Hollywood actor James Cromwell, the man who played Farmer Hoggett in Babe, is something of a political animal offscreen, as Steve Pratt discovers.

ANY actor who’s played both the first President Bush and Prince Philip must be classed as versatile. Indeed, the long list of film titles on James Cromwell’s CV shows a wide selection of politicians, policemen and even a Pope. But it’s as a pig farmer that most recognise him – Farmer Hoggett in Babe, the box office hit in which his co-stars were a farmyard of talking animals.

That earned him a best supporting actor Oscar nomination, but following that as a police chief in the thriller LA Confidential only served to confuse producers.

“Well, I started out as a pig farmer and my next role was a corrupt cop and Hollywood couldn’t figure out where I stood – and so they put me somewhere in the middle, which is the President of the United States.”

It’s neither president or policeman, but a king that accounted for his presence in York to talk to Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden about playing Shakespeare’s King Lear at the venue in 2010. Plans are at an early stage, but the 69-yearold actor is keen to tackle the Everest of Shakespearean parts.

The son of Hollywood director John Cromwell, he started out in the theatre with recent stage credits, including Long Day’s Journey Into Night, in Dublin, and a Tom Stoppard play, in San Francisco.

Much as he loves theatre, he says the pay is poor. “So I have to have made a pretty good size picture to be able to afford to be in the theatre,” he says. “For this particular play, King Lear, I’m willing to go into my savings because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

He’s at the point in his career where he makes a living and works on a number of projects each year.

He made his TV debut in an episode of The Rockford Files in 1974 and he went on to appear, so it seems from his CV, in every TV show going.

There were movies, too, including no less than four Revenge Of The Nerds comedies, but not until the double whammy of Babe and LA Confidential did Hollywood pay him much attention.

Lear talks apart, his other reason for the trip to York (“it’s such a beautiful city”) was to see the production of friend and leading American political writer Donald Freed’s play The White Crow in the Studio Theatre.

Politics have figured greatly in Cromwell’s life. His film director father was blacklisted during the Mc- Carthy era. “Of course I really didn’t understand the blacklisting, I was 13 to begin with, so I didn’t really know what had transpired,” he says.

But his father helped foster his son’s interest in political matters.

“He got me into one of my first job with a theatre company touring Mississipi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia during the civil rights movement,”

recalls Cromwell. “So in a way he passed on his political interest by getting me, not only in the centre of a wonderful theatre, but an extraordinary community of people in transition.

“Later, I worked with the Black Panthers and was involved in the anti-war movement. Everything sort of springs out of my father’s politics.”

Today, it’s more acceptable for actors to air their political opinions in public. He recalls how, during the time of McCarthy, actors, including Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, banded together and flew to Washington to voice their opposition to what was happening. Uninformed about the issues they were addressing and lobbying for, they were sent packing. “Then actors got smarter and hired political consultants and were very well informed. Now you don’t hear so much about it because we have a mainstream press that tries to suppress this idea of artists having a say because we get microphones put in our faces.

“But they are committed. One of my friends, Mike Farrell, who was on M.A.S.H. many years ago, will be instrumental when we end the death penalty, he’s contributed greatly to that.”

There’s no denying the Oscar nomination raised his profile and enabled him to raise his voices on issues, from animal cruelty to the war in Iraq.

“Whenever you get an Academy Award nomination, suddenly you’re at a different level. The industry’s funny. A friend who won the Academy Award said to me about the nomination, ‘you can eat out on that for a long time’.”

AT the start of the Iraq conflict, he saw TV taking shots at those, like him, who disagreed with the war. “Then I and various people went on television and debated.

We were well-informed and articulate and because of that they soon dropped it because they saw it as a double-edged sword.”

The conflict between politics and acting was shown clearly when he portrayed the 41st US president, George Bush, father of the last president, in Oliver Stone’s film W. He was reminded it’s almost impossible to play a character that you really don’t like.

“The more I found out about him, the more I disliked him until I realised that really my role has no politics.

It’s the relationship between a father and a son. And on that level I can empathise with Bush. I made my share of mistakes with my son.”