Macbeth

‘The role that I came away from with the most muscle was the one that I failed in: Macbeth. It’s probably the most terrible role ever written, terrible in the literal sense of terrifying and enormous. This is a role that makes as many requirements on you as anything could. I played it at Lincoln Center for ten weeks [in 1974], eight shows a week, and I did not succeed at all. Ten weeks’ work, and we never even got reviewed, except by one (…) But I never regretted doing it for a minute, because I came away from the production with this tremendous insight about myself and about acting that I could not possibly have gotten anywhere else. It was taking on that monster and being trounced by it, but still learning something. That’s what actors mean when they talk about stretching.’ – Christopher Walken