or, “What time is it?” but they didn't play with words. They didn't have adventures with words. They didn't look up new words. They didn't search the dictionary for exciting new words. They didn't put words together in new ways that seemed to make no sense, but sounded wonderful or sexy or frightening or hilarious, and words can do all of that. When I found Footlights, the comedy troupe I joined during my studies, it was perfect because here was a group of people who all had this gift of laughter, but in different directions. And mine was very much verbal, and it fitted with Hugh [Laurie, at the time also a Footlights member] so marvellously, because Hugh is physically so funny. We complemented each other.
“That’s what makes me an entertainer. I want to see the smile on their faces or the nod of appreciation.”
You once described that journey as realizing you were not meant to be an academic, you were meant to be an entertainer.
To be a true academic at Cambridge, you had to play the game of being an academic. You had to adhere to the rules of the language, the probity and scrupulousness of quoting your sources and being one hundred percent accurate. And I fretted under that feeling, under that training. You train and breathe to be that shape. And I didn't like to be trained, because I felt that being an academic would train you into certain manners and ways, whereas there was a freedom in being a comic spirit and a writer that was so appealing. I say a comic spirit because I'm not an artist, because artists don't care what people think about them. They don't mind offending people. They don't mind it. If people think their work is shit, they don't care.
And you care?
I do, yes. That’s what makes me an entertainer. I want to see the smile on their faces or the nod of appreciation. I have a very high doctrine of the power of comedy.
Has your role an entertainer has helped you deal with your own hardships in life? Do you put a smile on your own face?
Probably not, no! Some of the wisest three words from Shakespeare are: “Physician heal thyself.” Doctors do need to cure themselves very often, and comedians need to cheer themselves up. People who seem to have insight into the woes of the world are very often themselves most subject to the woes of the world. It is one of the bitter ironies of being human, isn't it?
What do you mean?
Well, I think that sorrow and humor are siblings. They travel together. With my new film Treasure, which tells the story of a Holocaust survivor and his daughter returning to his native Poland, it was important to keep both of those sentiments present. It’s a drama film, but it also has comedic elements. There are lots of funny misunderstandings, in a way where the story could have even been a fast comedy, and that’s what I loved about this story. This lack of understanding, the miscommunications that make it a kind of comedy, despite many of its dark and emotional moments.
“Most actors are used to collaboration, and that’s really important. It releases you from loneliness if you’re on a film set with someone who gives you that energy.”
Apparently you needed to have complete trust in your colleagues in order to reach those emotional moments without feeling awkward or embarrassed.
Well, being British, embarrassment is our national emotion! Some actors can burst into tears in seconds and don't seem to mind whoever's watching them, but I'm a bit like one of those children who says, “I can't do it if you're watching me.” Especially on a film set, you don't want to try something out and it doesn't work. It's embarrassing. You've got it wrong, “Oh, God, that was terrible.” But Julia von Heinz, the director, and Lena Dunham, my co-star made that so easy for me it.
Did the collaborative ease and sense of trust bring you back to those days working on Footlights, and working with Hugh Laurie?
I think that is a very good point, yes! A collaborative spirit is so important. And there are actors, I won't mention names, but there are actors who are famous for the fact that you you never really connect with them. They're doing it all through the camera on their own, as a performance. You don't act with them, and it’s not very rewarding. But most actors are used to collaboration, and that’s really important. It releases you from loneliness if you’re on a film set with someone who gives you that energy.
I get the sense, though, that whatever the situation, you consider all your work to be a joyful experience because you love working so much.
I’m lucky, but there are days when I grumble, believe me! (Laughs) But when I do find work that suits me, and that in itself can be a challenge, I find it so fulfilling that it doesn't seem like work, you’re right. When it's working, when it's going well, it doesn’t feel like work. But I also don't actively seek it out. That sounds very vain or something, but it's just true: things come to me and I look at them and think, “Oh, I'll do that one, and I'll do that one.” If I had to seek things out, I think I'd only be a writer because I could sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper, and I could write without anybody telling me what to write or where to go. But with acting, I can't initiate them myself. I have to wait to be asked, and if I'm not asked, I'm not going to go. So I'm very lucky to get pleasure from my work. I even get pleasure from press interviews!