My First Seven Years (Plus a Few More)

PROLOGUE

What I propose to tell is not the story of my life as an actor, author and director, but rather a fragment of my childhood. To be more exact, only the early part of it: the prologue to my adventure, starting from the time when it would never have entered my head that I would end up plying my trade as a performer.

I remember Bruno Bettelheim, author of a revolutionary theory on the formation of the character and intellect of the individual, saying: ‘All I ask is that you give me the first seven years of the life of a man. It’s all there; you can keep the rest.’

I have gone over the score a bit: I am offering you ten, plus a couple of pointers towards the years of my maturity … take my word for it, it’s already too much!