MacGowran on Beckett

Summary

You have said that your first involvement with Beckett's plays had a profound impact on you and your career.

It certainly did. Up to that point, I was an average working actor, I suppose, making a reasonable living doing movies, television shows, and plays. But as a result of playing Beckett, my whole attitude to life changed—he expanded my potentialities as an actor very, very much.

What originally brought you and Samuel Beckett together?

I think it all arises from the fact that I am a frustrated writer, as all my life I've been chasing good literature no matter who wrote it and trying to find if the person was alive, so that I could talk about it with him. And it happens that in 1957 I was doing a small part in a play for the BBC called All That Fall, and I was struck tremendously by the writing. It seemed to me to be profound and yet ironically funny, in a style I had never come across before. I didn't know then who Beckett was—I'd never heard of him. I thought he was a Frenchman whose work had been translated into English. I was stimulated to read all I could of his work, and then I spoke to a producer about getting me an introduction to Beckett.