Brian Cox at the workshop with students of Jadavpur University; (bottom) Cox as Agamemnon in Troy

It’s not every day that Brian Cox walks into Jadavpur University and offers to impart knowledge about what he does best. But that is exactly what happened on February 2, when the star of stage and screen, in town for the Scotland-Kolkata Project organised by British Council, conducted a workshop for 20 students from the department of English.

The man who played Agamemnon in Troy came to class dressed in casual denims, a brown, sleeveless leather jacket and brown sandals, and immediately got down to business. “How many of you guys read Shakespeare?” he asked. All 20 raised their hands.

Leafing through The Merchant of Venice, he settled on the “negotiation conversation” between Shylock and Bassanio (Act 1, Scene 3). Discussing the nature of the dialogue, the first exercise was saying only the word ‘well’ — a recurring word used by Shylock to “bargain” — in different ways to imply different meanings. “His sense of business in his gentle, calm manner is frightening,” said Cox. “It first seems as though he is angry, but there are varied choices which should be examined during the rehearsal process.”

Cox too was calm and gentle, but not like Shylock. “Never apologise or correct — wrong groove. It’s about creating something wonderful together,” he said. The next exercise was two groups reading out lines of the two characters, in a synchronised manner first and then overlapping each other as they kept pace with their partners. This allowed different tones, expressions and interpretations to emerge. “It’s important to concentrate on the reading material and expand it because people often get tied up,” added Cox. “It’s all about space and giving the material time.”

The next exercise had everyone reading in a circle, passing on the book “whenever one feels inclined to”. This ensured a division of punch-line deliveries, a speech being broken up into various voices. “A good way to gather how and what Shylock is working…. The juxtaposition of phrasing is where the juice with which to play with lies in the play,” said Cox.

Applauding the “bright bunch whose brains are better than their acting at the moment”, Cox lamented the lack of acting schools in India. “There should be more like the Kapoors in Bombay,” he said, urging the students to try for scholarships. Blaming the older generation for letting the kids down, Cox asked, “It’s a Marxist state, so what about the cultural life that Karl Marx emphasised?”

Thirty years ago, Cox played Macbeth in Mumbai when a 16-year-old dresser, also a Kathakali dancer, observed his inability to let his body go. “I was never in my full potential even in my 30s. I couldn’t do what I felt like doing because of lack of skill and courage.” He attributed to his Indian experience the change in his acting and his classical career taking off. “I feel for you because you’re bombarded with so much… Bollywood, too!” he joked.

But his classroom couldn’t let Cox go without asking one question that must come to mind on watching Troy: “Is Brad Pitt hot?” To which the teacher laughed and said, “Well, I’m not inclined that way, but I can say that black leather does well for him!”

Next up from Cox? Ralph Fiennes’s directorial debut Coriolanus alongside Gerard Butler.