Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce has warned that theatres and the production industry in Wales are too important to become a casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking after his Bafta Cymru win for Best Actor for his role of Pope Francis in Netflix’ s The Two Popes, Pryce said he hoped the arts industry outside of London would benefit from government help after being shut down earlier this year.
The Flintshire -born actor, who is a veteran of regional theatres like Everyman in Liverpool and has won two Tony Awards and an Olivier for his stage work, also revealed the close relationship he has with The Two Popes co-star Anthony Hopkins, who was also up for best actor at the Bafta Cymru 2020 ceremony.
Pryce, who is about to take on the role of the Duke of Edinburgh in Netflix’s final two series of The Crown, said: “I grew to be enormously fond of Tony and I grew to respect his work and we manufactured some rivalry because there wasn’t really any between us.
“I was number one on the call sheet and he was number two. And every morning I would see him and he would say ‘good morning number one’ and i’d say ‘good morning number two’ and he even had some big signs made for his trailer saying that he was really number one and this upstart should have been number two.”
(Image: Publicity Picture)
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor said he would be calling Port Talbot’s Hopkins to tell him he had beaten him to the award.
“We had a great time sometimes you can only be as good as the person you are working with and what the other person is giving you and we got on really really well together. And I won. I’m going to call him, don’t worry.”
He also revealed that the pair had faux-rivalry over being from the north and south of Wales
“Of course, there’s a difference between us because we’ve constantly riffed on the fact that he’s from south Wales which is far inferior to north Wales.
“We talked about growing up in Wales, and I knew his story and I think he might know mine. It was always fascinating because he was an only child, I wasn’t an only child, and he had a very different kind of life, but our backgrounds weren’t too dissimilar.”
Moving onto the plight of the arts and theatre, the 73-year-old actor, who became TV fans’ favourite baddie in 2016 when he played the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones, said he hoped the industry in Wales could get assistance.
“We’ve got to have financial help from the government just to keep things ticking over,” he said. “So buildings don’t fall into disrepair and people don’t lose their livelihoods or leave the profession. It might sound stupid but we’re still early days.
“We haven’t been able to perform but production is starting again. We’ve found a way around it. Theatre is starting in London and some outside of London.”
He said it was going to be a slow process but that the focus of help should be spread further than the West End.
“It’s going to be a slow process but we definitely need some financial input from the government to keep it going.
“There’s one big producer who said it was a waste of money giving money outside of London – this was a billionaire producer – the West End needed all the money because that’s where the tourists go and the money is made.
“But it’s the theatres outside of London. Production in Wales is very important. There’s a whole new industry there and it’s important to get support for that.”
He added: “I’m absolutely thrilled to get this [award] tonight. It was a surprise because I completely forgot the ceremony was on.”
Other winners at the 29th awards included His Dark Materials which received three awards, including best actress for Ruth Wilson, In My Skin received two awards, with Director: Fiction going to Lucy Forbes and Writer to past Bafta Breakthrough participant Kayleigh Llewellyn.
You can catch up with the virtual Bafta Cymru 2020 Awards on Bafta’s YouTube channel.
