With Roland Emmerich’s period drama Anonymous opening this weekend, I recently got to speak with Rafe Spall about playing William Shakespeare.  While Emmerich is known for his big-budget disaster movies like 2012 and Independence Day, Anonymous is quite a departure, as the story centers on a conspiracy to cover up the true author of Shakespeare’s plays.  There are no monsters or aliens.  Instead, Emmerich has made a really entertaining political thriller wrapped in a conspiracy theory that also stars Rhys Ifans, Jamie Campbell Bower, David Thewlis, Joely Richardson, Xavier Samuel and Vanessa Redgrave.  Here are some clips and the trailer.During a very fun interview, Spall talked about the sexual favors he gave Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg for casting him in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, karaoke, video games, does he think Shakespeare wrote the plays, and the research he did.  In addition, Spall talked about what it was like to work for Ridley Scott in Prometheus and who he plays in the film. Hit the jump to watch.And if you missed them, here's my video interviews with director Roland Emmerich and Rhys Ifans and Jamie Campbell Bower.Rafe Spall

  • T-shirt talk and unicorns…
  • What's his karaoke song
  • What's the last video game he's played
  • How often does he thank Edgar Wright for casting him in Shaun of the Dead
  • What does he remember from making Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Talks about how his favorite actor is Paddy Constantine and how happy he was to work with him on Hot Fuzz
  • How accurate does he think the film is in terms of whether or not Shakespeare actually wrote the plays
  • How much research did he do to play Shakespeare
  • How many takes does he like to do
  • What was it like to work for Ridley Scott in Prometheus
  • Talks about who he plays in the movie and what can he tease the fans

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