So, what’s the secret of keeping Poirot “fresh”?
When I did [the stage production of] Amadeus, and I was doing something like the 300th performance on a Thursday matinee, I would make myself believe there was one person in the audience who had never been to the theatre before. So when I’m on set I pretend there’s one person who has never seen Poirot before. I act in the moment and pretend it’s the first time I’ve ever done it. I look at early Poirots and I look a lot younger.
You are naturally slim, you must have to wear a lot of padding for Poirot.
It’s a mixture. I’m usually a stone thinner than I am now, I put on a stone for playing and then I wear padding on top of that. Afterwards I lose the weight by going to the gym, it gets harder as one gets older.
Christie was quite clear about how Poirot should look, wasn’t she?
Yes, He is short and portly. Christie describes him as an inverted pear with a 47-inch waist. He is proud of his well-rounded tummy - I don’t want to have that sized waist - and he carries his head to the left.
But it’s deeper than that, isn’t it?
Yes, I don’t have to think about how to “do him” any more. I can act Poirot. But I always have to remind myself how he will react to people. It’s an important difference because he will listen to someone and not hear what they are saying. He will pierce them with his eyes to find out what they are really saying, not what they want him to hear.
Filming Poirot abroad in summer must be a nightmare.
It’s hot sometimes and it becomes very, very hard to play him. It’s not painful to wear [the padding], but boy does it get hot.
Poirot is a walking brain. Does he ever have sexual feelings?
We do know his one regret is that he has never been married. He says: “The greatest gift from God is the gift of marriage.” He has a romantic liaison with a countess who wants marriage and children, but he doesn’t want that.
