UK: BRITISH ACTOR STEPHEN FRY RECREATES THE TROUBLED LIFE OF OSCAR WILDE IN THE NEW FILM "WILDE"

Record ID: 387275

  • Title: UK: BRITISH ACTOR STEPHEN FRY RECREATES THE TROUBLED LIFE OF OSCAR WILDE IN THE NEW FILM "WILDE"
  • Date: 16th October 1997
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 16, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) ( * BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) EXTERIOR OF ODEON WEST END CINEMA SPOTLIGHTS AND SIGNS STEPHEN FRY ARRIVING AND POSING FOR MEDIA (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) FRY SAYING, "WILDE HIMSELF SAID THAT HE PUT ONLY TALENT INTO HIS WORKS BUT HIS GENIUS INTO HIS LIFE AND THIS IS THE STORY ABOUT HIS GENIUS, IN OTHER WORDS HIS LIFE. I THINK THAT WITH MOST WRITERS THIS IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE, YOU KNOW THEM THROUGH THEIR BOOKS. CHARLES DICKENS, JAMES JOYCE, JANE AUSTEN, THEIR LIVES ARE INTERESTING TO THOSE WHO ARE FASCINATED BY THEIR BOOKS BUT ESSENTIALLY WILDE'S LIFE IS INTERESTING TO ANYBODY EVEN IF THEY NEVER READ A WORD OF HIM. I HOPE AND PRAY THAT PEOPLE WHO SEE THE FILM WILL WANT TO READ HIS WORKS BECAUSE HE WAS A TRULY GREAT WRITER BUT HIS LIFE WAS ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY LIVES EVER LIVED AND HE HIMSELF SAID 'I CAN BELIEVE ANYTHING PROVIDING IT'S INCREDIBLE' AND THE STORY OF HIS LIFE IS INCREDIBLE AND I THINK PEOPLE WILL GET SOMETHING OUT OF IT AND WILL TURN TO HIS BOOKS."
  • Embargoed: 31st October 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVAB9ORE5RZQQ42TBKM26FKMP7EE
  • Story Text: British actor Stephen Fry has recreated the troubled life of Oscar Wilde in the new film "Wilde" with a performance already tipped for an Academy Award nomination.

    The premiere, at London's Odeon West End Cinema on Thursday (Octpber 16), coincided with the 143rd anniversary of the writer's birth in 1854.

    Covering 15 years of Wilde's life, the film moves through his marriage to Constance (Jennifer Ehle) and scandalous affair with the petulant Lord Alfred Douglas (Jude Law).

    The role is one many people believe Fry was born to play as in some ways, the actor's life parallels that of Wilde.

    Apart from a striking resemblance, both men are regarded as hugely talented and highly intelligent, but sometimes misunderstood.

    Fry once walked out on a West End play he was performing in and disappeared for several weeks.

    The actor said he was initially scared by the magnitude of his latest role.

    "It is a huge opportunity and it's very important to me that if a film is going to be made about Oscar Wilde it should present him in a way that makes people understand him and want to know more," he said.

    "It's a frightening prospect because I do not want to screw up such a big film.

    "I feel great trepidation about the whole exercise. I feel a bit like one feels when on a big roller-coaster ride thrilled, excited and scared." Fry said he empathised with Wilde, though his life was much more tragic than his own.

    While Fry's acting has won him rave reviews, the film has been criticised for historical inaccuracy, particularly by Wilde's grandson, Merlin Holland.

    Critics say the movie compresses Wilde's life and misrepresents his reunion with Lord Alfred Douglas.

    But director Brian Gilbert defended it, saying: "From the very beginning you build in inaccuracies. It is a question of trivial inaccuracies against the deeper ones. It is an interpretation and biography is an act of the imagination." Oscar Wilde's life ended in disgrace and ruin in Paris after he became an outcast in Britain for his homosexuality.

    But he left a legacy of plays, stories and wit which will outlive him for many centuries to come.

    "Wilde" is a sympathetic re-telling of the story of a man who said he wanted to be remembered as "something more than a man with a tragic vice in his life. There is so much more in me and I always was a good father to my children." Glittering dialogue and brilliant epigrams were his speciality.

    A few of the more famous are: "Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes"; "I can resist everything except temptation"; and "What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and value of nothing." Asked if he had anything to declare at New York Customs, Wilde quipped: "I have nothing to declare except my genius." Wilde could not resist witticisms even when ill. When told of the price of a surgical operation he retorted: "Ah, well then, I shall have to die beyond my means." He received belated establishment recognition in 1995 when a window in Britain's Westminster Abbey was inscribed with his name.

    Liam Neeson was originally cast as Wilde in the film. But the choice enraged the Oscar Wilde Society. They said he was too big and the wrong shape.

    Almost 400 books have been written about Wilde since his death 97 years ago. More are expected to be ready for the 100th anniversary of his death.

    "Wilde" opens throughout Britain on October 31.
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