A Pint With Pete Postlethwaite
He romanced Hollywood, was lauded as the "best actor on the planet" by Steven Spielberg and has been sorely missed since his death. Me? I remember him as a humble man that enjoyed a pint.
“I’m not hard to interview, am I?” smiles Pete Postlethwaite as he polishes off his second pint and his umpteenth anecdote.
The Oscar-nominated actor is sat at the bar of the Australian Hotel, Sydney. By far the most wonderful pub in the Rocks, the district located beneath the south side of the Harbour Bridge, The Australian isn’t short on character. And nor for that matter is Mr Postlethwaite. In town performing the award-winning one-man play Scarmouche Jones, you could forgive the star of In The Name Of The Father, Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Usual Suspects for carrying on like the great ac-tor. To see him in The Australian - chatting to the attractive barmaid and ordering another brew from an English backpacker; “You’re a long way from home, lad. Did you get lost?” - this is clearly a man with no affectation.
He’s not that keen on being interviewed, mind. As keen to ask the locals about the history of the hotel as he is to discuss the play, Pete Postlethwaite seems more content to chat than examine his craft. This being only his second trip Down Under, he’s wonderfully excited about being abroad. “I woke up the other day and there it was, outside my hotel window - Sydney Opera House. I know it’s a cliché but I had to pinch myself. I’ve spent my life dreaming of coming here, and now I’ve arrived I can hardly believe it.”
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