Jude Law guilty of 'skulduggery' over his dig at David Tennant's Hamlet
Jude Law may have the wrong end of the stick. Photo: Getty Images
Wednesday October 07 2009
Jude Law has evoked the ire of the Royal Shakespeare Company by suggesting that David Tennant, when he played the title role in its production of Hamlet last year, had been "upstaged" by the skull he holds as he makes the "Alas, poor Yorick" soliloquy.
Law, who staked his claim to delivering the definitive portayal of the Dane in Michael Grandage's production of Hamlet when it opened on Broadway last night, made the allegation on Jimmy Fallon's chat show on American television.
"There was another production recently of Hamlet in London and the skull they used belonged to a guy who had been in the theatre and he had bequeathed it after he died to be used in the production," Law said. "There was a lot of press about it and the guy who was playing Hamlet got a bit fed up with the way the skull was upstaging him, so he changed the skull." The RSC said yesterday that it had never actually replaced its skull, which had belonged to a Polish musician named André Tchaikowsky, who had bequeathed it to the company in 1982. The idea had only been considered at one point by the director, Greg Doran, because he felt that there was a danger it might have become a distraction to audiences.
Law might have got the wrong end of the stick, but one must give him credit for at least turning up for his opening night. The former Doctor Who star was, by contrast, indisposed the night his Hamlet opened in London.
Michael Grandage, Law's director, tells me that the chemistry between his star and the skull his company is using means they would never dream of replacing it. Their skull was acquired from an anatomical parts supplier in Salt Lake City and dates from 1800.
- Tim Walker
© Telegraph.co.uk
