Hail Plummer

When interviewing Christopher Plummer, there is always an elephant in the room a singing elephant, to be exact. You dont want to mention it; you know that hes referred to it disparagingly in the past as "The Sound of Mucus" and "S&M." But readers are curious. After all, despite a vast and varied resume onstage and in film, Plummers most beloved role remains Capt. von Trapp in the treacly 1965 movie of The Sound of Music.

" When you get to my exalted age, you have to work. The more you work, the younger you appear to be, I think, and the younger you feel."Christopher Plummer

Midway through our recent talk at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, I broached the subject. No sooner is the title out of my mouth, than Plummer quickly nods, ready to set the record straight. Whatever he may have said about the picture itself, he has fond recollections of the people involved with it.

"I made a great lifelong friendship with Julie [Andrews], whom I adore," he says. "And I loved the director, [the late] Robert Wise; I spoke at his memorial in Los Angeles. I have terrific memories of making it." But he doesnt think much of Andrew Lloyd Webbers forthcoming revival of the musical in Toronto, or the way its star was chosen via the CBC-TV series How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? "At one point, Julie and I were approached to do the reality show,"Plummer says, laughing incredulously. "No, thank you!"

Plummer discusses the film, along with many other highlights in his remarkable 60-year career, in his memoir, In Spite of Myself, to be published in Canada this fall. Its a career that is still in full swing. At 78, the great Canadian actor is headlining at Stratford once again, in an eagerly awaited production of George Bernard Shaws Caesar and Cleopatra that began previews Aug. 7. He came straight to the festival from Berlin, where he was shooting The Last Station, a film about Tolstoy, with Helen Mirren and Atonements James McAvoy. Before that, he wrapped up his title performance in Terry Gilliams forthcoming fantasy, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, co-starring with the late Heath Ledger.

Thats typical of Plummers whirlwind schedule in recent years, which has seen him appear in a succession of high-profile films while still taking on major stage roles like the Clarence Darrow figure in last years Broadway revival of Inherit the Wind, which garnered him rave notices and a Tony nomination.

"I havent stopped working for the last six years," Plummer admits. "Its been bang-bang-bang, one thing after another." The heavy workload is entirely intentional. "You know, when you get to my exalted age, you have to work," he says with a smile. "The more you work, the younger you appear to be, I think, and the younger you feel."

Plummer does look youthful for a man near the end of his eighth decade. His grey hair is thinning, but his eyes are still a penetrating blue, and he retains that patrician elegance that has served him well in roles ranging from the Duke of Wellington to King Lear. Dapper even in his rehearsal togs a black tracksuit topped with a black blazer he leans back in his chair and toys with a pair of yellow wrap-around shades. It strikes you that he has the perfect air of regal amusement to play Shaws Julius Caesar a part Plummer coveted in vain for years.

"I could never get a director to be interested in this play," he reveals. That is, until Des McAnuff, an old friend and Stratfords new artistic director, agreed to stage it. "Its a tremendous directors piece, as Des is proving." Its also a rare opportunity for Plummer to do a Shaw work. "I think I have an ear for his rhythms," he says, "and I particularly like Caesar because the play not only is funny, but has a great deal of romance and an attempt at historical accuracy. Its bigger than most of his other plays. Someone once said that it was the closest thing he got to a Shakespearean play in size."

But Shaws portrayal of the Roman general is very different from Shakespeares. "Julius Caesar in Shakespeares play is merely a figurehead," Plummer says. "Shaws Caesar is huge in comparison and terribly funny, very witty. And then there are moments of great loneliness that happen to Caesar; you realize what a lonely person he must have been, because there were very few people in the world who could match him. He was so far ahead of the game and of the society surrounding him."

Shaws comedy focuses on the aging Caesars visit to Egypt, where he takes the teenage Cleopatra under his wing and teaches her to be a queen. Plummer points out its similarity to Shaws later, better-known Pygmalion the source for the musical My Fair Lady. Caesar and Cleopatra here are mentor and protge with a hint of an underlying May-December romance.

"Theres that hidden tease that Shaw is always giving us, that suggestion of a sexual relationship," Plummer says, "which, of course, they really had: he fathered her child. But its merely suggested in the play subtly suggested."

Playing Cleo to Plummers Caesar is Nikki M. James, a protge of director McAnuffs and also the star of his Romeo and Juliet. "She has such fire and energy and shes absolutely delightful," Plummer says of the 27-year-old actress. "Never has there been a Cleopatra, in my memory, that suggested 16. She looks 16. So theres an added sense of Caesar as a father-like tutor."

Plummer says hes back at Stratford in his first starring role there since 2002s King Lear partly to do this play, partly to throw his support behind McAnuffs first season as artistic head. "Hes probably the hottest director at the moment in the theatre, anywhere," Plummer asserts. "Its wonderful that hes here." Plummer jokes that hes even pushing McAnuff to cast him in Guys and Dolls, the directors next Broadway musical. "I keep auditioning for him all the time, just to tease him. I come in singing [he switches to the gravelly New York accent of Guys and Dolls Nathan Detroit] Serve a paper and sue me, sue me"

Plummers challenge would be to shoehorn another stage role into a calendar already overflowing with film work. He says hes pleased with the kinds of films hes being offered these days movies like Syriana, Emotional Arithmetic and Closing the Ring. "I havent always liked the films Ive done," he says. "They have been a [financial] necessity, as they often are in most actors lives."

He enjoyed playing a Faust-like magician in Dr. Parnassus, his first film with the visionary Terry Gilliam, which he describes as "a wonderful, fantastical piece of imagination." It was, of course, also an experience marred by tragedy. The movies fate was temporarily on hold after co-star Ledger died of an overdose midway through shooting. "It was a tragic loss," Plummer says of the young Australian actor. "He was growing and growing in power. He was a very talented boy with everything to live for." Gilliam was able to salvage the project when three other actors agreed to fill in for Ledger. "Luckily, for the films sake, its magical," Plummer says. "So Heath turns into Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. The picture will have a curiosity value, just as indeed [The Dark Knight] did."

As we talk movies, I have to tell Plummer that, in my household, the favourite Christopher Plummer film wasnt The Sound of Music, but 1970s Waterloo. My oldest son, as a little boy, watched the video of that battlefield epic over and over, and took to swaggering about the house, imitating Plummers supremely cool Wellington. When he hears that, Plummer erupts with a rich laugh.

"We made that in Russia and it was such a horrible shoot," he confides. The director, Sergei Bondarchuk, had just come off the six-year filming of his mammoth War and Peace and brought along his overworked technical team from that picture. "All the special effects guys were so tired," Plummer recalls. "They went berserk in Waterloo; they shot off explosions under my horse by mistake. The horse bolted and we ended up somewhere in Czechoslovakia! Ive written all about it in my book."

Plummer says his memoir has been in the works for some time only because his acting gigs have kept him from writing it for long stretches. "Ive tried to make it as amusing and as light as I possibly could," he says modestly. "I hope people will enjoy it." If its even half as colourful as his life, it should be quite the read.

Caesar and Cleopatra runs Aug. 7 to Nov. 9 at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ont. In Spite of Myself will be published by Knopf Canada in October.

Martin Morrow writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.