Oscar-winning actor Jim Broadbent has had an unusually varied career ranging from acclaimed dramas like Iris and Brooklyn to lighter entertainment in the Bridget Jones and Harry Potter movies.
At 67 Jim Broadbent is also one of the few actors who plays his age on-screen. In the British drama The Sense of an Ending, he plays a retired man looking back at his life, pondering his regrets through the eyes of his ex-wife and an old flame (played by Harriet Walter and Charlotte Rampling, respectively).
Broadbent says that the character was easy to identify with. "He's actually not really grown up," he says. "A lot of us older people like to think we're mature and grown-up and know what we're about. But we're still anxious and vulnerable and as arrogant and flawed as when we were at 20. We just get better at disguising it, at editing our life and behaving, supposedly, properly. I'm constantly astonished that I'm 67 years old and approaching 70. I think I'm just starting to think maybe somewhere down the line I'll get the hang of things. You never feel you've gotten there, that you've achieved any sort of wisdom."
He's also quick to point out that this isn't a movie targeting older viewers. "I don't think it's about that," he says. "It doesn't focus on being older. It focuses on who these people are now and what their current struggles are, not the fact that they're closing down. They're still struggling with life as it is."
That said, he admits that gaining experience does change the way he approaches his work. For example, he no longer compares himself to other actors. "I might have done once," he smiles, "but there's something about winning an Oscar which means that you don't do that much anymore. I must say it does wipe away a lot of that anxiety. I was also very lucky in that I did a lot of wonderful stuff around the same time I won the Oscar - Topsy Turvy, Moulin Rouge, Gangs of New York, Iris. Not that I was wonderful in them, but I think that made me worry less about my place in the world."
He also at the time famously turned down an OBE from the Queen. "The main reason is that I think actors should be anti-establishment," Broadbent explains. "And I like the idea of being a rogue and a vagabond and not being appreciated by the powers that be. I like the idea, even if I don't do it much!"
The first Paddington movie in 2014 is already such a beloved classic that it's hard...
Since being adopted into the Brown family, Paddington bear is now a big part of...
Julian Barnes' Booker Prize-winning novel is adapted into a remarkably intelligent, gently involving film anchored...
Tony Webster is a retired man in his sixties whose past comes back to haunt...
As it's been 12 years since the last Bridget Jones movie, expectations aren't too high...
It's been nearly 30 years since the last live-action Tarzan movie, and yet it still...
Bridget has always known how to get herself into a muddle - catastrophic muddles at...
When Lord John and Lady Greystoke found themselves stranded in strange jungle, their only instinct...
Based on the true story of an unapologetic underdog who never won anything, this British...
After battling the dating scene and finally finding love with Mark Darcy, Bridget Jones is...
Maggie Smith couldn't be more perfect for the title role in this film if it...
Eilis Lacey's life in Ireland has drawn to a standstill, there's no work and her...