He does it
as he likes it
Renuka Sadanandan catches up with dynamic British
actor and explorer Brian Blessed here to shoot a film on elephants
When most others his age would be quite content
with retirement, he has just completed training at the Moscow Space
Centre to become a cosmonaut on the International Space Station.
Last week saw him in Kegalle, clambering down a slithery slope to
stand cheek by trunk with an aged elephant in the river.
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Brian Blessed with Baby at the Millennium Elephant Foundation.
Pic by Gemunu Wellage |
Life, for Brian Blessed, is a joyous adventure
so pursuits such as these are then not all that strange for a man
approaching 70. And so the dynamic British actor, explorer and President
of the Council for National Parks in Britain thinks nothing of wading
into muddy waters to get up close with Baby, the Millennium Elephant
Foundation's oldest resident for a spot of filming. Baby is 83,
blind in one eye and rather unsteady at times, afflicted as she
is with arthritis. Yet she and Blessed stand in quiet communion
as he talks to the cameras of her condition and how after having
been a work elephant for 60 odd years carrying timber and taking
part in festivals, she has now found a tranquil shelter in the Millennium
Elephant Foundation.
Blessed and a four-member crew from one of UK's
premier television stations ITV were in Kegalle last week to make
Elephant Sanctuary, a two-part short film that will be aired later
this month on ITV's 'This Morning' programme. The focus of the film
which was mooted by the World Society for the Protection of Animals
(WSPA) is the Millennium Elephant Foundation's sterling conservation
efforts including its successful elephant dung paper project and
mobile veterinary clinic. Set up in 1999 on a 15 acre estate by
Carmini Samarasinghe, the Foundation provides compassionate care
for Sri Lanka's fast dwindling elephant population and is now home
to 14 elephants.
For Blessed, whom one magazine dubbed 'the loudest
man alive', for his trademark booming voice, it is his first visit
to the country. "I just find it vibrant, exciting, a land of
contrasts. One feels a great spirituality here like I've not felt
anywhere. It is rare in this world to come across good manners,"
he adds, remarking on the gentleness of the people. "Everyone
is so gracious….you feel throughout the country a great soul."
Blessed is also deeply taken with the pachyderms
he's been working so closely with this past week. It was his first
close encounter with the Asian elephant, and despite having a menagerie
of over 2,000 rescued animals in his animal sanctuary back home,
the elephant "has gripped my heart". "I shall go
back to England remembering how each morning the elephants get up
have their bodies cleaned, their dung used for recycling, and through
the care of the mahouts and volunteers and the wonderful people
running this place, go down to the river for their wash, and have
a caring, loving day. And that gives me inspiration and belief that
we can bring this care to the rest of the animals in the world."
"This is an example of how caring we can be
to animals and how it benefits us. This place symbolizes the fact
that there is no separation between animals and mankind. We are
one on this planet. We are the guardians of animals."
The son of a coal miner, Brian Blessed grew up in the Yorkshire
town of Goldthorpe and had to leave school at the age of 14 when
his father was injured in a roof-fall in the mine. Then it was a
succession of jobs, a stint of military service till he got to drama
school and then on to the Royal Shakespeare Company as he found
his true vocation. "It was inconceivable that a Yorkshire boy,
the son of a coal miner would be an actor", but he made it,
along with his best friend from the next village, Patrick Stewart
of Star Trek fame.
Over the years, from screen to stage, the roles
have been unceasing. From the entire gamut of Shakespearean roles,
he has appeared in TV series like the Avengers and Dr. Who, in films
like The Man from La Mancha and Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves, lent
his voice to the character of Boss Nass in Star Wars, Episode 1-
The Phantom Menace and sung in musicals like Cats and Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang to cut a long list of credits brutally short.
This year alone he has done five or six films,
among them one by his favourite director Kenneth Branaugh who asked
him to shelve his bluff persona for a sensitive portrayal of the
good Duke in As You Like It, whilst also taking on the role of the
bad brother. "So I am playing both parts," he says with
a chuckle, obviously having relished the challenge.
He has also finished another film, The Conclave,
playing Pope Pius the Second which will be released this autumn.
Acting though, has not been enough. "95 percent of actors are
boring," he says emphatically. "I can't stand their vanity.
There are two classes of actors; the actor who loves the art in
himself or the actor who loves himself in the art. But if you love
the art in yourself, it is amazing in life what you could do when
it's not about you. Then you can do anything."
That's perhaps why he chooses to make his life
fifty percent acting and fifty percent exploring. "Acting is
a great art but it is holding up a mirror to life as Hamlet says.
But going to Mount Everest and going on an adventure is life."
England at times, he confesses, is a bit tame for the man whose
first love in life is adventure. He has attempted Everest thrice,
reaching a height of 28,000 feet at the age of 64 without oxygen
as well as having conquered most other major peaks in the world,
Mont Blanc, Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro and even trekked to the North
Pole. He is now planning to climb Sangay, Ecuador, the most active
volcano in the world.
The biggest danger in life is not taking the adventure,
Blessed believes. "I think Everest is a symbol. We have Everests
everywhere. It can be in your garden, it can be your river, your
family.."
His 70th birthday falls on October 9 but far from
slowing down, Blessed runs ten miles a day in preparation for 2008
when he hopes to join the International Space Station. "I'm
just a guinea pig," he laughs, "but I do believe I can
be a very good spokesman for it. I believe we are the children of
stardust. We need to go to other planets…to put life into
space. We are at our best when we are exploring. We belong out there."
That in a sense seems the quintessential Blessed...
still searching for new heights to conquer. |