Brandon James Walker on Macbeth
What drew you to this role?
Like Romeo, I was drawn in by the language. There's no shortage of it in Shakespeare of course, but Macbeth shares his uniquely horrifying, reckless imagination with a guttural lyricism barely tempered by soldierly reserve. After working on him for a while, I'm finding the tension between the overwhelming strength of his resolve--even to his gruesome death--and his boundlessly morbid and terrified imagination. That's what really activates me now.
What does Macbeth's journey feel like as an actor?
At the beginning of the play, he is said to be brave, valiant, honorable, a great warrior, a "peerless kinsman". His wife says he deserves greatness, and that he is "full of the milk of human kindness". Duncan fawns over him and is brought to tears thinking about how much he loves him. It isn't until after he murders Duncan and Banquo that anyone begins to speak poorly of him. I think his journey must cover a lot of ground in a very short time, and every step along that journey must be plotted and landed precisely so that Act I Macbeth and Act V Macbeth can be wildly different people but the journey feels inevitable.
How are you preparing?
Working with a broadsword, trying to get my forearm muscles strong enough to make it look like I know what I'm doing. I've been reading about the historical context of the play. I've also been watching others play him where I can: I don't really agree with the idea that you shouldn't watch other actors perform a role you're about to play. It's obviously important to avoid trying to recreate someone else's performance, but a thoughtful actor asking himself the tough questions can manage it.
What do you think most often misunderstood about Macbeth?
A lot of love is expressed toward Macbeth in Act I. Basically anyone who says anything about him at the beginning of the play is praising him. He earned that, that has to be true of him to begin with, and then what an amazing opportunity to choose the maddening downward spiral, but even more interesting: where does he try to catch himself on the way down? Where is he in free fall and where is he clinging to a wispy root, desperately hoping it'll hold his weight? I've seen a lot of actors play him as menacing from the start, greedy and plotting and spiteful in Act I. I've seen a lot of people make his decisions with very little cost. I'm excited to really weigh out what it costs him to kill children, to lose his dearest love, to be humiliated and betrayed by monkey's paw prophecies. He's angry, but he's also afraid, and lonely, sleep-deprived, malnourished, obsessive, but above all, determined by any cost to see his decisions through to the bitterest end.