Christa D’Souza for Tatler wrote of Toby that “he is one of the most embarassingly good-looking young men I have come across. Though not vain, he is aware of his looks and two years ago in true bathetic style for a rising RSC actor, earned £10,000 modelling for M&S. The great thing about Toby is that he is so unprecious about his profession. He would “rather die than behave like an ac-tor”.
What Toby had to say in 1996:
“I live in terror of appearing in Private Eye’s Luvvies.”
“The reason I act is to try to move people in some way, however small. It’s about communicating, not just reciting poetry.”
“I’m shit at quoting Shakespeare. I can’t remember parts that I played for a year.”
Source: The Contender : The New Brando Comes of Age, Arena, Dec 1996
“I still find it hard to know how well I’ve done without an audience reaction.”
“My hair? Listen, I live in a different era… . A tramp demanded a fiver from me one evening, because, he said, ‘I was once a rocker like you’.”
Source: Piercing Eyes Theatrical Lineage, US Magazine, Nov 1996
When a journalist asked him if he was a method actor, he replied, po-faced “What method?”
And he can’t really get to grips with the idea of Daniel Day-Lewis having to live in a barn to prepare for the Crucible, or Ralph Fiennes “living in a tent in some desert because he’s doing that Michael - I can never pronounce his name - Ondaatje film. It works for some people, but I can’t really see myself doing that. You’ve got to live your life as well as doing your job”
Source: Rising Scion, Tatler
Of his parents, Toby had this to say:
“People talk about progeny as though they are racehorses from a good stock. It’s very understandable to look for some genetic mesh, but as far as I’m concerned, they are brilliant actors in their own right, and wonderful influences. I certainly don’t see them as competition, and just hope that I do have something of both their talents, because it wouldn’t be a bad combination.”
Source: Relative Values, The Guardian, Oct 1996
Robert Stephens on his son, Toby:
“When I saw Coriolanus I was very proud. Toby didn’t want to come to me for advice, but of course we talked about it. I’d always wanted to play it, but nobody ever asked me. This was like playing it for myself.”
Source : Relative Values, The Guardian, 23 October 1996
What others said about Toby:
“There’ll be a long queue of people wanting to work with him.” - Sir Peter Hall
“We’ve only been shooting for two weeks, but I’ve come to realise I’m watching tomorrow’s massive star.” - Nick Willing
“He is a dynamic and authoritative actor with the necessary cinematic understatement. He’s an attractive bloke who doesn’t adopt intellectual poses… . you can believe in him as the young duke” - Trevor Nunn
Source: Piercing Eyes Theatrical Lineage, US Magazine, Nov 1996
And finally, what may have been….
Baz Bamigboye reported in the Daily Mail on 17 May 1996:
“Toby Stephens, actor son of Maggie Smith and the late, great Robert Stephens, who is emerging as a matinee idol ……may play the wicked lothario Tom Jones in a six-hour prime-time BBC television drama series planned for next year.”
Oh how wonderful that would have been…alas not to be.
Photo Sources : Press Interview for A Streetcar Named Desire; Arena; Tatler
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