Harry Potter actor Ralph Fiennes likens Michael Gove to Shakespeare’s conniving villain Richard III
Hollywood star says Brexit has given his latest production added relevance and changed the audience's reaction
HOLLYWOOD actor Ralph Fiennes says one-time Tory leadership candidate Michael Gove is the politician most similar to Shakespeare’s nastiest piece of work, Richard III.
Fiennes, who was scary as Lord Voldermort in the Harry Potter movies, plays the scheming leader in the Bard’s play.
As the villain he manoeuvres his way to the crown despite saying he has no interest in ruling.
And when asked which political figure is most like Richard he said: “Michael Gove is closest because all those protestations about not being fit, 'I could never lead, it's not in my DNA to lead' - it's classic Richard."
But he insisted his version of the character was not exactly a Gove or a Boris Johnson: "It's my Richard."
Rupert Goold, artistic director of the Almeida Theatre in London, where Richard III is on, said: "No one expects it to be Richard, so in that sense he is more Michael Gove.
"But clearly we still, as in Shakespeare's time, live in a period of big beasts."
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Fiennes said the period of post-Brexit political uncertainty and division had given the production added relevance and changed the audience's reaction.
He added: "I think in most Shakespeare plays that deal with power, whether they're the history plays or the Roman plays, you can always probably, broadly speaking, find a parallel somewhere in the world to what's going on, but it's quite rare that you actually are close to a political crisis, political uncertainty.
"And of course we went into this not knowing what the referendum result was going to be, and so when it was as divisive as it was and we saw all these political players making a play for leadership - Boris Johnson, Michael Gove - that was immediately, the audience suddenly, it changed.
“Not through our doing but just through events that were happening around.
"And suddenly it became full of a pertinence that perhaps it hadn't had before."
Ralph Fiennes is well-known for playing Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series of films
The play opened in June, shortly before the EU referendum, and tomorrow it will be broadcast live in cinemas around the world.
Gove joked last night that he was sacked by Theresa May because he was not a “blonde”.
Speaking out about Boris Johnson for the first time since he was booted out of the Cabinet for disloyalty, he told the Commons: “Blondness is clearly a quality that brings preferment under this government.”