Steve Pratt caught up with actor Ewan Wardrop who will be playing Roger Thornhill in our upcoming production of North by Northwest.
Hats. Lots of hats. Emma Rice’s adaptation of the classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller North by Northwest features a plethora of hats worn by the six shape-shifting performers as they change identity. Ewan Wardrop – who assumes the Cary Grant role of reluctant hero Roger Thornhill – is used to wearing many different hats in his professional life as an actor, dancer and multi-instrumentalist.
He started out as a ballet dancer and at 21 found himself appearing on Broadway for six months as one of the swans in Matthew Bourne’s all-male reworking of Swan Lake. He played both The Swan and the Prince during the run.
“It was incredible, although I think I was too young to appreciate it. I was living in Greenwich Village and walking up Broadway to work,” he recalls.
A procession of American celebrities – he mentions Barbra Streisand as a ‘for instance’ – found their way into the dressing rooms post-show. Now he’s following in the cinematic footsteps of another Hollywood icon Cary Grant, the screen lead in North by Northwest.
Ewan has worked with Emma Rice before. His roles for her have included Bottom in A Midsummer Nights Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe in London and most recently in her production of The Buddha of Suburbia for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He’s confident that, with her history of adapting films, she’ll put her stamp on the material.
“One of her big strengths is knowing how people operate and pressing the right button,” he says, adding “she knows me better than I do sometimes.”
He didn’t worry about seeing Grant in the movie before rehearsals began. “Some actors don’t want to see someone else playing the part because they worry they’ll be influenced by the other person. I’m not like that.” says Ewan.
“He’s a reluctant hero in a classic Hitchcock situation. He’s an advertising executive who leads quite a shallow existence. He’s a bit of a lady’s man going through life in a charmed way.
Things sort of just happen to him. He’s confused and gradually works out what’s going on. He falls into this whole world of espionage and politics and becomes this James Bond type of character.
I always try to bring as much of myself to the part as possible. Cary Grant had this huge charisma, but you can bring things of yourself to a role.”
A Hitchcock thriller is a world away from ballet where Ewan began performing as a child. There was a well-regarded ballet school in the area of Devon where his family lived. He accompanied his sister to her ballet classes and “became quite good at it.”
Dancing in Swan Lake and as a principal dancer with Bourne’s company around the world, in the West End and on Broadway led to a move to broaden his talents into acting and physical theatre as well as becoming a multi-instrumentalist.
One of his instruments is the ukulele. A fellow actor heard him playing in the dressing room while in a West End show and that led to a show at the Edinburgh Fringe, followed by a tour in which he played the legendary ukulele maestro George Formby.
As for the future, he admits he’s not ‘terribly ambitious’ explaining, “I don’t look towards movies or that sort of thing. I like working with people I like, doing good, interesting work. As long as that keeps coming, I’m happy.”
North by Northwest is at York Theatre Royal from 18 March to 05 April.
Find out more information and book your tickets here.
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