Stamp's ode to the common man

Heart of song: Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave in Song For Marion. Source: Supplied

PSYCHOPATHS, avenging ex-cons, transgender women ... Terence Stamp has nailed a wide variety of roles during his long career.

But until Song for Marion - in which he stars opposite Vanessa Redgrave - ordinary was not part of his repertoire.

The 74-year-old Englishman, once dubbed the most beautiful man alive, admits he initially baulked at the idea of playing a grumpy, old-aged pensioner in the low-key British dramedy.

"I just wasn't sure I could pull it off. In the arts, two people who are destined for each other are normally portrayed as, say, Romeo and Juliet.

"What was really touching about this screenplay was that it was about an ordinary couple, and I just thought it would be better served by an actor who could do that more easily."

After some discussion, director Paul Andrew Williams was able to persuade his leading man his looks would not get in the way of the performance. Stamp decided to play the character as his Dad, "who was much better looking than me and only ever loved my mother. I thought, 'If I get in trouble I'll think of Tom and Ethel'."

He was also able to draw on his own upbringing for the troubled father/son relationship.

"He felt that my mother had ruined me. I was really into clothes and he used to call me Little Lord Flaunt. That's how he thought of me. I wasn't a real boy - street fighting like him," Stamp says.

Song for Marion is the story of a chalk-and-cheese couple - she's warm and gregarious, he's emotionally closed and cantankerous - still in love after 50 years.

When she is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he is reluctantly drawn into her beloved community choir.

"Vanessa and I are just like old wine, we just get better," Stamp says.

SEE Song for Marion, opens today.

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