NEW YORK (AP) – Peter Sarsgaard arrives for lunch at a restaurant near his home with the one thing that has been nearby him for months – a copy of “Hamlet.”
To prepare for the title role at Classic Stage Company, he’s been thumbing through the play every day and is on his second paperback, having destroyed an earlier one. He’s been muttering lines so much that his kids have started to as well.
“My youngest one came up to me one day – she’s like 2½ – and she said, ‘Break your own neck down,'” he says, laughing. “It’s not always nice what goes into their ears. But there’s a lot worse stuff out there.”
To learn that Sarsgaard has added William Shakespeare’s moody Danish prince to his gallery of complicated characters makes a certain sense. The actor, one of the best of his generation, has always radiated moodiness, intelligence and intensity.
Sarsgaard has prepared for the role by avoiding all other productions. He has never seen “Hamlet” onstage and only has heard audio recordings with Richard Burton and John Gielgud.