HELLO! July 23, 1988

SEAN CONNERY

EXCLUSIVE: THE OSCAR-WINNING STAR SPEAKS OUT TO HELLO!

“I’d been acting for over a year before I decided I wanted to be an actor – I was always far more interested in soccer!’

Clad in nothing but a blue dressing gown, Sean Connery talks to HELLO! during a break in shooting the latest Indiana Jones film, in which he plays Harrison Ford’s father.  Over lunch at the now-doomed Elstree studios, Sean, in a relaxed and disarming mood, discusses his early years and career.  He talks frankly about his poor origins, and discusses his children openly and honestly.

What are your fondest memories of your childhood?
"My fondest memories as a child? When I delivered the milk, and during the holidays, when I had the whole day to go and play soccer."

Where were you born?
"In Edinburgh."

What was your family like? Your mother, your father?
"Very hard workers.  We stayed in a building with no hot water and no bath – I still get a lot of pleasure just from having a bath. The building was all gas and eventually got electricity.  I think there was one bathroom in the entire street.”

How many were there of you in the family?
"Four of us – my brother and me and my parents – and we lived in two rooms.  My father and mother slept in the main room, which was where we cooked and where we ate, so the living room was also the bedroom, and there was another bedroom for my brother and me.  But there were other flats in the building where there were families of up to 10!"

But you went to school as a child?
"Oh yes.  When I was five I went to school, but I left at 13."

Did you start your acting career on the stage?
"Yes, I was in South Pacific and then I went to London as an actor and worked in experimental theatre and repertory in Oxford, Cambridge and London".

And how did you come to decide to become an actor? At what age? When was the first time you thought about it?
"After I was already an actor in South Pacific. I was touring round Britain for a year before I decided I would become an actor -I was more interested in soccer!"

Tell me about your hobbies. I know you're a very good golfer, and that you started playing at the age of 35. Have you ever thought that if you'd started earlier, you could have become very good indeed?
"No. My temperament isn't right for it -I've got a better temperament for tennis, because I have a very good skill with a moving ball".

Why did you choose to live in Marbella? Is it a kind of home from home for you now?
"It was when I was with my first wife that I first went to Marbella. We were expecting a baby -Jason -and she went to Marbella. We weren't married then -and it wasn't so fashionable then as it is now, and we finally got married in Gibraltar. But it was difficult for various reasons to have a baby in Gibraltar, so she moved back to London to have the baby. I married my second wife in Gibraltar, too!"

About your acting career -do you agree that there has been only one 007 -you?
"Well, I think that the edge and the advantage is always with the first and anyone that follows is always something else. Also, they were an enormous success. It's very difficult to put one against the other. But I had my own idea, my own concept of the thing and I think my way was the right direction and was part of the reason for their success. But tastes change in time -people like different things. I didn't like the way the films were going. After the first three, after Goldfinger, from then on it was becoming more and more mechanical for me."

"I always played them very seriously. Not that they were violent, but there was always some threat, and if I had any criticism of, say, Roger, it would be that he never chose to threaten anybody."

Was it hard to get your first important part in the cinema?
"Well, the James Bond film Dr No was the turning point for me."

Your son Jason is an actor, too. As a fellow-actor, what do you think of him?
"Oh, he's very good. He's just finished in a play in the theatre which has been running for a while and he did a wonderful job."

Do you like the idea of your son following in your footsteps?
"Becoming an actor, you mean? Oh, yes, if he enjoys it and makes a success of it, certainly."

Do you support him in any way?
"I support him with my opinions on everything."

What do you feel when you see your son's name in lights? Do you feel proud?
"Well, I was terribly nervous when I first went to see him at the theatre at the university. When he first wanted to be an actor, it really came about because he was 19 years old, at Gordonstoun School, and not very successful academically, And it was a very expensive school.

"I'd already set up a trust for him and his sister for their education but it was getting used up so I told him he should go and get a job."

"We talked about it and I took him with me when I was filming. That's when he told me he wanted to be an actor. So I took him out of school, we went to work on some things he wanted to read -he prepared some Shakespeare, a modern, and then we wrote to all the theatres in Scotland. He wanted to go to RADA and I said: 'Well, that's another three years and then you may find you're no good. What makes you think you'll be a better student this time?'

"So he went to auditions, he wrote to all these people and he was accepted by a theatre in Scotland. He only had small parts but he got enormous experience. He was there eight months, worked round the clock. He got his Equity card, he was in a musical, a pantomime and five plays, understudying and learning for eight months. He came to London, I put him in touch with the woman I started with, my first agent, and he hasn't looked back.

"It was different when he was in Scotland, away from all the critics. He got a chance to develop, but when he was in the theatre down here, and playing the lead in a play, it meant carrying the whole play. So we drove down to Southampton and we saw it there -and I was more nervous than he was! But I needn’t have worried - he was great. And yes, I was proud of him."

Talking about you once more, what made you decide to take on such a different role as the one you played in The Name Of The Rose?
"I've always followed my own nose with what I think is interesting and The Name Of The Rose was no exception. I loved the book, though I found it very difficult - I don’t think I'd have completed reading it if I was not doing the film!"

Would you like to go back on the stage one day?
"No. I'm not interested. I quite enjoy the idea of directing, but not to act."

Who are your favourite actors?
"The two main actors I liked were Spencer Tracy and Ralph Richardson. I like Meryl Streep - she's the most, I think original actress in America today.”

What was the most moving moment in your life?
(Long pause) "The most moving moment was when my father died. That was the most impressive...the most impact. I don't know why, but I had no preparation at all."

What kind of feeling did you experience when you were awarded your Oscar for your role in The Untouchables?
"In television you don't realise how long the applause was -the people there could see me before the people watching television did. The director kept on telling me: 'Go! Go!', but I couldn't speak as people went on applauding. I couldn't even remember my speech because the audience was enormous and the pressure was electric! I didn't prepare any speech as I did not know what my reaction was going to be like -I mean if I hadn't won! But fortunately it did not happen...

Do you have sense of humour? Your wife told me you did.
"Yes, in fact I think it is the most important thing in the world. If you don't laugh at some things in life, it can turn out to be a total disaster. But I must say I get angry very easily!"

Have you ever cried?
"Yes, I cried when I saw my son after the play, and I cried as I have never done before when my father died. I felt like an animal. I could hear myself cry, and I heard a sound I didn't recognise. It was me -the whole thing caught me by surprise."

Are you a romantic?
"No, I don’t think so.”

Are you strict with yourself?
"Yes, when I work I am very strict…and in my personal life as well..."

Is it true you said that Margaret Thatcher is the person least interested in cinema?
"Yes, I suppose so."

Why?
"Because it's true! Many years ago I was doing a film not very far from here, in the most wonderful studio which was sold to an American as real estate. I was surprised they didn't receive any financial support from the government. And apart from that, this represents a lot of cultural value for the country which has terrific actors, directors, musicians, rock singers, rock stars, and the cinema studios should be a part of all of this. They should invest on it. And now it is happening the same to this studio.

INTERVIEW BY MAIKA VERGARA
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANGEL LLAMAZARES