Shakespeare Actor Hits Back At Film Critics

The actor who plays William Shakespeare in controversial new film Anonymous has hit back at critics, telling Sky News it will reignite interest in the Bard.



Roland Emmerich’s film looks at the conspiracy theory that it was Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, who wrote the plays not Shakespeare.

As the film premieres at the London Film Festival, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has removed the Bard’s name from signs in Warwickshire and covered a memorial in his home town of Stratford Upon Avon in protest.

But Rafe Spall (picture above), who plays Shakespeare in the film, told Sky News it will raise awareness of his plays.

He said: “One of the positive things that will come from the film is that it will create a discussion which will then lead people who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in the canon of work to go and watch the plays.

“People have accused us of knocking Shakespeare off his pedestal, but if you ask me, we are raising the pedestal because we are drawing attention to the works and we are putting them in a social and political context of the time.”

Spall explained that socially it would not have been right for the Earl of Oxford to put his name to the work.

“At the time, our film suggests, being a playwright was a very low profession. Someone of his social standing wouldn’t have been able to come out as a playwright.”

In the film, Shakespeare is depicted as an illiterate actor who is more than happy to take the credit for somebody else’s hard work.

This is something which has particularly angered Shakespeare scholars.

Professor Stanley Well, honorary president of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, told Sky News the character is a “grotesque caricature” of William Shakespeare.

“It is a totally preposterous story,” he said, “I have investigated all the evidence… there is no question whatever in my mind that William Shakespeare was the author of the great plays and poems which we know as his.”

He described the film as a “piece of propaganda on behalf of the anti-Shakespearians”.

Professor Wells pointed out that the Earl of Oxford died in 1604 and the plays went on appearing until 1613.

Spall, who is the son of Brit actor Timothy, is known for starring in Channel 4′s Pete Versus Life. He also played opposite Anne Hathaway in One Day.

Anonymous also stars Rhys Ifans as the Earl of Oxford as well as Joely Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave. It opens in cinemas on October 28.