Jonathan Pryce, award-winning everyman actor talks about diversity and success

“I’ve never tried to repeat characters,” explains Jonathan Pryce, an actor for whom diversity is something of a watchword. Just a brief glance at this Brit’s illustrious career confirms this: a Tony-award winning performance on stage as The Engineer in the original cast for Miss Saigon; a Machiavellian media mogul in James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies and, more recently, the High Sparrow in TV phenomenon Game of Thrones.

“It’s what I do,” he says with a shrug. “It’s my job.”

His latest role sees a return to the stage – and specifically William Shakespeare. His early years were dominated by performances in the Bard’s works – Octavius in Antony and Cleopatra, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and, famously, the titular Prince of Denmark in Hamlet. The 1980 production at London’s Royal Court landed him an Olivier Award and a heap of critical acclaim, with some reviewers proclaiming it the Hamlet of his generation.

Since then, he’s played Macbeth opposite Sinéad Cusack for the Royal Shakespeare Company and King Lear back in 2012. But his latest – and possibly his last – Shakespeare creation is famed Jewish moneylender Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.

He first played the role at London’s Globe Theatre in 2015 opposite his real-life daughter Phoebe (his youngest of three children, with actress-partner Kate Fahy), who played Shylock’s daughter Jessica. “It’s a lot easier to be in conflict with your family on a stage than off,” says Pryce.

Now he’s taking the Jonathan Munby-directed production on a world tour. After it began in Liverpool – the city where Pryce kick-started his career, joining the Everyman Theatre, where he later became artistic director – the show includes a five-city tour of China, including Beijing and Shanghai.