Line #41 Creator/KennethBranagh


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kb.jpg]]
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3	-> ''"I first encountered [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] when I was about fourteen years old, and it really made no sense. I then went to see a play when I was fifteen years old, and it changed my life."''
4
5	Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (born 10 December 1960) is a British actor, director, producer and screenwriter.
6
7	He was born in Belfast, UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland, the son of Irish Protestants. In his early 20s he began to make a name for himself in British theatre. He spent much of the 1980s appearing in several well-received [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] productions, as well as a 1989 production of ''Look Back in Anger'' co-starring Creator/EmmaThompson.
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9	In 1989 he made himself an international star by directing and starring in a very well received film adaptation of ''Henry V''. From 1989 to 1996 he appeared mostly in films he directed himself, such as another hit Shakespeare adaptation, 1993's ''Much Ado About Nothing'', yet another Shakespeare adaptation with a four-hour ''Hamlet'' in 1996, as well as the thriller ''Dead Again'' and ''Mary Shelley's Frankenstein''. Most of these films also co-starred Emma Thompson; the two were married from 1989 to 1995.
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11	The box-office failure of his return to Shakespeare with ''Love's Labours Lost'' in 2000 sent his directing career into the doldrums for several years. He continued to act, however, taking LargeHam up to eleven with his portrayal of Gilderoy Lockhart in ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', and playing occasional BritishNazis (''Conspiracy'', ''Valkyrie''). In 2011 he got a CastingGag role as Creator/LaurenceOlivier in ''My Week with Marilyn''--Branagh has often been compared to Olivier, as both of them directed themselves in filmed versions of ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet''. He got a gig directing the 2011 film ''Film/{{Thor}}'', his biggest directing project since ''Hamlet'', and has directed several more films in the years since, including a live-action remake of Creator/{{Disney}}'s beloved ''Film/{{Cinderella\|2015}}'' and an AllStarCast adaptation of ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' in which he stars as Franchise/HerculePoirot. An adaptation of ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'' (directed by and starring him again) followed.
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13	His television credits include an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallander_%28British_TV_series%29#Awards award-winning performance]] as Kurt Wallander in the ''Series/{{Wallander}}'' series (2008-2012) based on the novels of Henning Mankell, as well as the TV-movie ''Shackleton'' about Ernest Shackleton and the desperate journey of the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. He was also the narrator of the ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' series.
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15	[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Granted knighthood]] by UsefulNotes/ElizabethII in June 2012, and played Isambard Kingdom Brunel at the London UsefulNotes/OlympicGames opening ceremony that same year.
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17	In 2022 he became the first person to receive Oscar nominations in seven different categories: Best Picture (as co-producer of ''Belfast''), Best Original Screenplay (''Belfast''), director (''Henry V''), actor (''Henry V''), supporting actor (''My Week With Marilyn''), adapted screenplay (''Hamlet'') and live-action short (''Swan Song''). He would win his first Oscar that year for ''Belfast'''s Original Screenplay.
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19	----
20	!!Films Branagh has directed
21	[[index]]
22	* ''Film/{{Henry V\|1989}}'' (1989) (also starred)
23	* ''Film/DeadAgain'' (1991) (also starred)
24	* ''Film/PetersFriends'' (1992) (also starred)
25	* ''Film/{{Swan Song\|1992}}'' (1992) (short film)
26	* ''[[Film/MuchAdoAboutNothing1993 Much Ado About Nothing]]'' (1993) (also starred)
27	* ''Film/MaryShelleysFrankenstein'' (1994) (also starred)
28	* ''Film/InTheBleakMidwinter'' (1995)
29	* ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (1996) (also starred)
30	* ''Theatre/LovesLaboursLost'' (2000) (also starred)
31	* ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'' (2006)
32	* ''Film/TheMagicFlute'' (2006)
33	* ''Film/{{Sleuth}}'' (2007) (CreatorCameo)
34	* ''Film/{{Thor}}'' (2011)
35	* ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'' (2014) (also starred)
36	* ''Film/{{Cinderella\|2015}}'' (2015)
37	* Film/{{Hercule Poirot\|Kenneth Branagh}}:
38	** ''Film/{{Murder on the Orient Express\|2017}}'' (2017) (also starred)
39	** ''Film/{{Death on the Nile\|2022}}'' (2022) (also starred and noteworthy for being his first sequel)
40	** ''Film/AHauntingInVenice'' (2023) (also starred)
41	* ''Film/AllIsTrue'' (2019) (also starred)
42	* ''Film/ArtemisFowl'' (2020)
43	* ''Film/{{Belfast}}'' (2021)
44	[[/index]]
45	----
46	!!Branagh as actor only:
47
48	* ''Film/SwingKids'' (1993)
49	* ''Film/AnneFrankRemembered'' (1995) (Narrator)
50	* ''Film/{{Othello\|1995}}'' (1995) -- no, he did not direct this one!
51	* ''Film/{{Celebrity}}'' (1998)
52	* ''Film/TheGingerbreadMan'' (1998)
53	* ''Film/WildWildWest'' (1999)
54	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePeriwigMaker'' (1999)(animated short)(Narrator)
55	* ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' (1999) (Narrator)
56	* ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado'' (2000) (voice)
57	* ''Film/HowToKillYourNeighborsDog'' (2000)
58	* ''Film/{{Conspiracy\|2001}}'' (2001)
59	* ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts'' (2001) (Narrator)
60	* ''Film/RabbitProofFence'' (2002)
61	* ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' (2002)
62	* ''Film/{{Shackleton}}'' (2002)
63	* ''Film/WarmSprings'' (2005)
64	* ''Series/WalkingWithMonsters'' (2005) (Narrator)
65	* ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'' (2008)
66	* ''Series/{{Wallander}}'' (TV series) (2008-2015)
67	* ''Film/TheBoatThatRocked'' (2009)
68	* ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'' (2011)
69	* ''Film/{{Dunkirk}}'' (2017)
70	* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' (2018) (voiceover cameo)
71	* ''Series/UpstartCrow'' (2018) (Guest role)
72	* ''Film/{{Tenet}}'' (2020)
73	* ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}'' (2023)
74	* ''WesternAnimation/BlueEyeSamurai'' (2023) (voice role)
75	----
76	!!Tropes associated with Kenneth Branagh include:
77
78	* AbilityOverAppearance: Invoked when he cast Idris Elba as Heimdall (see below). But then again, he already had a reputation of doing this long before Film/{{Thor}} (see his version of ''Film/MuchAdoAboutNothing1993'' with Creator/DenzelWashington as the brother of Creator/KeanuReeves).
79	* BlackVikings: Practically a trademark of his style. In ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'', he cast Creator/DenzelWashington as the Prince of Castile; in ''Film/{{Thor}}'', it was Idris Elba as the Norse god Heimdall; and in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', there was a black soldier in the Norwegian army. The black guard captain in ''Film/{{Cinderella 2015}}'' was considered by some to also be a case, though there's actually some historical justification there (at least as far as the film's time period can even be nailed down).
80	* CareerResurrection: ''Film/{{Thor}}'' seems to have rejuvinated his directing career. He followed that up with ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'' and ''{{Film/Cinderella\|2015}}''. All three have been financial successes, and ''Cinderella'' in particular was a great critical success.
81	* ChewingTheScenery: You could feed a legion of starving children with Branagh's leftover scenery, especially in his more theatre-based films.
82	* ColorblindCasting: Uses this in a lot of his projects, as described above.
83	* CreatorKiller:
84	** ''Film/MaryShelleysFrankenstein'' '''nearly''' did this to Branagh's directing career. The film was such a huge bomb it was a while before Hollywood would trust him to helm another blockbuster (and made finding funding for ''Hamlet'' difficult). But he was still easily able to get plenty of acting jobs as well as directing the indie films he usually prefers.
85	** The poor box office and critical reception for ''Love's Labours Lost'' was even worse, and as a result Branagh only managed to direct two low-budget indies over the next decade.
86	* CreatorsOddball: His Hercule Poirot films, due to being the first time he has done sequels of any kind.
87	* FakeNationality: Plays a Third Reich German in ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'' and ''Film/{{Conspiracy\|2001}}''. Other examples:
88	** FakeAmerican: Fairly convincingly, in ''Celebrity'', ''Warm Springs'', and ''Dead Again''; [[LargeHam somewhat less so]] in ''Film/WildWildWest''.
89	** FakeRussian: As the BigBad in ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'' and ''Film/{{Tenet}}''.
90	** And again as the Belgian Franchise/HerculePoirot in ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017'', ''Film/DeathOnTheNile2022'' and ''Film/AHauntingInVenice''.
91	** He plays the Danish physician Nils Bohr in ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}''.
92	* LargeHam: ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His Shakespearean films often have him overacting just about every syllable in the sentence, whether they warrant it or not.
93	* TheOner: A trademark of his.
94	* ProductionPosse: Branagh's posse includes Creator/BrianBlessed, Richard Briers, Creator/DerekJacobi, Jimmy Yuill, Gerard Horan, and (while they were married) Creator/EmmaThompson, as well as composer Patrick Doyle and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos. Recently, he has acted twice under the direction of Creator/ChristopherNolan. Other repeat collaborators include Creator/JudiDench, Creator/NonsoAnozie, Adrian Lester, Creator/JoshGad, former partner Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter, Creator/StellanSkarsgard and {{Lara McDonnell}}.
95	* PromotedFanboy: Branagh, reportedly, is a big-time ''[[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' geek, and has been since childhood. One suspects his ear for Shakespeare was honed by the faux-Elizabethan dialogue of Marvel's Asgardians (though ironically he didn't use these speech patterns in the movie).
96	** Also Creator/WilliamShakespeare: He fell in love with the bard at an early age and is now arguably considered the greatest translator of his works to the Big Screen.
97	** Had become such a fan of the ''Wallander'' novels, that he personally approached Henning Mankell at a Creator/IngmarBergman film festival in 2007, and asked if he could play the Swedish detective in Creator/{{The BBC}}'s adaptation.
98	** Branagh is also a fan of Laurence Olivier, and many have compared the two's career paths (as they both have successfully directed several Shakespeare adaptations). So, this made things humorous when Branagh was cast AS Olivier in ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Olivier is also responsible in part for Branagh's conversion to Christianity.
99	** The Shakespeare play Branagh saw when he was 15 that changed his life was Creator/DerekJacobi in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. Cut to 1989 and Branagh's cast his idol in ''Theatre/HenryV'' (1989), and like half the films Branagh directed after that. In 1990 Jacobi directed Branagh in a production of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' inspired by Jacobi's version in the 1970s. Branagh's film version of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (1996) where Jacobi plays Claudius capitalises on the physical resemblance between them (their hair was dyed the same shade of Nordic blonde) and the theme of displacing a powerful father figure (obviously the antagonism is just in the film, they are friends in real life).
100	* RaceLift: He casts actors so blindly of their race that one suspects it's a deliberate habit. He does, however, cast ''really'' good actors, [[AbilityOverAppearance so it's not just some dumb, cheap stunt]].
101	** His most blatant example of this took place early in his career. In ''Film/MuchAdoAboutNothing1993'' he has Creator/DenzelWashington and Creator/KeanuReeves play half-brothers. One of them is the noble Duke that everyone respects and follows. The other is his bastard half-brother who is insulted over how everyone hates him because of his parentage and uses this as a justification to be the villain of the piece. The film is set in 19th century Europe. So who do you think plays the Duke and who plays the bastard? Wrong.
102	** His casting of Creator/IdrisElba as the Viking god Heimdall in ''{{Film/Thor}}'' generated quite a bit of controversy (Heimdall is described in sagas as the [[HilariousInHindsight 'whitest']] of the gods). However, after seeing Elba's performance, many reviewers commented that if racist idiots are getting upset about a black actor playing a fictional, supposedly-white character (and less worried about a guy who throws a magic hammer), ol' Kenny must be doing something right. Also 'whitest' is only one translation, it's more along the lines of purity rather than coloration. Besides, the gods can look however they want one presumes.
103	** Rosalie and Salome Otterbourne in ''Death on the Nile''. Previously, they were always played by Caucasian actresses. Here he cast Creator/LetitiaWright (as Rosalie) and Creator/SophieOkonedo (as Salome).
104	* RealLifeRelative:
105	** Branagh was married to Creator/EmmaThompson from 1989 to 1995. Count how many of his films feature her as his wife or love interest during that period. Interestingly, his one role in ''Film/HarryPotter'' (''Chamber of Secrets'') was right before her debut (''Prisoner of Azkaban'').
106	** He was also with Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter from 1995 to 1999 (they supposedly first got together when working on ''Frankenstein'' in 1994) and subsequently cast her as well.
107	* RealMenLoveJesus: Became a devout Christian after hearing Laurence Olivier, one of his childhood heroes, reading the Bible. He remains so to this very day.
108	* SceneryPorn: His movies nearly always feature lavish production design and sweeping camerawork that isn't afraid to show it off. His ''Hamlet'' and ''Murder on the Orient Express'' were also both shot in 65mm.
109	* WalkAndTalk: [[WebVideo/EchoChamber He did it first.]]
110	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Was rumored to be a front-runner to play a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels.
111	** He was also a contender to direct ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' before Creator/AlfonsoCuaron was hired, which would've seen him working with his ex-wife Creator/EmmaThompson.
112	----
113	!!References to Kenneth Branagh in fiction:
114	* In ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Back and Forth'', a time-travelling Blackadder meets Creator/WilliamShakespeare and beats him up in retribution for providing the tools with which centuries of students have been tormented. He adds [[AndThisIsFor an extra blow specifically for]] "Ken Branagh's endless, uncut, four-hour version of ''Hamlet''".
115	-->'''Shakespeare:''' Who's Ken Branagh?\
116	'''Blackadder:''' I'll tell him you said that. And ''I'' think he'll be very hurt.
117	* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Defector", Data mentions studying Branagh's performance of ''Theatre/HenryV''.

Context Creator / KennethBranagh