Kenneth Branagh


Sir Kenneth Branagh friends! Sam and Kenneth discuss the process of making his new film, All Is True, (5:07), the recurring themes throughout his work (10:10), performing Hamlet in front of Queen Elizabeth at age 20 (12:30), directing for the first time in 1989 (18:33), taking a break from Shakespeare with 1992’s Peter’s Friends (22:24), how his father influenced his work (34:52), the darkest (and slowest) period in his career (37:25), the death of “the middle” in contemporary cinema (43:25), and why Thor is not an anomaly in his prestigious body of work (47:02).

Show-notes: 

  • trailer for All Is True, now out in theaters.
  • Kenneth performs Caliban’s speech from The Tempest at the 2012 London Olympic Games opening ceremony.
  • As mentioned in this conversation, some of Kenneth’s earlier directorial works, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Peter’s Friends, are available to stream on iTunes.
  • Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness audiobook narrated by Kenneth is available on Audible.com.

Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi. Music by Dylan Peck. This episode of Talk Easy was taped at York Recording in Los Angeles, California. Special thanks to engineer Tim Moore.

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