Douglas Hodge with Clemence Poesy in 'Cyrano de Bergerac.'When choosing his roles, British actor Douglas Hodge has one major request:
"Something that really asks everything, total transformation," he says.
Hodge satisfied that urge when he made his Broadway debut as the drag queen Albin in "La Cage Aux Folles," which earned him a Tony Award in 2010.
As he returns to Broadway, he has metamorphosed once again, this time in the title role of Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano De Bergerac."
"I'd always thought that 'Cyrano' is a sort of perfect evening in the theater," Hodge says. "It has sword fights. It has a tremendous love story. It should break your heart by the end."
Prodigious in wit, in bravery, and, most memorably, in nose, Cyrano has become an iconic character.
In love with Roxane, the poet fears that his ugliness will prevent her from ever returning his affection. When he learns that she has her eye on Christian, an attractive but not-so-articulate cadet, Cyrano supplies the suitor with love letters and seductive words.
"He's a genuinely good soul," Hodge says. "He can't stand pomposity, pretentiousness, complacency, compromise, cowardice … any of those things just make him puke."
Hodge, 52, has taken on many big, well-known characters, from Shakespeare's Hamlet to Nathan Detroit of "Guys and Dolls." He also spent 10 years working with 20th-century playwriting giant Harold Pinter.
But Cyrano holds a particular place in the cultural imagination. Besides the fact that this is its 14th Broadway revival, the play provided the inspiration for the Steve Martin vehicle "Roxanne" as well as the gender-flipped movie "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" starring Janeane Garofolo and Uma Thurman. It has become an opera, a ballet and a musical.
The new version at the American Airlines Theatre, which is currently in previews, co-stars Patrick Page as Cyrano's enemy Comte de Guiche, French actress and model Clémence Poésy as Roxane and Kyle Soller as Christian. Jamie Lloyd directs.
Hodge calls the new translation of Rostand's play by Ranjit Bolt — which is entirely spoken in rhyming couplets — "very modern and very kind of … sexy, I hope."
"I also think he talks quite honestly about the disfigurement of his face in an unflinching, brutal way," he says. "His mother loathed him from the moment he was born, and you either stay in the bedroom for the rest of your life or you go out and make this kind of person that he's made of himself."
warts and all
In some productions, Hodge believes the character's disfigurement is softened, not gross enough. This has made him very particular about his costume.
"People try to turn that into some sort of mannerism or something," he says.
"That's why I didn't want it to be like a Pinocchio nose. I wanted it to be kind of disgusting, slightly obscene."
Hodge says that the minute he puts on the nose in the mirror, his expression involuntarily saddens.
"I think probably everybody's got some sort of secret nose, something that they think, 'Oh, I wish I didn't I hate that bit about me,' " he says.
"I don't like that I have a bald patch," he says, pointing to a spot between salt-and-pepper curls. "I feel a bit overweight most of the time. There's all sorts of things, bits I'd quite like to improve, not just physically but in (my) interior life."
The way people sit, move their hands and cover themselves often reflects the part that they're hiding from the world, he adds. Cyrano goes the other way. Before his entrance, you hear his honk before you even see his face.
Besides admiring his boldness, Hodge says he relates to Cyrano's sense of mischief.
"I've spent most of my life really at the back of the class making inappropriate remarks and trying to put a bomb under things," he says.
ongoing journey
Hodge first realized he could act as a teenager, when he started entertaining his classmates — and tormenting his teachers — by doing impersonations. His mimicry skills helped him get into the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, which trains actors between the ages of 14 and 21.
He went on to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and later, to such films as "Vanity Fair" and "Robin Hood."
For his next project, Hodge will return to the big screen in a biopic of Princess Diana with Naomi Watts. He would also love to do more in New York.
"It will be nice to do something with a normal-sized nose," he says.
"I just wonder what'll happen if I get a cold."
Ronni Reich: (973) 392-1726, rreich@starledger.com, Twitter: @RonniReich
Cyrano de Bergerac
Where: American Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42nd St., New York
When: In previews. Opens Oct. 11. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
How much: $42 to $127. Call (212) 719-1300 or visit roundabouttheatre.org
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