Q & A with Amara Karan

Known for her roles in The Darjeeling Limited and St. Trinians, Amara Karan takes on Shakespeare’s Bianca in the RSC’s production of The Taming of the Shrew, a tangled play about the politics of sex and relationships.

Amardeep Sohi: You’re currently playing Bianca in the RSC’s Taming of the Shrew who is one of the principal and much sought after characters. What initially attracted you to the role of Bianca?

Amara Karan: I think it was working with the RSC and when I met the director Conall Morrison he seemed to have a very fun and playful vision for the play. I think it’s always a person lead decision for me and the opportunity to do Shakespeare professionally with the RSC was also the other major pull. The company were really fun. So it was sort of a no-brainer really.

How did you prepare for the role?

We had about a month for training for each play and there were all kinds of different things, ranging from talking to people from Relate to talking to people who knew about domestic abuse. I didn’t necessary need to do this to prepare for Bianca but it was offered to us as an opportunity to research the sexual politics issue that Conall had in his vision for the play. There was also a lot of voice and movement work that we did and had to use to prepare for this particular production as it’s a very physical production.

What have you enjoyed most about playing Bianca?

I think having a father like David Hargreaves and a sister like Michelle Gomez (Green Wing) and working with Patrick Moy, Sean Kearns and Peter Shorey and all the cast. I think it’s the thrill of being on stage in a scene and interacting with these people. I think that’s always what makes your job and journey fun and your character only comes out through the interaction with other characters. So it’s actually they who dictate who you are in a way and how you respond.

I saw the play on press night and it did look like a great cast to be working with...

Good, good. I have to say I am absolutely shattered. We’ve got a show tonight and that’s the other thing; it’s such a challenge every night to try and find and recreate the character. You have to go back to basics and say oh god, how do I do this? How do I tackle this all afresh all over again? But it’s delightful, it’s such good training and such a wonderful experience.

How difficult was it to learn the lines?

Not very difficult at all. I think once you start opening that portal and you learn lines, the more lines you learn, the more lines you can learn.

So the fact that it was Shakespeare didn’t make it any more difficult?

The fact that it’s Shakespeare makes it difficult and the challenge is to make it live truthfully here and now and make it very present. I battled and I struggled with that and I’m really glad I’m doing this because I think it’s so rewarding. It’s so much fun when you can get your head around what the predicament is and what the words really mean for you, right here, right now. The trick is to speak so that people right here and right now can understand what you’re saying and you can’t let yourself off the hook with the fact that it’s Elizabethan English. You’ve got to be really hard on yourself and say if people right here, right now can’t understand what I’m saying, it’s not going to be present and they can’t relate to it.

If you could play any of Shakespeare’s other female characters who would it be?

Oh my god, how long have you got? I’ve got a very long list: Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Rosalind, Beatrice, Katherina even, Portia, oh god, give me them all!

What was it that initially drew you to the theatre?

To be honest from school and university you’re doing theatre so you kind of almost have to learn to adapt to film and television. For me that was my starting point from the age of 8 or 9. What drew me to do theatre professionally was the sheer joy, the challenge and the incredible writing. The thing about doing theatre as opposed to film and tv. is that more often then not if you’re doing classical literature, you’re dealing with incredible writing and you’re playing characters who are very very articulate, who think fast and who are very intelligent. Even with Bianca, people choose to play her in different ways but if you look at what she actually says and what her responses are in certain situations – she’s very intelligent. In film and television I suppose you are playing heroic and incredible characters, but in theatre you get the particular peculiar experience of getting to play people who are that articulate and intelligent.

Prior to working with the RSC you played roles in two feature films: The Darjeeling Limited and St. Trinians. How did those roles come about?

Just through the audition process really. I had an agent and she put me through for auditions and I managed to book those roles. I guess I’ve been very lucky that those sorts of roles have come up and been right for me. It’s also as much to do with luck and timing.

You also graduated from Oxford and temporarily worked in the city’s finance industry...

Yes.

So what made you cross over into acting full time?

I think when I was banking, it was the first time in my life when I wasn’t acting recreationally. At school and university I was constantly acting and that was the thing I did outside of the timetable without question and without thinking. Being a banker I was working long hours and not acting recreationally and I just thought well, I now know that this has to be a main thing in my life and will probably have to be the thing in my life.

Did you feel the pressure to have more of a stable profession with a regular salary?

I think all actors feel the pressure. I realised that I was signing up to uncertainty, unemployment, low wages, difficulty tin making a living, probably waiting tables and having to do other jobs to subsidise my income, rejection after rejection, I was scared that that was going to be the deal. You have to use that fear to proactively do something to get over that predicament.

Has there been any particular actor who inspired you to start acting?

Oh gosh, yeah there are a lot of people really. The film Bhaji on the Beach which was written by Meera Syal and directed by Gurinder Chadha really resonated with me when I was about 10. I saw this film and I couldn’t believe it. I thought oh my god there are British Asian actors and actresses that exist and do good work – that’s really unbelievable. I think that was one of the things that made me realise it isn’t absolutely and totally impossible to act if you’re me. I think that was a very inspiring thing.

What advice would you offer to someone who wanted to pursue acting?

My advice would be to train and not necessarily train through drama school. I mean that’s one way of training as an actor. I feel like I’m still training and I will never stop training and learning. Even now I’m going to go and work with a friend this afternoon and then do the show tonight. It’s like being an athlete or a musician, you have to constantly be working and training. I think doing Shakespeare is also a wonderful way to train as an actor because if you can deal with the predicaments and the kind of big issues that these characters have, then you’re in very good stead to take on other things. Also if you’re able to take on the language, you’re able to then enter different worlds in other parts of writing and literature. It’s a stretch.

Absolutely and it’s a huge achievement to be doing Shakespeare for your professional stage debut.

Yes, thank you.

So what’s next for you?

I don’t know. I’m trying not to think about it – I’m just trying to enjoy this run really. I’m trying to enjoy today.

So you haven’t got any projects in the pipeline for the near future?

There are some things but I will refrain from commenting.

And finally, if you could work with any actor within the industry who would it be?

Rory Kinnear. He’s really remarkable. He has an incredible ability to make a writer’s words his own words. He has an incredible ability to really take the most complex and obscure bits of classical writing and make them feel like someone’s speaking them afresh now. I’m a massive fan of his work. He seems to have an infinite amount of humanity.

Amara will be appearing in The Taming of the Shrew until 7th March at the Novello Theatre. For tickets and more information go to: www.rsc.org.uk