Stage Beauty (2004)

Hugh Bonneville: Samuel Pepys

Photos 

Quotes 

• Samuel Pepys : Tell me about your parentage, Miss Gwynn.

  Nell Gwynn : My mum was a whore, my father was in the navy.

  Samuel Pepys : I see.

  Nell Gwynn : That's why I don't never do sailors.

• Samuel Pepys : You know, Mr. K, the performance of yours I always liked best? As much as I adored your Desdemona and your Juliet, I've always loved best your 'britches' parts. Rosalind, for instance. And not just because of the woman stuff but also because of the man sections. Your performance of the man stuff seemed so right, so true. I suppose I felt it was the most real in the play.

  Ned Kynaston : You know why the man stuff seemed so real? Because I'm pretending. You see a man through the mirror of a woman through the mirror of a man. You take one of those reflecting glasses away it doesn't work. The man only works because you see him in contrast to the woman he is. If you saw him without the her he lives inside, he wouldn't seem a man at all.

  [pause] 

  Samuel Pepys : Yes. You've obviously thought longer on this question than I.

• Maria : Mr. Pepys - who do you write all those little notes for?

  Samuel Pepys : For myself, alone.

  Maria : Do you enjoy it?

  Samuel Pepys : I love it. Don't you love acting?

  Maria : [hesitates]  Yes... But unfortunately, I cannot do it for myself alone, for I fear in truth I am terrible at it.

• Samuel Pepys : Forgive me. I have spoken loudly.