Driveways of the Rich and Famous & More

In this May 1993 episode of The Dini Petty Show, Kenneth Branagh comes on to talk about Much Ado About Nothing, the sun-soaked Shakespeare film he made with his wife Emma Thompson, alongside Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves. His real argument is that Shakespeare belongs to everyone, not just the people who studied it. Shakespeare intimidated him at school, he says, and he watched it make other kids feel stupid. So he threw out what he calls the "secret Shakespeare sound," let American actors keep their own accents, and suggests the Elizabethans probably sounded closer to a modern American, or to the Northern Irish voice he grew up with in Belfast, than to polished stage English.

He explains what he cut and why, defends the public shaming scene, discusses Denzel Washington's Don Pedro and sums up his pitch in four words: just go see it. Asked what it is like to direct his own wife, he calls Thompson a great actress who is always on time and always knows her lines, and says the drive home is their only real time together. Bob Berkowitz and Marilyn Moore also appear in the episode, titled Driveways of the Rich and Famous & More.

The full broadcast is available to license from the Dini Petty Show archive for broadcast, documentary and research use, so add it to your quote request.