{"id":505959,"date":"2026-02-28T20:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505959\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T20:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:43:11","slug":"richard-eyre-my-biggest-disappointment-at-university-in-the-60s-i-thought-social-justice-was-going-to-improve-life-and-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505959\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Eyre: \u2018My biggest disappointment? At university in the 60s, I thought social justice was going to improve\u2019 | Life and style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born in Devon, Richard Eyre<\/a>, 82, was educated at the University of Cambridge and became an actor. Between 1987 and 1999 he was artistic director of the National Theatre. His notable films include Iris, Notes on a Scandal and The Dresser; he is currently shooting The Housekeeper and is directing Strindberg\u2019s Dance of Death at Richmond\u2019s Orange Tree theatre until 7 March. He is married with a\u00a0daughter and lives in London.<\/p>\n

When were you happiest?
In the 80s.<\/p>\n

What is your greatest fear?
Failure.<\/p>\n

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impatience.<\/p>\n

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Intolerance.<\/p>\n

What was your most embarrassing moment?
When I was doing a masterclass at a\u00a0theatre and I had to leave the stage because I was about to shit my pants.<\/p>\n

Describe yourself in three words
Curious, energetic, droll.<\/p>\n

What makes you unhappy?
My wife\u2019s illness. She has Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I imagine myself to be in my mid-40s and I see this old man who looks dangerously like my father.<\/p>\n

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

What is your most unappealing habit?
Swearing.<\/p>\n

Who would play you in the film of your life?
Somebody is playing me in a film about Ian Charleson \u2013 Johnny Flynn, in my view too young and good-looking.<\/p>\n

Who is your celebrity crush?
Matisse.<\/p>\n

What is the worst thing anyone\u2019s ever said to you?
Edward Bond, the playwright, said I\u00a0was like a turd flowing on the effluent of British culture.<\/p>\n

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Reading thrillers.<\/p>\n

To whom would you most like to say sorry and why?
To my father, who was aggressively indifferent to what I was doing. He did say sorry to me when he was dying and I don\u2019t think I was very gracious.<\/p>\n

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My wife, Sue Birtwistle, who was a\u00a0wonderful producer and is still with us but in a very diminished form.<\/p>\n

What does love feel like?
Warmth and confidence.<\/p>\n

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
You can\u2019t print them.<\/p>\n

What has been your biggest disappointment?
At university in the 60s, I thought social justice was going to improve exponentially. How wrong I was.<\/p>\n

When did you last cry, and why?
In despair, because of my wife\u2019s illness.<\/p>\n

What has been your closest brush\u00a0with the law?
We were living in Stockwell during the Brixton riots and a gang raped the girl who lived next door. I spent a lot of time giving evidence at the Old Bailey.<\/p>\n

What keeps you awake at night?
Anxiety.<\/p>\n

How would you like to be remembered?
Isn\u2019t it enough just to be remembered?<\/p>\n

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Endurance.<\/p>\n

What happens when we die?
The rest is silence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Born in Devon, Richard Eyre, 82, was educated at the University of Cambridge and became an actor. Between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-505959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}