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I think the observations and feelings and emotions one has in life are fed into the characters you play, the people you try to be on stage, but there has to be a cut off point. We're in rehearsal now, so obviously I take my work home, and I think about it at home. But once we're up and running, once the show is on, there has to be a cut off point. You leave the theatre - you leave that world - and you're back into your other world, which you need to do, otherwise...that way madness lies. If you become Hamlet 24 hours a day, you're in trouble! Sir Derek Jacobi 2000
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You expose yourself so emotionally, you tend to use up a lot of energy, a lot of thought, a lot of time, a lot of spirit. You scatter it in front of an audience. And when it's over, you're exhausted. You're not just exhausted physically. All those other areas of you have been used up, called upon. It's probably like no other profession. I think it's exclusive to performers---anybody who performs and has to give of themselves in all departments. Inevitably, when it stops and you become just yourself and you're with your near ones and dear ones, your family and friends, the way they remain your dear ones is because they realize and understand that there ain't quite so much for you to give, I think. I speak for myself, and can't say that every actor or actress does that. But I think that it's an inevitable, natural consequence of the expense of spirit and emotion in public---that you don't have a full tap. You're not quite as full of all those things, because you have to stock up and do it again, fully, the next day. It can get very exhausting. Performing requires areas of you that you would have reserved for your friends---but you have to keep them for the audience out there in the darkness. Sir Derek Jacobi 1998 |