Actor David Suchet said he couldn't think of a question he hadn't been asked during his 50-year-career - until now.
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Maybe he was just displaying his talents, honed over decades in plays, films and television - including the long-running Poirot. But when he was asked if he'd ever considered directing, he said that was something that had never come up before. And it couldn't be more timely.
"I have a script in my bag," he said. It's for a new play - he won't reveal the title - that he was sent to read with the possibility of being the director.
"Whether I will or not, I don't know."
He did like the idea of working with actors and concerning himself with the big picture rather than simply his own part.
Preparing for this Australian tour - his second, but his first time in Canberra - it was very much his own part he was concerned with, however. Or rather parts, since David Suchet: Poirot & More: A Retrospective with Suchet in conversation with Jane Hutcheon, deals with his entire career, and life. It is, he said, "a proper show, not just, 'An Evening With...' It's what it says in the title: me, Poirot and more- a retrospective of my 50-year career, now starting its 51st year."
Hercule Poirot will, of course, feature heavily. Suchet played Poirot for 25 years on television and said he was well aware Agatha Christie's Belgian detective was what drew people to this new show - but that there would much more besides.
He spent 13 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, for example. His favourite role was the Iago, performing opposite Sir Ben Kingsley as the title character in Othello.
"It's one of the most difficult, challenging roles Shakespeare ever wrote. He's the biggest mass murderer in the canon."
As for non-Shakespearean roles, he nominated Joe Keller in Arthur Miller's play All My Sons as his favourite, and Miller as his favourite 20th-century playwright.
"He always wrote family plays, family drama."
He likened Miller to Shakespeare, saying that although the latter often wrote plays about royalty, "they're still small plays".
This Australian tour began in Perth on Saturday in a 1500-seat theatre: "They were on their feet - it was just wonderful."
Australians, he said, have been "unbelievably friendly - so welcoming everywhere I go."
He was in David Jones in Perth and went to the cafe to have coffee and a snack. He was recognised and told, "Mr Suchet, this is on the house."
The tour will take in several venues in Australia and New Zealand, after which Suchet will remain in the latter country for a three-week holiday. When he returns to Britain he will perform in a radio drama, and then take some time off to spend with family.
Suchet turned down one role three times last year: the title character in King Lear. Although he played the Fool and Kent in two earlier productions of Shakespeare's play, he said, "I still don't think I'm ready."
- David Suchet: Poirot & More: A Retrospective is on at the Canberra Theatre until January 21 at 7.30pm.