Upclose with Sam Mendes

The British director speaks to Doretta Lau about his stage production of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” which starts its run on March 25 as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

HK Magazine: Though most people know you best as a film director, you began your career in the theater. What made you decide to pursue film directing?
Sam Mendes: I had always loved film, and wanted to direct movies... and I was lucky enough to be offered movies when I achieved success in the theater.

HK: What draws you back to the theater?
SM: It’s my (artistic) home.

HK: Is there any play in particular that inspired you to become a theater director?
SM: “Antony and Cleopatra” with Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 80s.

HK: This current version of “The Tempest” first opened in Brooklyn as part of The Bridge Project. Why did you select this play for the project?
SM: I knew “As You Like It” and “The Tempest” very well. But the combination of them was an accident. I had, at an earlier date, talked to Stephen Dillane about playing Prospero and I thought: “Well, Stephen’s free again so why don’t we do ‘As You Like It’ and ‘The Tempest’ together?”

HK: What is The Bridge Project and why did you start it?
SM: It’s is a completely selfish endeavor because it united the two sides of my creative life. I live in New York but I’m obviously English. And most of the actors I know and have loved working with in the theater are English. I wanted to be able to work with them and also some of the American actors that I’d encountered in the last eight years here in New York on film as well as on stage.
And on top of that, I had this relationship with Kevin Spacey [Artistic Director of Old Vic Theatre in London] because I directed him in “American Beauty.” So it seemed just so right that an American living in London and a Brit living in New York should combine with this great arts institution, BAM, to create a new kind of company which is half-English, half-American.