Edward Fox: ‘I cry all the time. I like crying’

Born in London, Edward Fox, 80, went to Rada. During the 1970s, he starred in The Day Of The Jackal and won Baftas for supporting roles in The Go-Between and A Bridge Too Far. His other movies include Gandhi and The Dresser, and his stage credits include Hamlet and Four Quartets. He stars as John Betjeman in Sand In The Sandwiches, at Theatre Royal Haymarket, from 30 May. He is married to the actor Joanna David and has three children.

When were you happiest?
Aside from family life, which is the ultimate happiness, when I see or hear a great artist.

What is your greatest fear?
Always for other people. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you know that round the corner is the inevitable problem. I don’t mind that for myself. I have lived much too long as it is.

What is your earliest memory?
Officers from American and Canadian forces in my mother’s house in Sussex during the war. They were troops training and massing for Dunkirk.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Lack of awareness of what may be going on within the person I’m with.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Stupidity.

Property aside, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought?
Probably a suit. If you buy a good suit, it lasts beyond your lifetime.

What is your most treasured possession?
My marriage to the most charming, delightful and loving lady.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?
The whole of it.

What would your super power be?
Luckily I know when an audience is held. It comes from long experience and much trying and much failing.

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
All the people, now dead, who have been magical to me. I would bring them all back and say, “Ring in my ears continually until I have to go like you.”

Who would play you in the film of your life?
I don’t want it to be made.

Which book changed your life?
Shakespeare changes one’s life. They say that if you play Hamlet once, you are never the same actor again and it’s perfectly true.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
To be able to play the piano like Artur Schnabel.

What do you owe your parents?
Oh, everything.

If you could edit your past, what would you change?
The years between 13 and 17, which I think are very formative, and the rather arid public school upbringing I had at Harrow.

How often do you have sex?
Never.

When did you last cry, and why?
I cry all the time. I like crying: it means that you’re more truly aware of a circumstance or a person or an event.

What keeps you awake at night?
If you have a nice drink before going to bed, you don’t stay awake at night. I like almost anything in a bottle.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I feel lucky to have been in this business for as long as I have. When I think of the intake that I was with at Rada, only one other person is still an actor, an old fellow called Bill Gaunt.