Facebook Twitter Instagram
    • Services
    • Aircheck for Actors
    • Demo Reels
    • Audition Prep/Self-Tape Reader
    • Mailing Labels
    • Contribute
    • Industry Links
    • Advertise
    Daily Actor
    Daily Actor YouTube Page Daily Actor FacebookDaily Actor Twitter Daily Actor Instagram Daily Actor Pinterest
    • Acting Tips
      • Actors on Acting
      • Advice Columns
      • Acting Quotes
      • Audition Tapes
      • How To Become An Actor
      • How to Memorize Lines
    • Monologues
      • Monologues from Plays
      • Monologues from Movies
      • Monologues from Musicals
      • Comedic Monologues
      • Dramatic Monologues
      • One Minute Monologues
      • Monologues for Women
      • Monologues for Men
      • Monologues for Teens
      • Monologues for Kids
      • All Monologues
    • Acting Resources
      • Acting Resume
        • Acting Resume Templates
      • Acting Classes
        • Los Angeles Acting Classes
        • Las Vegas Acting Classes
        • San Diego Acting Classes
      • Acting Schools and Colleges
        • Los Angeles
        • New York
        • BFA Acting Schools
      • Casting Websites
      • Headshot Photographers
        • Los Angeles
        • New York City
        • Headshot Printing
      • Acting Techniques
        • What is Method Acting?
      • Stage Directions
      • Demo Reels: Everything You Need to Know
    • Interviews
      Featured

      Interview: Donna Benedicto: “Not every character needs to fit into a box”

      Recent

      Interview: Donna Benedicto: “Not every character needs to fit into a box”

      May 1, 2023
      Jesmille-Darbouze-A-Dolls-House-Broadway-Interview

      Interview: Jesmille Darbouze on Her Role in ‘A Doll’s House’ on Broadway, Working Without Props and Why She Almost Stopped Acting

      April 27, 2023

      Interview: Lilah Fitzgerald Talks “Dream Come True” Roles in ‘Monster High’ and ‘Lucky Hank’

      April 13, 2023
    • Actor Blogs
    • Reviews
      • Movies
      • Theater
      • Books
      • Products
    • Actor Services
      • Airchecks
      • Demo Reels
      • Website Design
      • Mailing Labels
    Daily Actor
    Home » Actor Tips » Ben Kingsley on Playing a War Criminal in ‘Operation Finale’ and How He Leaves His Character On-Set
    Actor Tips

    Ben Kingsley on Playing a War Criminal in ‘Operation Finale’ and How He Leaves His Character On-Set

    Chris McKittrickBy Chris McKittrickSeptember 7, 2018Updated:July 6, 2020No Comments3 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

    Actor Ben Kingsley

    “He never got close to me, he never got near me, he never infected me.” – Sir Ben Kingsley on Playing the Evil Adolf Eichmann

    Sir Ben Kingsley won an Oscar for playing one of the most revered leaders of the twentieth century, Mahatma Gandhi, and in Operation Finale he portrays one of the most despised leaders of the twentieth century, Adolf Eichmann, one of the masterminds behind the Holocaust. The film depicts the hunt for Eichmann in the late 1950s after he had fled to Argentina. In an interview with NPR, Kingsley speaks about why he didn’t get too close to Eichmann’s mindset while portraying him.

    So how did Kingsley get into the head of one of one of the most vicious war criminals that has ever lived? Actually, Kingsley has a surprising answer. He says, “I didn’t — that was the secret. Let’s imagine I’m a portrait artist. This man was in my studio, I had him in one corner, I had my canvas in front of me, and I put him directly onto the canvas. I was not a conduit for him. His ideology was not the guiding force for my performance. The guiding force for my performance was the victims, and his silhouette was molded by their accusation, by their memory, by their reverberating grief — but nothing from that man ever touched me or entered me. I simply transferred his image onto canvas, by that I mean film. He never got close to me, he never got near me, he never infected me.”

    One of the reasons why Kingsley preferred to keep his distance from the real-life Eichmann is because of the horrible things Eichmann did. He explains, “The tragedy is that these men and women were part of a national movement that mobilized their military, their ideology, their culture, their language, their engineering, to annihilate as many of Europe’s Jews as they could. But these people — however difficult it might be for us to swallow — were human beings. To play them as a two-dimensional comic strip villain or a run-of-the-mill-“baddie” would be to do a terrible disservice to history and the memory of those that they murdered. For the years of extermination between 1933 and 1945, it was men and women who did this. It was not my duty to humanize anything because tragically, it’s already human.”

    Then, when the project is finished, Kingsley is able to put the character away. He reveals, “I put down my brushes, I wipe the paint off my hands, I cover my portrait, and I leave my studio. The hard part is that now I’m having to talk about [the film] and it is important that I talk about it. But I can’t give [Eichmann] away to the camera, I can’t give him away to the canvas, and I find talking about it quite difficult. So I’m not done with it. I would rather I was, but I’m not. Somehow the brushes are put back into my hands and I don’t quite know what to do with them. So I’m talking about something that I hope I let go of forever.”

    Related

    Previous ArticleChris Messina on ‘Sharp Objects’ and Why He Wants Roles That “Scare” Him
    Next Article Why Does John Cho Think He’s “Just Now… Learning to Act”

    Related Posts

    Florence Pugh Zach Braff Audition Advice

    Zach Braff Shares Audition Advice He Learned from Florence Pugh: “Have that stuff memorized”

    May 26, 2023
    adam scott in party down

    Adam Scott on Playing the “Audience Surrogate”: “There is a bit of neutrality that you have to figure out”

    May 24, 2023
    sally field lee strasberg

    Sally Field on Working with Lee Strasberg: “He was one of the best acting teachers”

    May 22, 2023
    Add A Comment

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Popular Pages
    Become An Actor | Acting Tips | Acting Quotes
    Acting Resume | Resume Template
    Headshot Photographers
    Los Angeles | New York
    Print Your Headshots
    Acting Schools & Colleges
    Los Angeles | New York
    Monologues
    Movies | Plays | Comedic | Dramatic
    Men | Women | Teens | Kids
    • Contact
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Resource Listings
    • Write A Column
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy

    Disclaimer: Daily Actor at times uses affiliate links to sites like Amazon.com, streaming services, and others. Affiliate links provides compensation to Daily Actor which helps us remain online, giving you the resources and information actors like you are looking for.

    © 2023 Daily Actor

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.