The Hamlet Project

I worked with an actor who took a similar pride in having played Julius Caesar. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the title character isn’t anywhere close to the best part. It’s not even a star part, like the kind Orson Welles really enjoyed playing – i.e. the character that everyone talks about throughout the whole piece and so when he comes in at the end, everyone’s been anticipating him for two hours. Caesar shows up at the top, gets killed halfway through and doesn’t do a whole lot of interesting stuff on his journey there.
But my actor friend who played Caesar talked about this role with more pride than any of his larger, more flashy roles. Maybe he relishes the idea of himself as emperor of the empire.
I would cast that actor friend as Polonius, actually. He has a beautiful natural pomposity, combined with a good natured enthusiasm that would make for an endearing yet maddening Polonius.
Is that who Polonius is? I’m not sure. But that’s who his Polonius would be.