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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Chris Wiegand

‘We were swimming in the mind pool of Tom Stoppard!’ – actors salute the great playwright

Tom Stoppard.
Wildean … Tom Stoppard in 2010. Photograph: Felix Clay

Rufus Sewell: ‘You felt he had loaned his magnificent intellect to you’

I worked with Tom when I was quite young, on Arcadia in 1993, and again on Rock’n’Roll 13 years later. In the interim it slowly dawned on me that not all jobs were like that. He was one of the most intelligent people you could ever meet but the extraordinary thing was that you’d walk away from conversations with him feeling like you were not unintelligent or unwitty yourself. That’s not always the case with incredibly brilliant writers and funny people. That generosity of spirit marked my time with him. He was incredibly good company, very sweet, and you felt encouraged to put forward your own ideas, make your own jokes.

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