I think audiences, perhaps,
and readers in the past have struggled
with access to Coriolanus because he
is so hard, because he seems impenetrable.
But that's the thing that makes him
most interesting as a character.
He is a man who's denied himself the
most relatable human feelings.
He's someone who feels
invulnerable and impenetrable.
He's not someone who is
given easily to charm or
friendliness or even smiling.
I found myself
unable to help admiring
his purity, in some regard,
that there is honesty and his
inability to ally and dissemble was
something that was incredibly rare
and uncynical. There
is something, I think,
very compelling about seeing this
character live at a pitch of extremity
that many of us would be afraid to live at.
He's someone who has no fear of death.
He is someone who has a
distinct and extraordinary
physical courage. And one I think that is,
that is very rarely found in our society.
