Lenny Henry interview: 'I like to play characters who are flawed — the big man brought down'

Suave hustler: Lenny Henry plays a convicted killer in upcoming King Hedley II
Simon Annand
Simon Hemelryk16 May 2019

He may have been in the mainstream spotlight for almost half a century but Lenny Henry is still hungry to challenge and surprise.

The star of Chef! and his own BBC comedy shows will be spending the next month at Theatre Royal Stratford East, in gritty American play King Hedley II. It’s a production that reveals an alternative view of everything from race and violent crime to Henry himself.

August Wilson’s script centres on the eponymous young black male lead trying to adjust to life in Eighties Pittsburgh, after being released from prison for manslaughter. “It’s partly a discussion about his post-traumatic stress disorder,” says Henry. “You normally hear about the effect of such crimes on the victim, not the perpetrator. Wilson thought everybody’s story deserves to be told, whether they’re living in the gutter or even if they took someone’s life. He writes with great warmth and humour about a working-class black community too, and gives them a rare voice.”

Henry plays Elmore, a suave hustler who’s also a convicted killer and may ultimately spell trouble for Hedley (Aaron Pierre). Sixty-year-old Henry, who’s been a mainstay of the knockabout Comic Relief BBC appeal for more than three decades, was keen to play such a dark role.

“I’ve been trying since 2009, when I was in Othello [at Trafalgar Studios], to move away from that happy-go-lucky image and comfort zone. I like to play characters who are flawed — the big man brought down.”

Elmore’s life, going from town to town playing dice and drinking whisky, also appealed to Henry. “I’m a big fan of the blues, and a lot of those guys travelled all over America on Greyhound buses, listening to music and ending up in some juke joint, late at night, rootless and with no responsibilities — one of those gamblers who risk it all on seven is romantic and exciting.

“My mum would sometimes win money at the bingo and we’d get new school trousers or a piece of lino. But part of me is incredibly cautious, I think because I was brought up in Britain. So the Elmore way of living isn’t really what I’m like, but I’m relishing the escapism.”

The play was written 20 years ago but, says Henry, it still has a very timely, nuanced take on problems now faced by black and other communities in the US and UK. “It’s Black Lives Matter before Black Lives Matter,” he says. “There’s a scene where they talk about how busy the undertaker is in their area because people keep shooting each other. It’s about how, no matter how much a mother values her child’s life, there’s someone out there who values it less and might kill them in a drive-by shooting or race attack.

“There’s a clear upsurge in people committing violence against each other at the moment, particularly racist violence. It’s going to get worse until we have leaders who recognise that we need to handle things through nurturing, counselling and mutual understanding, rather than just putting the big boot down on people.”

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Part of the appeal of Stratford East, where recent plays include Equus and The Wolves — a clever, football-themed examination of teenage life — is that it engages with an ethnically diverse audience who might otherwise have little to do with theatre. “The artistic director, Nadia Fall, has a clear vision that isn’t about talking down to the local community,” says Henry. “It’s about saying ‘Come on, this place is for you, too.’”

Ten years after Othello, and having appeared in The Comedy of Errors at the National and another August Wilson play, Fences, Henry feels he’s become accepted as a serious actor. “I’m touching wood but I believe directors now think, ‘Would he like to do this?’ rather than, ‘He’ll never do this, he’s a comedian’. I never went to acting school and even though every play has its problems, I regard each one as a training programme. I’ve worked hard, too. Comedy has great value but I don’t think of myself as a comedian per se any more. I’m an actor, writer and broadcaster.”

Henry has been reflecting on his career recently, while working on a new memoir, Who Am I, Again? The young Henry, he recalls, who first found TV fame on talent show New Faces in 1975, would often question whether he was good enough to be performing. That’s something that hasn’t left him.

“Life is about overcoming self-doubt. But you don’t grow if you don’t question yourself. With every task you think, ‘What did I do wrong there? What could I do better?’ That’s why I’ve spent my life gravitating towards people who can show me how to improve.”

However, Henry, who this autumn will be touring in a one-man show based on his memoir, has stopped trying to please other people and is focused instead on what he wants to do. “I was told there was no room for politics when I first performed, for instance. But the growth of things like the Comedy Store showed me that you could have an opinion in comedy, and I started to find my own code for what I wanted to achieve.”

Henry is most proud of the role he’s played in Comic Relief, along with Richard Curtis and others. “To break through the £1 billion barrier of money raised [in 2015] was extraordinary. And to make £65 million this year in a climate of people not knowing what they want, with Brexit, Trump and the rise of the far-Right, was a huge testament to the British public, too.”

Tottenham MP David Lammy recently criticised Comic Relief for perpetrating the image of Western “white saviours”, such as TV presenter Stacey Dooley, going to Africa to help the powerless locals. “We don’t buy into that,” says Henry. “What we are trying to do, listening to critical friends, is to have different races and genders on screen and behind the camera. I had a black director for the first time when I went to Cape Town this year. When he was telling me what he wanted you could see the local kids going: ‘Oh, my God, that’s a job I could do’.”

They were impressed to see a black presenter too, and Henry’s high-profile, varied career has been an inspiration for everyone from young black performers to comedians-turned-actors. “In this world, if you can’t see it, you can’t be it,” he concludes.

King Hedley II is at Theatre Royal Stratford East, E15 (020 8534 0310, stratfordeast.com), tomorrow-June 15. Lenny Henry’s memoir Who Am I, Again? is out in October.

For information on his tour, An Evening with Sir Lenny Henry, visit lennyhenryontour.net

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