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This is a considerable accolade from a major director for an
actress just turned 30. Yet the intoxicant success has
made no apparent impression on Miss Wanamaker. Her manner
is considered, almost guarded. She is self-effacing and
she hates interviews. 'I am not articulate,' she
explains. 'I feel I can't express myself. Actors
often tend to talk themselves into knots when interviewed, thus
confirming people's prejudices about them. Actors are
actually very intelligent people. It's just that
they are misinterpreted.' She glances warningly. |
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Like both her sisters, Zoe Wanamaker has inherited the good
looks of her father, the craggy actor and director Sam
Wanamaker. She might not be classically pretty, but she is
certainly attractive. Hers is a face with character: every
nuance of her feeling can be read in it. But she has
ambivalent feelings about her features. 'When I first
started you could see directors thinking how odd I looked and
wondering how they could cast me - if at all.' But her
recent success suggests that her beguiling pixie face has
actually helped her career. |
Another asset is her theatre background. She was born in
New York, one of three daughters of Sam and Charlotte
Wanamaker. In the mid fifties the family emigrated to
England. Sam Wanamaker had no choice: he was one of the
many Hollywood stars blacklisted during the McCarthy 'purge' in
America. |
The family moved to Hampstead. Sam Wanamaker, free
to continue in his chosen profession, directed and acted in many
films and plays and opened the Liverpool Theatre. He
directed the film Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger and appeared
in Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines. His
most recent work was in the controversial television series
Holocaust. He is now making a new film in the US. |
Growing up in such an atmosphere undoubtedly gave Zoë Wanamaker
a valuable insight into the profession. 'As an actor,' she
admits, 'I grew up privileged. It also helped me when I
began. Unlike other actors, who often have to face anxiety
and disapproval from their parents for choosing such a
profession, mine were sympathetic to the business.' |
She was educated at King Alfred's, a Hampstead co-educational
school, and then a Quaker boarding school in Sidcot,
Somerset. She was a difficult child, she says. 'As a
character I was always dramatic. I fancied myself as
something romantic. It still holds true: I have always
liked being other people more than myself. And that really
answers why I chose to become an actress - because I never
wanted to grow up.' |
After school, Zoe Wanamaker tried her hand
at painting. She attended Hornsea Art College. 'I
had a certain talent, but I knew I'd never be a good
painter.' At the end of the year she decided instead to
take a speedwriting course. 'I was there for six months
and still hadn't qualified. So I went along to Brook
Street Bureau and they gave me a job as a dictaphone
typist. Though I didn't have to take anything down I was
terrible at the job. I could never spell, so I was
permanently consulting a large dictionary.' Eventually she
found a niche suitable for her dubious secretarial skills: she
typed out addresses in a shed at the back of the Royal Court
Theatre in Sloane Square. |
But eventually she took the plunge and was accepted as a drama
student by the Central School. She was learning there the
crafts of movement and voice control, but Zoe Wanamaker felt she
needed practical experience. During her final year she
left Central to take up a job in Bromley as an assistant stage
manager. |
As an apprentice actress she went on to run the gamut of the
repertories - Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Nottingham and
Farnham. Despite her talent and background her rise to
success was not without its sobering episodes. 'The worst
moment in my career,' she says, 'was when I took over someone
else's part in Much Ado about Nothing. I was expected to
behave and play my part exactly like my
predecessor. I was not allowed to improvise or develop the
part within myself at all. At the time the director was in
New York. I was told that only if I paid for all
the telephone calls would the company be prepared to consult
him.' |
One of the close observers of Zoe Wanamaker's career is Trevor
Nunn. 'I saw her when she first auditioned for the RSC.
She was refused. But even then I admired her for her
tremendous skills. I remember thinking at the time that
she had more skill than instinct. She then auditioned
again, successfully, and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company
three years ago. She showed new development. She was
giving herself over totally to instinct. It has made her
marvellous to work with.' |
Her openness and sensitivity carry the obvious danger of
vulnerability. 'I think of her protectively,' says
Nunn. 'She is not in the least bit political or
manipulative in her dealings, which is remarkable.
Emotionally she is extremely vulnerable, very trusting.
Everything that she feels shows on her face. She is very
pure, very uncomplicated and very direct. At times she
reminds me of Judi Dench.' Nunn also says 'she brings zest
and delight' to rehearsals. |
[...] Zoë finds she has very
little spare time at the moment. When she is free during
the day she usually attends movement classes, and loves watching
television, 'especially the rubbishy bits'. |
She claims her recent success has made no real difference to her
life. 'I don't really feel any manifestation of success,
because I still struggle with money. I never save
it. I don't own a flat or a car. And like I've
always done, I spend a lot of time socialising. Perhaps my
one regret about choosing the theatre as a profession, apart
from the odd hours, is that my circle of friends is somewhat
limited. Actors develop a convenient shorthand way of
communicating.' |
Nor does Miss Wanamaker think that her success has helped her
confidence. 'On the contrary,' she says, 'I have found,
like a lot of actors, that the longer I do it the more
frightened I become.' |
But Zoe Wanamaker's self-effacement belies her compelling powers
on stage. Indeed her riveting performances as the
prostitute Toine in Piaf
and the peppy May Daniels in Once
in a Lifetime have been so well received that she was quite
unable to predict her plans. Both productions have been
well extended into 1980. |
'A comic instinct is born, not bred,' says Trevor Nunn.
'You either know how to make things funny or you don't.
Zoe Wanamaker does.' The accolades now bestowed, all Zoe
Wanamaker has to do is play it out. |
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