LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Tom Wilkinson: Role
built 606 days ago
Shortly after graduation, Wilkinson was hired by Richard Eyre, head of the Nottingham Playhouse, and performed in a variety of plays, from Brecht to Shakespeare. After sojourns to theaters in Oxford, Birmingham and Edinburgh, Wilkinson joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and was singled out for his supporting work in a 1981 production of "Hamlet.†Strong notices for his starring turn as poet T.S. Eliot in the 1983 biographical drama "Tom and Viv" at the Royal Court Theatre led to a role opposite Vanessa Redgrave in "Weatherby" (1985). Back on stage, he appeared in an acclaimed revival of Ibsen's "Ghosts" in 1986, but decided to vacation in Bali following the production, leading to 18 months of no work. Wilkinson ultimately chose to eschew the theater to concentrate on film and found himself perfectly cast as a butcher's son from Leeds with aspirations to the office of prime minister in "First Among Equals" (1987), an adaptation of Jeffrey Archer's politically-themed novel.
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At first glance, Wilkinson's face seems almost entirely unremarkable, pleasant, placid. But as he begins shifting his rangy 6-foot-1 frame, a feral intelligence sneaks out. His brain has bite. This is particularly apparent in "Michael Clayton," as his role required lots of baring -- both of his bottom when his character begins disrobing at a legal deposition -- and more importantly of his soul.
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Since leaving the RSC, Wilkinson had concentrated mostly on screen work. He had, though... kept up his theatrical reputation with a short string of hits. In 1984, he'd originated the role of TS Eliot in Tom And Viv at the Royal Court, with Julie Covington as his disturbed, frustrated and ill-treated first wife. The production would transfer to New York the next year, without Tom, and he'd miss out on the 1994 screen version, too, his place being taken by Willem Dafoe. 1986 would see another hit in Ghosts, directed by David Thacker at the Young Vic, then moving on to Wyndham's. Here Wilkinson's recent co-star Vanessa Redgrave would play Mrs Alving, with Wilkinson as Pastor Manders.
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In 2001, Wilkinson was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the grieving father in In the Bedroom. He went on to play "Dr. Chasuble" in The Importance of Being Ernest, and was nominated for a Golden Globe award for his role in Normal in 2004. He had starring roles in Girl With a Pearl Earring, If Only, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and A Way Through the Woods.
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Wilkinson didn't study bipolar lawyers to prepare. He adopted his usual mantra of playing the role entirely from his character's point of view: "You have the way it's written which compels you in a certain direction," he explains. "It's somebody whose brain is keeling. . . . It's taken over their life. They have to explain it to people, like the Ancient Mariner," Wilkinson says, referring to Coleridge's famed protagonist, doomed to wander the Earth and tell his story.
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