If you were looking for a female lead for Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” among the cast of “Sex and the City,” the obvious choice would be Kim Cattrall.
For six years and two movies, the actress played the sexually assured tough businesswoman Samantha Jones, possessing both the allure and steeliness needed for the Egyptian queen.
Since her days on the hit series, which was also a cultural phenomenon, Cattrall has played Cleopatra twice on the English stage and is quick to point out that the Bard’s play isn’t simply a romantic tragedy.
“Too often productions fall into that Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton trap of making it a love story when it’s really a chess match,” she says. And who wouldn’t want to play chess with Cattrall, who is relaxing with a cup of tea. The actress has just come to Los Angeles after an extended Christmas vacation in British Columbia visiting family.
Cattrall was raised in both the Canadian province and her birthplace of Liverpool, England. When she was 11, she saw famed British stage actress Dame Janet Suzman in “As You Like It” in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and it sparked her interest in acting. In 2010, Suzman directed Cattrall in a production of “Antony and Cleopatra,” and she played the famed female pharaoh of ancient Egypt again two years later.
Cattrall will examine the play in the second season of PBS’ “Shakespeare Uncovered,” which tells the stories behind the Bard’s greatest plays.
The series begins 9 p.m. Friday with “Downton Abbey’s” Hugh Bonneville looking into “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” followed by a second episode at 10 with Christopher Plummer on “King Lear.” Cattrall’s episode airs Feb. 13, paired with Joseph Fiennes — who famously played the playwright in “Shakespeare in Love” — taking on “Romeo and Juliet.”
If Samantha and the actress have something in common, it is that they have a no-holds-barred attitude. At 58 — a time when most actresses are thankful for matronly roles — Cattrall eyes playing Cleopatra again. A couple of years ago, she starred in the hit West End revival of Noël Coward’s “Private Lives,” opposite Matthew Macfadyen, who is 18 years her junior.
No question about it, Cattrall could jump right back into playing Samantha, which the actress took on when she was 40, but says: “Theater offers me more interesting roles than television or film, and at this point in my life, you think, ‘How do I want to spend my time?’ ”
Her success has put her in an “amazing position,” she says. “You know, I can pay my rent. I can maintain my lifestyle and still follow my heart’s desire and those challenges. So for me, I feel incredibly grateful.”
One of those desires is producing and starring in an HBO Canada series called “Sensitive Skin,” a dramedy about a married woman going through a midlife crisis. She also has a couple of stage roles lined up.
She admits she has “been so fortunate to help break down some barriers” during her career, but “It’s frustrating to have this appetite to explore women — especially at this age — and yet it’s not readily available.”
Even acting Shakespeare is somewhat frustrating.
“We have Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth and we have Kate from ‘Taming of the Shrew’ but we don’t have a Hamlet,” she says. “I look at all the men’s parts and I’m envious. I want to play some of those roles.”
It might have been a man’s world during Shakespeare’s time, but it was a queen who ruled England, and it wasn’t until after Elizabeth I died that the Bard had the freedom to write a play featuring a female monarch.
“It’s a tough play,” Cattrall notes. “Shakespeare was writing at the height of his powers, and some of the speeches — both Antony’s and Cleopatra’s — have some of the most beautiful verses I’ve ever read. He does something he doesn’t do in any of his other plays — he gives a woman the last act.”
Even after two millennia, Cleopatra has proved fascinating. She killed off her two brothers and her sister to gain power and romanced two of the most important men in the world to keep it. “She liked powerful men, and there weren’t a lot of men who could keep up with her,” says Cattrall.
Taylor was the world’s biggest star when she played the Egyptian queen, and reportedly Angelina Jolie — who at 39 is the same age as Cleopatra was when she died — has been trying to mount a film about her.
It’s been observed that Cleopatra was like a fading screen siren trying to hold on to her appeal, but Cattrall sees her differently.
“My goal in playing Cleopatra was not to make her this sexual being. That was certainly part of her. She had this amazing allure,” says Cattrall, but observes she was a true leader. “For me, it was an opportunity to show a Cleopatra that I could relate to now.”
Though she has played Cleopatra twice, the actress feels like she’s just scratched the surface of the role. “It’s kind of an infinite exercise that I find very satisfying.”
