Cymbeline is my favorite play in the world. Because it has everything. Shakespeare wrote..people understand, Shakespeare comedies and tragedies and histories. But his last 4 plays are different from comedies and tragedies and histories, they're called "Romances". We don't use that word in a way that we use it now, it doesn't mean romantic love, it means they're sort of fairy tales. They began tragically but have happy ending.

For many years, people thought that Shakespeare was going up up up, get writing in greater greater and better better place and then he got old and tired and wrote these fool silly plays in the end. They thought something happened people didn't like these plays, they didn't understand these plays, but the fact is he just kept going up and up, he never stop. People still teach in colleges that these plays are lesser plays but they are not, because they contain everything. They have tragedy, they have comedy, they have magic, they have fantasy. For me, they're also the most theatrical plays. They're not trying to create a real believable world, they are fairy tales.

Cymbeline is a play that has everything in it. It's magical, t's beautiful, it's funny that the great English poetist of the 19th century, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, when he was buried, he made sure he was buried with this copy of Cymbeline. So some people do love it as much as I do, but most people never heard of it, most people still don't know it. But I would like to that actually here in china.

Shakespeare wrote strong characters periods, that's what makes them interesting, that's why Shakespeare has lasted four hundred years, not because teachers say he's a great writer, you must study him, it's because actors want to act these parts. That's why Shakespeare’s' are always enduring.

As for the female characters, they won't be played by females, they're all played by boys. All of them in Shakespeare's day, women were not allowed on the stage. So in 12th night you would have a boy playing a girl pretending to be a boy. So at the same all the other plays would have woman-dressed man. So I don't know that Shakespeare’s female characters are any stronger than his male characters.

I know in 12th night, to me, the central, the heart of the play is the two female characters, the woman who was in love with a girl-dressed boy. With all these crazy things going on, people get mixed up. but to me it's about two women. if you took the two women out of the play, then you would have like comedy of heirs in earlier Shakespeare's play, which is the same idea, people getting mixed up or people who looked the same. But it's the relationship (between) these two very strong women, one is named Olivia, one is named viola. Those names are almost anagrams; same letters spell the same word. Olivia spells "i-viola".

So Shakespeare's telling us something, he's telling us that they're very alike, they're very intelligent. They both have lost their brother, or Viola thinks she has lost her brother. And they're both terribly lonely. So the relationship between these two women: how they change, how they are drawn to each other, is to me what the play is all about. It's a lot comedy in the play, but people would laugh at anything, so the comedy is fun, and it's good to have strong actors doing it. But to me, as I said, the emotional heart of the play is these two lonely women who are drawn to each other, there are different reasons.

It's interesting that I discovered Shakespeare in the library when I first got my first library card. I saw he's on special sections. I must have heard of him, I think everybody has heard of him, even Chinese kids could name Romeo and Juliet. but I saw all these books-40 books, and I was attracted to them as a reader as far as my ego more than anything else I just knew for right away that if I could understand these books then I could understand anything in English. so I think that was the challenge, it wasn't anything like do acting or performing. It was wanting to know. all these books were obviously set aside, means very special in the library. then I thought if I could understand what's on these pages then I could understand anything. That I think was the appeal.

It was only later in my life when an old professional theater opened in my hometown and i'm not sure why I was drawn to it, but I went there and I knew immediately this was going to be my life. The people there, and it's funny to say this, but in a way they were the first real people I’ve ever met. They were authentic artists, people who were serious about their work. and it was not about being silly Hollywood movie stars or something, it was about real work. They set me on my path, set me on my directions, set me to the right teachers. I realize before I was 15 that i'd probably done little skip some places and schools, but until that moment I never realize this is something you could do in your life, seriously. so that was it for me.

It's like living a life of monk, there's no guarantee of fame and fortune, and in a way that's been better for me as an actor. i've worked in Hollywood, I have done a few films, I had contracts, studio, made a lot of money. but if i, let's say, was 27 and became a big tv star, I would never have done Shakespeare to this degree. but i've done him, I exploited him. You get sidetrack by all of that. and though I still believe I will do very well in china, i'm a better actor for not having that kind of career. i've been around it, i've been basked against it, but it's always been the theaters for me. I love the movies, I won't turn down the movie, but for me it's the theatre.

Nothing has changed. It’s Shakespeare’s limitless, you can't run a well dry（滬江小編注：The well's run dry. 英語諺語，形容一種資源枯竭）. There’s always more to learn and more to understand, I think we're still catching up with Shakespeare, there're plays like "Timon of Athens"（雅典的泰門）. Nobody likes this play, nobody understands this play, I think it's a wonderful and great play. We haven't caught up it, Shakespeare is still ahead of us, it's a Buddhist play, it's got Buddhist philosophy. But people don't understand that, they don't know, so Shakespeare is still ahead of us, for hundred years we're still catching up. I think someday may be Timon will be appreciated. it'a very modern play, it's in two halves: black and white. So I don't know if I can say my attitude has changed, I'm always happy to explore Shakespeare, there's always more to learn. This is my 5th time run 12th night, it's 6th time doing it in Chinese, and i'll still be discovering. It can't exhaust me.