What It’s Like to Play Putin in ‘Patriots’

On a current night, the British actor Will Keen was onstage on the Noël Coward Theater in London taking part in one of many world’s most divisive males: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

For a lot of the primary half of “Patriots,” which is basically set within the Nineteen Nineties after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Keen portrays the character sympathetically — as a minor politician who may solely afford low-cost fits and whose success was depending on a good friend’s largess. Later on, when an adviser suggests Putin, now president, ought to maintain his enemies shut, Keen’s portrayal turns into chilling. “Why would I want to do that,” he replies, “when I can simply destroy them?”

Written by Peter Morgan, the creator of “The Crown,” “Patriots” stars Tom Hollander as Boris Berezovsky, a real-life oligarch who made a fortune in post-Soviet Russia, solely to fall out with Putin and find yourself exiled in London, the place he died beneath mysterious circumstances, in 2013.

Despite that focus, it’s Keen’s efficiency that has grabbed consideration for the reason that play debuted on the Almeida Theater, in London, final June. Arifa Akbar, in The Guardian, mentioned that even when Putin “grows more megalomaniacal, Keen avoids caricature and keeps his character’s self-righteous desire for Russian imperialism convincingly real, and chilling.” Matt Wolf, reviewing that manufacturing for The New York Times, mentioned that Keen “astonishes throughout.” In April, Keen gained the very best supporting actor award on the Olivier Awards, Britain’s equal of the Tonys.

In a current interview on the Noël Coward theater, the place “Patriots” is operating by means of Aug. 19, Keen mentioned that, though the script was written lengthy earlier than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the struggle had modified the texture of the play, making it appear as a lot Putin’s “origin story” as the story of an oligarch’s demise. Keen, 53, mentioned that his efficiency made some audiences uneasy, but it surely was “nice to be in a show that’s asking questions, rather than providing answers.”

In an interview, Keen mentioned what he’d discovered by getting inside Putin’s head. The following are edited excerpts from that dialog.

Why did you need to play such a determine?

Well, I first discovered about it in 2021 — so earlier than the invasion. It didn’t really feel as current because it does now. He felt like an autocratic and terrifying determine, clearly, however he didn’t really feel like an autocratic and terrifying determine who was additionally impinging on the world’s security. It’s been fascinating how the notion of him and the play maintain altering.

You’re usually performed villains or antiheroes, together with Macbeth and Father MacPhail in “His Dark Materials.” Do you are worried about being typecast?

As a citizen, I would take a look at these folks as villains, however as an actor, I can’t try this. I need to be as sympathetic as potential to the character — or as empathetic, not less than. Putin is a baddie, however I don’t need to be taking part in him as a pantomime.

I’m actually interested in our notion of autocrats. From our aspect, it’s a picture of immorality. But with a purpose to do the issues that he’s completed, he will need to have an extremely intense sensation of his personal morality — an concept of justice, an concept that he’s setting wrongs proper.

Some political commentators say Putin is motivated by a want to revive the Soviet Union. Is that what you imply by setting wrongs proper?

I’m not in any place to remark politically, however my sense of the character is of any individual who has a very deeply sensitized angle to betrayal. It’s a bit just like the medieval concept of kingship, the place the king turns into the nation in a roundabout way: There’s this sense during which Russia — the land — is his physique and there’s a fully private, virtually bodily betrayal, within the break up of the union.

What Peter Morgan does so brilliantly within the play is present how Putin’s private friendships, and the betrayals he experiences in them, impinge on the political sphere too.

Theater critics have praised you for mimicking Putin bodily, as a lot because the emotion of the efficiency. How did you put together for this?

Well, I learn and skim and skim and watched and watched and watched.

Physically, what was most helpful to me was simply observing him in press conferences — I acquired this monumental sense of internal turmoil, coated by an unbelievable bodily stillness. There’s a way of containment to him, like he’s attempting to carry every little thing inside.

Lots of people have observed that stillness, particularly of the best hand not shifting in his stroll. And there are different ex-Ok.G.B. individuals who have the identical factor. The Ok.G.B. additionally discuss channeling your pressure into your foot. And you do observe his proper foot shifting very slowly in interviews beneath the desk. Onstage, I additionally discover that pressure in him popping out in my fingers.

As the invasion unfurled, did you modify something in your portrayal?

Of course you consider the battle, however we didn’t focus on, “Let’s make him more chilling” or something like that. The method the play’s written, it’d be chilling each time it was carried out.

I believe it’s really harmful to consider the impact you’ll have on viewers. All you possibly can take into consideration actually is, “Is it true?”

This isn’t the one current play in London that includes Putin. In 2019, Lucy Prebble had a success with “A Very Expensive Poison” about his involvement within the homicide of Alexander Litvinenko, a spy-turned-whistle-blower. Why do you suppose Putin is turning into a staple of British theater?

Well, I don’t know whether or not he’s turning into a staple. But it does appear that what has occurred in Russia lends itself to extraordinarily fascinating performs — this ideological battle that’s happening with extremely excessive stakes.

And theater since time immemorial has studied autocrats, and powerful and violent authority is a productive, dramatic power towards which to set any form of dissident opinion.

All the characters that one has performed kind of speak to one another, at some stage, however I’d examine Putin to Macbeth, after all. They’re apparent autocrats, however for Macbeth the nice motivator is worry, whereas, right here, I’d say it’s perceived injustice. The end in each circumstances is a kind of very carried out manliness.

What have viewers reactions been like?

Absolutely great, though typically it does appear folks don’t know what to do on the finish: Should we clap? Loads of Russians have mentioned they really feel like he’s within the room, which is extremely encouraging.

I don’t suppose I’ve spoken to any Ukrainians about it. I’ve had boos, undoubtedly, on the finish. But I don’t know whether or not that was a Ukrainian boo or a British boo. There’s a form of worldwide language of booing.

Has the function affected you personally?

No, I wash him off on the finish of the present. But it’s a bleak place to inhabit — not due to a way of guilt, it’s the agony of being somebody who’s obsessed by betrayal and vengeance.