British actor Bill Nighy said he stole the complete works of Shakespeare from a library to prepare for his drama school audition.

The Oscar-nominated star said he applied to Guildford School of Acting to impress a girl but had to prepare two plays for the audition – one from a modern playwright and the other from William Shakespeare.

Along with his older friend, “they stole the complete works of Shakespeare, and we stole the complete works of George Bernard Shaw which we thought were a bit modern”, Nighy told BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life.

“We could have borrowed it like everyone else, but for some reason we developed a criminal mentality,” the 74-year-old said.

Nighy inadvertently learned two female roles for the audition while “down the pub” with his friend.

He played the role of Eliza Doolittle from Shaw’s play Pygmalion, and the part of Cesario in Twelfth Night – not realizing that the role was the female character Viola disguised in male clothing.

Despite the panel looking “a bit confused” by his interpretation of the cards, Nighy said he was invited back “with more appropriate material” and was later accepted into drama school.

Nighy said the girl he was trying to impress had originally written the letter to the drama school to get an audition.

“She could have said astronaut and I would have given it a go,” he admitted.

During his esteemed career, which saw him nominated for an Oscar last year for his role in Living, Nighy has performed two Shakespeare plays professionally.

The first was The Taming Of The Shrew at the Gateway Theater in Chester, and the second was King Lear with Sir Anthony Hopkins at the National Theater in London.

He told BBC Radio 4: “I retired from Shakespeare sometime after in the bathroom, I remember, no one took a blind notice, but I just thought, ‘I can’t go through this anymore because I don’t have any special attention. interest in the delivery of Shakespeare”.

“I understand that he is the greatest poet the world has ever known, but the performance of that I will leave to other people.”