ShortList Magazine
Joe Ellison
Issue 199
27 Oct 2011
Five leading men discuss tackling the greatest role ever penned.
Ahead of Michael Sheen’s performance as the prince onstage, Joe Ellison finds out why, for actors, it remains the most daunting of roles.
Life has given us many weighty questions to mull over. Alongside “Why are we here?”, “What happens after we die?” and “Why were there only two series of Fawlty Towers?” comes the conundrum posed by William Shakespeare — “To be, or not to be?”
The existential dilemma — essentially, should you live actively, or passively — is at the heart of the bard’s greatest ever play, Hamlet — the titular role of which is widely seen as the toughest ever written. With Michael Sheen about to take it on at London’s Young Vic, ShortList spoke to some of the biggest stars who’ve undergone their trade’s stiffest challenge in attempting to bring the prince to life…
With thanks to theHuntgoeson at The Railway Arms.
John Simm Society Blog 
I wonder if Sir Ian McKellen was thinking, he was staring at the master (and Sam Tyler)…..(for me, it would be Magneto too….together with good old Gandalf the white)