Al Pacino on Mark Rylance

“Mark Rylance plays Shakespeare like Shakespeare wrote it for him the night before.”

-Al Pacino in the documentary Looking for Richard (1992)

Rylance’s acceptance speech at the Tony Awards 2008

“When you are in town, wearing some kind of uniform is helpful, policeman, priest, etc. Driving a tank is very impressive or a car with official lettering on the side. If that isn’t to your taste, you could join the revolution, wear an armband, carry a homemade flag tied to a broom handle, or a placard bearing an incendiary slogan. At the very least, you should wear a suit and carry a briefcase and a cell phone, or wear a team jacket and a baseball cap and carry a cell phone. If you go into the woods, the back country, someplace past all human habitation, it is a good idea to wear orange and carry a gun, or depending on the season, carry a fishing pole, or a camera with a big lens. Otherwise, it might appear that you have no idea what you are doing, that you are merely wandering the earth, no particular reason for being here, no particular place to go.”

–a poem recited by Mark Rylance at the 2008 Tony Awards, upon accepting Tony Award for BEST LEADING ACTOR IN A PLAY for his role in Boeing-Boeing. The poem was written by Louis Jenkins.