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Stage Dragon: Brian and Nicole Ansari Cox – In Conversation – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

Published on: 30 Jan, 2025
Updated on: 30 Jan, 2025

Brian and Nicole Ansari Cox (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre)

By Martin Giles

Brian Cox (the actor) and his wife Nicole Ansari Cox have had interesting and full lives.

They are both actors, although also writers and directors, so are well known to us which, of course, only adds to the interest.

Nonetheless, there is no guarantee that interview performances will be as interesting and entertaining as this one proved to be.

Joanna Read, Director of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, who conducted the interview

Why was it? Well partly because of the skill of Yvonne Arnaud director Joanna Read, acting as interviewer and host, but also because of the openness and honesty with which the acting couple responded.

They come from very different backgrounds. Brian Cox’s mother was left widowed in Dundee when her son was just eight. Her husband, a grocer, was found to have left just £10 in his bank account.

He left school at 15 but having been expected to perform for his family from the age of three he was drawn to the theatre. On his first arrival he immediately encountered a stand up row between an actor and director, which seemed about to get violent and when he had circumvented that a man asked him, “Are you okay darling?”

Impressed with the drama and the unusual term of endearment he concluded: “This is really interesting,” and decided to stick around.

Perhaps for those who know Brian Cox mainly for his film and TV work the depth and success of his Shakespearian experience might come as a surprise. It probably shouldn’t. He recognises Shakespeare, “despite being English”, as a supreme talent.

Acting, Cox says, is about knowing how human beings tick and presenting that to an audience. Shakespeare, of course, through his plays also shows he knows what makes us tick which might explain Cox’s respect.

Of German/Iranian parentage, Nicole, known to be an environmentalist and feminist, as well as a life coach and yoga therapist, talked knowledgeably about the different acting methods she had studied and discussed her training with Uta Hagen, a name of renown in the theatre world, as one of the leading proponents of American method acting.

And it is through Shakespeare that she met her future husband. She travelled for hours by train in Germany to see his performance as King Lear in Hamburg. “It was the best performance I have ever seen,” she said, before adding artfully “so far.”

But despite a single night in Germany drinking and dancing and hitting it off the two did not get together until eight years later, in 1998, when Nicole went to New York where Cox was performing in Art.

Nicole is on record saying that her proudest claim is, “I made Brian a feminist”. But their husband and wife relationship, enhanced by separate bedrooms, they said, was shown to be typical following a remark from Cox that they were both very untidy. “Speak for yourself,” said a slightly irked Nicole. How many married couples could fail to identify with that kind of disagreement?

Overall, it was a warm and friendly interview. I learnt more about Brian Cox, who through his film and TV roles we know as a bullish character, as a person. Both he and his wife Nicole are rounded, sensitive human beings; interesting people who continue to do interesting and valuable work.

It was no surprise to learn that they had given their time to help raise funds for the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre.

See also: Which Idiot Has Forgotten to Turn His Phone Off?

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