He is a real star in the UK, one of the most popular actors on the big screen and especially on television. But Jonathan Pryce escapes fame and the pink press. “I’m not a star, I’m an actor,” she always humbly says. An actor with a physique that allows him to play any type of character, from a villain facing 007 also a Holy Father. In addition, he sings, and well, and for this he has made musicals in the cinema and in the theater. In both fields he has excelled, and this started on television. His first role was in 1972, he was an unnamed cop. Today, 50 years later, he’s back in a series, even though he’s now doing it for plays Philip of Edinburgh in the series The crown. A character who played him in previous seasons Matt Smit and Tobias Menzies. Now we will see Pryce in a unique historical moment, after the death, first of Philip and then of Elizabeth II, played by Imelda Staunton. The two actors have known each other since 1988, when they staged a version of it uncle Vanya. Between them there is admiration, respect, friendship and complicity, which is why the shooting went like silk.
Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce as Elizabeth II and Philip of Edinburgh in “The Crown” RTVE
Another wedding, but “real”
From fiction to marriage in real life. In his early 1972 Liverpool he met Kate Fahy and for 43 years they lived ‘happily single’. They had three children, Patrick, Gabriel and Phoebe, and in 2015 they surprised the family by announcing that they were getting married. They didn’t do it before because they didn’t need it, perhaps because they were both married when they met. Of his three children, only the youngest is dedicated to acting. Gabriel is a well-known chef who has been running the Rita restaurant since 2012. The family is a refuge for Jonathan Pryce, a space sheltered from that part of his profession that he likes least and that sometimes annoys him. And this is one of the most loved and celebrated actors in the profession. The audiovisual industry also has esteem and respect for him, and it shows in the roles they offer him and the awards they give him.
Jonathan Pryce and Kate Fahy at the 2020 Oscars in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. GTR
From Tony to Oscar
The rewards you have on your shelf come from film, theater, and television. One of them is the Tony he received for the role of The Engineer in Miss Saigon. Another of the roles that gave him the most joy is that of Francisco I the two popesfilmed with Anthony Hopkins, as it brought him great reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, award he always knew he wouldn’t get because he was competing with Joaquin Phoenix and Joker. But there was more. Movies like Glengarry Glen Ross, Brazil y Carrington, With which he won the award for best actor in Cannes, he placed himself at the top of the cinema, and on television he had equal or greater success. Then he made a more commercial cinema, always leaving his mark and talent in each character. We saw him in the role of Juan Domingo Perón Avoidsinging together with Madonna and Antonio Banderas, as Governor Weatherby Swann in the saga of Pirates of the Caribbean and as the evil Elliot Carver facing James Bond Tomorrow never dies.
Jonathan Pryce published by The Telegraph Magazine RTVE
From Sparrow Supreme to Philip of Edinburgh
His television career has two turning points. One of the characters that made him famous all over the world is High Sparrow Game of Thrones. The scenes in which he punishes Cercei Lannister with the punishment cell and the ‘Way of Penance’ have not left anyone indifferent. “I have to see him as a good person. Whenever someone tells me that he is bad or hates him, I ask them why they think he is bad. The sparrow is among the people who were bad and made them good,” he said.
Now back with a controversial character. Playing Elizabeth II’s husband was a great challenge, since it has many nuances and arouses all kinds of feelings in the audience. But the actor has done a lot of research and now he understands and defends it. “I don’t think he was a racist at all. He was very smart, curious and, at the time, innovative,” he says in an interview with The Telegraph.
Whenever asked, he points out that Philip of Edinburgh has always felt overwhelmed by being part of the monarchy. That’s why he initially wanted to help Diana of Wales. It was he who spoke to her and ‘suggested’ that she did not belong to a normal family and that, therefore, she should not have conveyed details of her private life. The princess was silent. And that silence is what she expected. Much has been said, and much has been hidden, about the relationship between Felipe and Diana, perhaps now The crown clarify some things.
