Simon Callow is an eloquent, ebullient combination of screen star, stage actor and writer. In Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shakespeare in Love he showed how a character role could dominate the big screen. In the theatre, his achievements include one-man shows (notably his portrait of Dickens) in which he dominates the stage all on his own. His biographical writings on Orson Welles and Charles Laughton are worthy of their protean subjects. Protean himself, in this interview he unveils yet another of his careers, as a film director.