Storytelling is my tribal function. That is how I belong. Just to be given the grace and fortune to occupy that role in society is an eternal blessing. There is something urgent and exhilarating about telling a story. When the material is right and the audience are there, there’s nothing to compare it with.
This might sound narcissistic, but maybe my greatest role hasn’t happened yet. The hankering is subconscious. I didn’t know how much I needed to play Don Logan in Sexy Beast until he arrived on the page.
The younger generation have so much information at their fingertips. Any door that leads them to me is wonderful. They might click on my role as Mandarin in Iron Man 3, then think, “Oh my goodness. He’s been in lots of other stuff as well.”
I recently had a wonderful birthday party organised by my darling Daniela [Kingsley’s fourth wife]. All my children and grandchildren were present. It was an extraordinarily beautiful occasion. I was delighted to see how easily I communicate with my grandchildren. There is a connection between us that I’m grateful for.
There are no perks of being a sir. One is blessed with a sense of duty to represent and uphold a position, a dignity, a generosity, a profound sense of empathy and charity. I love being with my fellow knights. They are magnificent men, all high achievers, all greatly blessed by life.
When I was four or five we went to see Never Take No for an Answer at the cinema. The central character was a little Italian boy who had been orphaned during World War Two. It left me in floods of tears. Afterwards, we were in the foyer and the cinema manager lifted me up out of the crowd and said: “Look, here’s little Peppino.” I looked identical to the boy on the screen. For a few seconds, the audience thought that I was the star of the film. Something happened to my DNA in that moment.
If I met Shakespeare, I’d be very intimidated. Clearly he was the single greatest intelligence of his age. That age was one of exploration, expansion, curiosity, migration, travel and astonishing intelligence. We look at his plays 400 years later and know that his generosity of intelligence is on the page. His gift to us.
Robert Downey Jr is the most generous actor I’ve worked with. He made my performance in Iron Man look good. I’ve heard said in acting circles that you must win the scene. It was recently said to me on a film set by a director. In my polite manner, I didn’t respond, but my inner voice said, “No. You don’t win the scene. You make the other actors feel good.”
I take a leaf out of my darling wife’s book. She introduced me to a great phrase: “Everything happens for a reason.” Sounds easy, but it’s massive when you contemplate it. I’d like to have heard those words earlier. I only heard them later in life.
If I could go back in time, would I change anything? The honest answer is no. I wouldn’t be where I am now had I changed one single second. This is fate. It’s how the universe unfolds.
Sir Ben Kingsley’s new film, Jules, is out now on digital media
