Ben Kingsley on pomposity and pretentiousness

[IrritantSlack]

Actors like Sir Ben, Daniel Day Lewis, Meryl Streep really make you appreciate acting as an art form.

[woollett182]

well if ben kingsley is pompous (which he ain't) but if he was then that shows how awesome he is. to go from pompous to acting a swearing nut case like don logan.

[myopium]

I don't think there is anything remotely pretentious or pompous about his attitude here; quite insightful, if anything.

[ExtremeBogom]

Even if he was, Ben has my permission to be as pretentious and pompous as he damn well pleases. He is a fantastic actor after all.

It is my belief that those traits, along with arrogance, smugness and other such "undesirable" traits are closely intertwined with self assured self confidence. If not, they're two in the same.

If you diminish some of those traits, others will flail also.

Non actors can't understand it, so actors try to enlighten...and are accused all over again. Cycle continues.

[DanTheUltimate]

@ExtremeBogom Well said, dear chap, I find it rather bewildering.

[aiu7125]

I like his comments, interesting.

[anton1990]

For gods sake, he's an actor! Many of us talk that way! Wanna see somone pretentious? Watch Lady Gaga!!!

[Drac39]

Being pretentious is the worst thing an actor can be and unfortunately it is a trait many actors have

[90mv]

Using big words is being pretentious ? seems to be the complaint here

[chichiboypumpi]

he will be a smashingly superb professor charles xavier, mr freeze, ming the merciless etc etc etc

just like my other favorite english actor Gary Oldman Sir Ben Kingsley can do any role with eyes closed AMen!

[stumpybeats]

i donm't find him at all pompous or pretentious

[chazphenom]

idk. he doesn't really seem too pretentious to me.

[bodieofci5]

You calling Don Logan pretentious? Fuck off you stupid c**t :)

[Rebelconformist82]

@bodieofci5 " you gonna take that?" "you let that cunt talk to you like that?" " its alrite mate"

[wojack1000]

Pretentious and pompous, I don't really know what that means. For me it's just a negative description of someone you don't understand. A person is what they are, and I guess if you put your ideas of how a person should act onto someone else, then to you they might seem pretentious, but to them they are being themselves.

[cweeks3665]

I don't see what the problem is here. He seems to be very secure and confident within himself, but not pretentious and pompous.Ii don't get that at all from this interview. he's a fine actor and that's that

[oldskoolmacboy]

great question

[WillShakespeare2007]

@marleymike2 I totally agree with you and those of us that are interested about an actor as brilliant as Sir Ben Kingsley wish to hear him explain his technique. I was lucking enough to have dinner with him a year ago and he is an incredibly funny and down to earth guy - oh and he paid for the meal and cab and did not have one flunky with him. I have met him several times and he has always been fantastic company is not at all full of himself. Unlike most TV stars that have worked for me.

[steffyweffy777]

@WillShakespeare2007 I agree. He's a top guy and am working in a film with him right now, and all I hear is great things and how nice he is. I think people who have spread rumours about him are very out of order. I totally agree how in order to be the best actor, you need empathy and a generous kind soul. In anycase, the rumours were regarding him insisting on people calling by his new title of 'Sir Ben Kingsley'.

[WillShakespeare2007]

@steffyweffy777 Well if you see him send him and Daniella (his wife) my best wishes. Robert from the British Shakespeare Company.

[beanough]

You pompous motherfucker :)

[DepressiveTroll]

@HipsterKiller obvious troll is so obvious xD

[leemeires]

iv just watch sexy beast now listoning to ben with hes stright english accent seems weird ......i befar the cockeny accent lol .......

[topbluffa1]

lol yeh.

keep it common.



[leemeires]

@topbluffa1 lol you no that

[synchc]

the only reason the english shit on their crown jewells is because we are all so fucking depressed by the industrial, social and political shit hole that weve turned our country into that weve stopped paying attention to what made it Great in the first place.

this man is one of the best screen actors in the world. he just delivered an eloquent and erudite answer to something tom cruise wouldve stormed off at and demanded the sacking of all involved.

have a little fucking respect.

[R1cku1n0x]

@synchc I cant stand brits who say we are going to the dogs. Britain is still great. Just in a different way. We are one of the best game developing countries. We have great scientific minds out in the world. Many regard us as a bastion of rationality. We are good software developers. We are just changing as all things do. It may not be the coal mining country you seem to hark after. But we are a great nation, with many things to be proud of. "Britains gone to the dogs" Shut the fuck up...

[synchc]

@R1cku1n0x take that the future is orange bullshit and ram it up your arse til it bleeds. anyone who ever had any love for england doesnt lke where we are at or where we are going.

it wasnt software or coal that made the english the english, it was the english and the english got sold out a long time ago. bad news is better than delusional bullshit.

[R1cku1n0x]

@synchc What do you mean by the engish? The Angles? That germanic tribe? Or do you infact mean the post norman conquest english where we adopted norman architechture and language? One thing that has remained constant, not only in england but throughout the world is that things change. There was never a period at which our nationalism has been clearly ethnicly defined. You are speaking for yourslef and you small mnded ignorant kind. I am english, my family is mentioned in the domesday book.

[synchc]

@R1cku1n0x why on earth are you suddenly bringing ethnicity into it? oh right, i see. so you could drop the fact that your family can trace its roots back 1000 years.

youre an idiot and im done talking to you.

[R1cku1n0x]

@synchc You mentioned englishness. I asked you to define what it is to be english. This is an issue of national identity is it not? English is a mongrel nation, always has been, long before my family arrived on these shores. That was my point. England has always been this way and English Industry has always changed.

[Debtwarrior]

I mean whats so bad is like as a secretary or receptionist, you are cursed with only being able to convey what's needed with the force of one's personality, I mean if I were in IT or perhaps a photocopy engineer people would say 'oh look a computer' or whatever, but because all I seemingly do is smile and the type a bit, it looks like its just me, but what I'm really talking about is a range of social and emotional techniques that I have to internalised to make it authentic

[bobbyfozz]

He's just being honest and some can't tell the difference.

[zenmoon3]

Answered with dignity, intelligence and grace by an extremely talented artist. I love the way he doesn't try to dumb himself down to suit the mob.

[funkmystar]

No no fucking no norris no fucking way I can't have that that's a liberty liberty statue of fucking liberty that's a French invention in it bunch of cunts ship it over on a fucking boat thousands of years ago il fucking send it back with a bomb on it you fucking cunts,

Yours sincerely Don.

@FBI only pretending I was getting into character !

[norristerse]

"pompous? fuckin' pompous? no fuckin way no fuckin way no fuckin way- you dr white honking spunk bubble i'll put you in the fuckin' ground in a minute..."

[Thewlis]

Why is it that an academic is allowed to say "Well, I trained for years, worked very hard and I have several decades of experience, therefore I am good at my job and I can talk about my job in an expert manner", but an actor can't? It's his job, it's what he does for a living, but because it's acting he has to be painfully modest and humble about the whole thing?

[vinodaksingh]

Ben Kingskey is David Brent!

[carmenlee87]

If I was him, I would be Don Logan

[davidgrahammarais]

He's allowed to be as pompous as he likes - lord knows he's deserved it. What a brilliant talent.

[PottyEsq]

As far as I can tell,those who can't appreciate pomposity and pretentiousness are usually peasants,the 'Hoi Polloi' so to speak.

As usual,they are revolting.

Potty esq.

[Shazbut01]

And also, he was almost given a direct insult to his face. Never mind how the reporter said it, that would not make you feel good to hear. How did he react? With charm and grace. How often do you haters all do the same?

[Shazbut01]

Ok, firstly: He IS a virtuoso. Secondly, he's making a point not talking himself up. Thirdly, he's actually demystifying the craft by saying "Look, it's not ME, it's a learned skill" which is as far from pompous as you can get - listen to 0:56 - 1:02. Fourthly, you don't know him. Fifthly, not to say my opinion is worth more than anyone else's, but at least I am an actor, and a musician as well as it happens (though not a violinist), so I have context. Cut him slack, for Chrissakes.

[mutinyvizier]

Ben Kingsley suffers no fools gladly. His response to the interviewer is civil and measured, and in fact quite warm and sincere. I suppose after listening ad nauseum to the mindless drivel spouted by American Hollywood actors, anyone even remotely articulate and with a half-decent vocabulary runs the risk of being labeled pompous and pretentious.

[lowenklee]

I think it's a fair question if the characterization of Kingsley are fairly common fodder for criticisms against him. It affords Sir Kingsley a chance to respond and perhaps explain the possible reasons for these negative views...as in fact he did in this interview)

[ludocrat]

He's a great actor. He said so on Charlie Rose 7 years ago.

So I guess he knows all about pomposity and pretentiousness and we therefore must believe everything he says...

[Beadbud5000]

Yes he is a great actor! One of the best!

[roncronton]

He can be as pretentious as he likes,hes Ben Kingsley!!(Sir Ben Kingsley if you will).....hes proud of his ability and so he should be......finest actor alive,he could play absolutely any part in any movie

[sauceyboy]

fuck it, who wouldn't be pretentious

[KidMillions]

Fairly presumptuous question to ask Ben Kingsley...

If David Hasselhoff was to talk about the skill of acting then I'd agree, but this fellow has got the talent AND the career to back it up. James Lipton would give him a BJ so fast...

[jameswithdrawals]

Haha westeightyone is making himself out to be a right twat- can I have an insult as well please?

[sykotestbild]

Sounds like the interviewer is trying to insult him without being forthright about it. Like a weak coward with little mincey faggot balls...

[RedRabbit1983]

What an idiotic question.

[creoltein]

people who know they're better than others whether in terms of intelligence, talent, athletic ability, etc have no obligation to pretend they're less than that. that is the definition of pretension.

[pristinekristinetm]

He's an artist...and he's just being honest. It's a shame that some miss that.

[westeightyone]

Another feeble comeback,anti.You're a 'well of nothingness'.Yes,indeed, nothing from nothing leaves you.My condolences to anyone who's ever had the displeasure of getting to know you.

[westeightyone]

Thanks, anti.Your feeble 'comeback' proves

everything I said about you in spades.

You're your own worst enemy.And that's saying a lot considering the number of enemies a jerk like you must have.

[westeightyone]

Your idea of pomposity is certainly not the norm,you pretentious shmuck.Using your screwy logic only a truly 'racist' person would be able to recognise his/her own racism and use it as a standard by which to lambast others who truly are 'racists'.You're an idiot by every standard,anti.

[westeightyone]

Ditto,antityranny.

Which is exactly my point.

Who are YOU to call people that you don't know 'mediocre'?

Your statement was arrogant.We're all strangers here and yet you take it upon yourself to label anyone who finds Ben Kingsley's comments 'pompous or pretentious' mediocre.Who's talking about Kingsley's gift for acting? I was commenting on the pompous, pretentious nature of the comments that he made during the course of the posted video interview.

[DuctTapeMyFace]

an unpretentious explanation of himself and acting really, how can you knock it?

[DuctTapeMyFace]

may i ask what you mean by that exactly? Im always reading as it happens, and i am a bookseller by trade. Im reading one now, its called; "Arseholes on the Internet - whats there fucking problem?"

[DuctTapeMyFace]

I meant their, so there!

[westeightyone]

And how are you enjoying your biography?

("I'm" has an apostrophe in it by the way. "it's" also has an apostrophe and "what's" has an apostrophe as well.You'd know that if you bothered to read any of the 'books' that you sell.)

[DuctTapeMyFace]

You know what, i really got the feeling you were going to be the tiresome twat you have shown yourself up as. I t is a shameful act to deride others for missing out apostrophe's on their youtube comments, its (i miss one out again, shock horror!) the last vestage of a total shithead. i dont really give 2 fucks about the way i or others care to write a quick message, but seeing as you give such a wailing shit about it, lets go into it.

[DuctTapeMyFace]

You know what i reckon? I reckon you should re-read your spiteful outpourings another day, possibly, and go and sit in a corner and think about what an unnecessarily shitty being you are are. It would not be fair on me, or anyone else for that matter to go through all your glaring spelling and grammatical mistakes in your last 2 comments

[DuctTapeMyFace]

But as i say, who really gives a fuck? You are a real bore. I dislike pigeon holes, but in the short time you have allowed yourself to be shown up plain for what you are, i have no qualms in instantly forgetting you, aand as such making pigeons holes slightly out of your reach. Your grammatical rants, which you have only made even more laughable due to your subsequent posts, which are a mockery of the English language that you try dearly to espouse. In short, fuck you.

[westeightyone]

Oooooh 'fuck you'.One from the classic files.Talk about boring (Yawn).Oh wait. My first response to you was a yawn.I wrote you off as a boring simpleton right from the start.I reckon you'll always be a boring simpleton.

[DuctTapeMyFace]

'Tis nothing to do with me being a simpleton, me being a simpleton has nowt to do with it Guv'nor. What sort of person are you that talks about the smothering to death of babies to get your little point across? Forshame on you, bore. You know, i grew up in a house with an outside bog, so in a way your'e right, though not in a way you'd get, you shit. Your grammar and spelling is atrocious, you milky teat-end,

[DuctTapeMyFace]

why do you think you can teach, when you can't even hold a simple youtube comment together in an equitable manner, even without the apostrophie's you supposedly hold dear?

[westeightyone]

Well, Duct, I could teach you how to type a capital letter.I could teach you not to write in run-on sentences.I could teach you how to spell the word 'apostrophe'.I could teach you that the plural of apostrophe does not have an apostrophe in it.

[DuctTapeMyFace]

I'd had a few drinky poo's last night, and as such got more involved with you than i should have. Though your self appointed role as an internet teacher of piss all is amusing, its also pathetic, and im slightly ashamed to have had any part in it. Though people like you have to be made a fool of, i think you do well enough independantly. Good luck!

[westeightyone]

Written like the illiterate drunk that you truly are.Duct,you are one fucked up schmuck.I can see why you use 'i' when you refer to yourself.You use 'i' because you're nothing and you know it.Have a few more drinks.You'll make more sense when you pass out.

[DuctTapeMyFace]

Damn, you really are a twat arnet you? The i is used because i cant be arsed to press the shift key. Its very easy to go around youtube picking out these errors because most people cant be arsed too. Its a very simple and small minded thing to do, and im not gonna waste any more time on it with you, its pontless. Maybe you should go and have a drink or too, meet some friends and get some semblance of a life, and maybe you will take youtube comments and their grammatical content a little lighter.

[westeightyone]

You claim you're a bookseller by trade.

You claim that you're always reading.

You're a liar you old drunk.You're just this side of illiterate. The 'books' that you sell are porn magazines aren't they?That would explain your love of the word 'twat'.

My friends and I are having a great time laughing at your mistakes,stewpot.You drink between every sentence don't you?

[westeightyone]

I'm not for smothering all babies,Duct-y.Just you.

[DuctTapeMyFace]

Well fust off, me enjoyin me beogwaffy greetly fanks.

I'm right up to the point where this shit-brain who goes by the name of westeightyone gets a good spanking.

The first "I'm", deserves a comma after it. The apostrophied "it's", also deserves a following comma, plus a capital "I", as yo start a new sentance without closing your brackets. There is also a comma missing after your "also has an apostrophe" debacle. So, up yours you pedantic twat, and God bless us, tiny Tim.

[westeightyone]

Hooo-whee! DuctTapeMyFace is up for giving me a good spanking! Sounds like DuctTapeMyFace's familiars would be well advised to duct tape their asses shut around you,

DuctTapeMyFace.I'll bet you go to town on a regular basis

on poor young tiny Tim.You call him 'twat' and you tell yourself he's a girl.God help tiny Tim.

[Shazbut01]

He may be full of himself though, I don't really know. I don't know him. I think he's fully aware of his talent but it's not like he specifically refers to himself as a virtuoso. At the end, he doesn't suggest that actors ARE the characters they're playing, (do you think he thinks he IS Gandhi?), but that for an actor to move an audience they have to be coming from a place of genuine empathy. Which is pretty much true.

[westeightyone]

No, I do not think he thinks he IS Gandi nor do I think he thinks he IS the character he played in

Sexy Beast.Really good actors have played the exact opposite of their true life character without bringing any of their own personality into the mix.Many actors become the character on-screen by effectively losing the person they are off-screen.

[mojoelem]

Shazbut01; Ben Kingsley IS actually distantly related to Gandhi. Ben is anglo-indian..his real name is Krishna Bhanji. His father , Rhamtulla Bhanji, was a leading physician of Indian descent. His mum was Jewish-European.

[captainroger]

shut up you know it all cunt

[Shazbut01]

You guys don't appear to understand what he's saying. For my part, I'm grateful to him for having the guts to talk about acting as the complicated art form it really is without hiding behind flip comments like "I just turn up and say the lines". Whenever an actor says that, it's a lie. Many of Kingsley's interviews have been useful and helpful to me personally

Incidentally, he is a virtuoso

[westeightyone]

Oh c'mon, Shazbut01!You seriously think it takes 'guts' to talk about acting as a complicated art form ? I'm sure you've heard any number of great actors discuss their craft without self-aggrandizing themselves as a 'virtuoso'. Forget the other Kingsley interviews you mentioned.Listen to THIS interview again with open ears and an open mind.His response to the question posed was pompous and pretentious.

[Shazbut01]

Hmmm...I still don't think he's being pretentious. If he comes across in that way to people then it's probably because he doesn't reduce his discussions on acting to a level that would be interesting or comprehensible to a mainstream audience. It doesn't endear you to people to talk over their heads, no musician is gonna go on Letterman or Parkinson and talk about music theory, but at least it's out of passion for the craft that he talks in the way he does.

[westeightyone]

You're being condescending when you presume that I find his discussion incomprehensible.He's not talking over anyone's head in this video.

His statements are self-serving to a degree.I don't have a problem with that but it does point to his being pompous.

[westeightyone]

Kingsley says he doesn't mean to sound pompous when he discusses "Acting" after he's just finished comparing his "instrument" to that of a "virtuoso" violinist .He could have said 'classically trained' or 'good' but he chose 'virtuoso'.That sounds pretty

pompous,Ben.

[westeightyone]

It's called ACT-ing.Playing it for real ON-SCREEN

doesn't mean the actor has it within his personal character to be that character for REAL off screen.

Lionel Barrymore had you believing he was a heartless monster in "It's A Wonderful Life".He was, by all accounts, a very kind and generous person in real life.Kingsley is kidding himself and/or us when he suggests that good actors reveal their true OFF screen character through their ON screen character roles.

[westeightyone]

His answer was pretentious.And presented in a pompous manner.

[karaokematt82]

LOL....I was gonna say that too. I will always embrace him as an actor, but he is full of himself.

[xlerosx]

@westeightyone Hee Hee! Funny response. I disagree, I think he is great. But funny, none the less.

[doogsby]

@westeightyone That's ridiculously unfair of you. He's being neither pompous nor pretentious. Says a lot more about you, really.