The legendary actor talks exclusively to the National Media Museum about Orwell's legacy – and becoming Big Brother.
On the book
"When I was first read it – I was 16, so it would have been about 1956 – it was considered fairly subversive reading. I remember my mother saying, 'What do you want to be reading things like that for?' I said, it's what we should be reading! It was completely mind-blowing really."
"1984 does in a way give away the secrets of politics and the secrets of government and the secrets of control. Not a popular book, I'd have thought, with any political body. It certainly hasn't lost its potency as a piece, as a concept, as a perception or indeed as a polemic, which of course is what it was originally intended as."
On fiction becoming fact
"I knew that it was already aimed at both China and Russia. What Orwell was suggesting, if there is any prophecy about it, is that it was going to spread to the rest of the world. Which of course it has done. Not in quite the bleakest way in which his metaphor suggests. But we have almost got the point where we say: who's coming back from what war at the minute? Who are we fighting? Oh – in the East somewhere? It's almost getting to that point. Very scary."
"And that's even though the 'proles' have marched in the millions strong on the streets of our country to say: no we don't want to go into Iraq, we don't believe this is a legal war, we don't believe it is a morally correct war, we believe that it is criminal, and we do not want our government to go in there. And the government agreed with us! But one man was allowed to send us there. And we're still there. And if that doesn't smack of a little Orwellian paradox..."
On what Orwell would make of things today
"I wouldn't like to second-guess what he'd think. But he had an extraordinary mind and a very, very astute perceptive and political mind. There surely must be part of him saying: well, I did indicate that this was a possibility, that this is the way politicians think. This is what seeking power brings you."
"I worry about power. I think power is a dangerous thing."
On his starring role in the 1984 film
"I was thrilled to do it. You rarely get the opportunity to do something which meant so much to you when you were so young."
"People gave it quite a bit of flak at the time – there's no way you could do anything with 1984 and not get some flak. Then about ten years later, I was just about to go out and it came on TV. I thought I'd watch 10 minutes, and I ended up watching the entire thing still standing at the door. I thought: Christ, that really works."
"In terms of cinema, the way in which it linked together, the ideas visually: it's very impressive. The whole visualisation of Orwell's conception was extremely well done. I remember that almost every set I walked onto was exact, straight out of my imagination. That's really rare."
"It obviously hit home in certain ways. When it was first shown in New York, at an Academy screening, five hundred people walked out of the cinema. It has a habit of touching people but they don't know where it's touching them."
"What Orwell does is open up political thinking for the world to see. It's how it works. It's interesting, isn't it? When the film first came out, it was a tough pill for a lot of people to take, and they didn't want to take it. But it's grown and grown, underground, until it's almost overground now."
On the Paper Zoo / National Media Museum performance
"I think Paper Zoo thought it would be quite ironic to have the person who played Winston having risen in the party. From the Chestnut Tree Cafe, he's managed to get his wits together again, now understanding that 2 and 2 make 5, and becomes Big Brother."
"So it tickled my fancy, and of course I looked up Paper Zoo, and they seem to me to be the sort of company that’s essential in the country as we know it, and doing a lot of really good stuff."
"And the National Media Museum interested me and fascinated me – these are important places, because without them, if we're not reminded and educated, we live in danger of losing our culture altogether."
On playing Big Brother
"Big Brother has everything. He is benign, he is demonstrative, he is the embodiment of action, he is the embodiment of patience, he is beyond humour. He is a lot of things. You just have to let things drift into your imagination and hope they come out of your eyes."
On his future
"I'm in Australia doing a film called Lou – short for Louise. I play a man with Alzheimer's who goes to live with his family, and has a pretty rough time. Harry Potter, too: my character comes back into the series so I'm going to be filming for that later in the year."
John Hurt
"1984 certainly hasn't lost its potency as a piece, as a concept, as a perception or indeed as a polemic."
Becoming Big Brother
John Hurt during filming, with Paper Zoo's Martin Knowles and Ben Eagle.