In the latest of our series in which artists share their viewing choices, the
Actor recommends a Japanese animation and an epic OJ Simpson documentaryRead all the other Lockdown watch choicesThe best arts and entertainment during self-isolationI’m self-isolating alone, but, for five nights a fortnight, I have my children, Albert, eight, and Esme, six, to stay. We just watched a Japanese animation film called The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, which left the three of us completely spellbound, and my son in tears. It’s based on a 10th-century Japanese folktale called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, who finds a tiny child in the bamboo who he raises with his wife. She’s a child of the
moon but suffers the heartbreaks of being human, and when she’s called back to the moon, she doesn’t want to leave. It’s got things in common with Blade Runner.
I watch very little television because it’s my
Job, so it’s a bit of a busman’s holiday. I don’t tend to watch much drama because I make it, so I know all the smoke and mirrors and I find it very difficult to spend my disbelief. I tend to stick to documentaries. I’m watching OJ: Made in America for the second time; it’s nearly eight hours long. It’s a portrait of an individual – OJ Simpson – and of race in America. It’s an account of
Los Angeles, a corrupt judicial system and a grotesque miscarriage of justice. It’s a commentary on racial politics in America. It’s an absolute masterpiece. It came on in the middle of the night on
BBC Four, and I just had to watch it again.