It's all about the character: Paapa Essiedu

Paapa Essiedu (Acting 2012) tells PLAY about his work with the RSC, moving from medicine to drama and stepping in at the last minute.

Playing Hamlet: it’s an honour that usually crowns an actor’s career rather than one which kick-starts it. But not for Paapa Essiedu, who, two years ago, became the first black actor to play the role at the RSC. He was 25. “I had to audition for it, which never happens,” he says. “Usually, a famous actor decides to do it and everything else happens around that. I auditioned, heard nothing for three months, and then got an email on a Friday night!”

Ecstatic reviews of the wildly energetic, colourful, West African-inspired production followed. The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish called Essiedu’s performance “one of the most captivating Hamlets of the decade”, he went on to win the 2016 Ian Charleson Award for his performances in Hamlet and King Lear, and last year was named one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow. Along with his theatre roles, both at the RSC and beyond, Essiedu has also recently garnered rave reviews as ex-con Nate Akindele in Channel 4’s hard-hitting drama, Kiri, as Otto in the BBC’s adaptation of bestselling novel The Miniaturist and as reporter Ed Washburn in the BBC’s Press. He is currently starring alongside Letitia Wright in Danai Gurira's The Convert at the Young Vic.

Yet Essiedu did not step inside a theatre until he was 15. “I didn’t grow up going to youth theatres, or even to the theatre at all. It wasn’t a part of my childhood experience. I was going to be a doctor.” He won a scholarship to The Forest School, Walthamstow, and it was there that he first took to the stage. “I was a postman in Me and My Girl and I had maybe two lines. But the feeling of doing it was infectious, so I continued exploring that.”

A-level Drama followed, alongside a stint with the National Youth Theatre, but he was still all set to study medicine. Then he heard that he’d won a place at Guildhall. “I’d never really considered drama school and I’d never even heard of Guildhall until I went to see a tiny fringe production of The Tempest. The guy who played Ariel was climbing all over the lighting rig – it was a really physical performance. I thought, wow, that’s the kind of performance I’d like to be able to do. I asked him where he’d been to drama school. He said: ‘Guildhall.’”

As a young, inexperienced actor, he says, the training he got prepared him well for his time at the RSC. “Guildhall is particularly brilliant at teaching you to work with text. So I felt confident with classical texts like Shakespeare and Chekhov.” The people he met, too, became key to his later success. He’s still in regular contact with his third-year mentor, actor Deborah Findlay: when he got the call to audition for Hamlet, he called her. “We spent about four or five hours chatting about it and doing preparation for the audition. I feel extraordinarily lucky because she’s a wonderful, wonderful actress and has been the best mentor for me. I still talk to her regularly.”

His agent, Lara Beach at Curtis Brown, spotted him at a Guildhall industry showcase – “She’s the only agent I’ve ever had” – and when he graduated, he formed his own theatre company, Invertigo, with three friends and fellow Guildhall alumni. This, he says, gave him invaluable experience just after graduation. “I was terrified that I would’t get any work,” he recalls. “But you have to be positive and have the ability to make things work independently. Creating our own work, going all over the country and forging relationships with writers and directors, was a real baptism of fire, but also a great way for us to learn about the industry.”

Slowly, Essiedu began to gain recognition, first hitting the public’s consciousness after stepping in at the last minute for Sam Troughton, who lost his voice when playing Edmund in Sam Mendes’ production of King Lear at the National Theatre. (Mendes called the event “not one but two actors’ nightmares”.) He nailed it: Mark Lawson wrote in The Guardian that his performance was “like seeing a football team still going on to win the World Cup after having a star player sent off”.

Right now, though, he is that star player, and Hamlet is still taking him to new places. He’s just finished up an acclaimed UK-wide tour of the 2016 production with a mostly fresh cast, which culminated at the legendary Hackney Empire. He’s also been to New York with the RSC’s production of King Lear – this time, playing Edmund in his own right – and to Washington with Hamlet. “That was a big challenge, to create a world that felt unique and specific to the creatives and artists that we have with us, and not just try and do what we did two years ago,” he says. “I’ve got nothing but love and respect for all the new cast members who brought such vitality, imagination and bravery in their approach.”

And Essiedu says he is still finding different ways into this most discussed and dissected of characters. “I try not to emulate anyone,” he says. “It’s all about the character. What it meant to me. How the feelings and the story resonated for me. We had a nine-week rehearsal, I remember, which is a long time. That process is still going on today, two years on. There are still things that are new and exciting and never-ending. Like the many-faced nature of grief, for example. Grief can manifest itself in so many different and unexpected ways.”

The future is no doubt bright, but Essiedu is trying not to project too far. Right now, he says, he just wants to carry on doing work that gets people thinking and challenges their view of the world. “I try to only do work that challenges me, and challenges the audiences who come to see it. If I can get to a stage where I can do that, that’s important to me. Things are amazing and exhilarating. High-stakes situations can be terrifying. But they’re only terrifying if you take yourself outside the moment and start thinking what it might mean for your career. I focus on the present: what am I trying to do today, in this room, with this piece of writing? That helps.”

And wherever his talent takes him, a big part of that work will continue to be supporting young actors who come from a similar background. “I’ve got a lot of time and love for them, and many are facing greater struggles than I do,” points out Essiedu. “You’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to find a way to foster a belief in your ability and talent that comes from yourself. You don’t need validation from other people. Try not to find it in what is told you by an agent or a casting director or a producer. Continue developing your craft. Realise that you are on a lifelong journey to get better and better and It never stops. That journey is curated by yourself.”

This article first featured in the Autumn/Winter 2018 edition of the Guildhall magazine, PLAY, and was written by YBM for the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Photo above: Paapa Essiedu in the RSC's King Lear (Photo: RSC / Ellie Kurttz)