Poirot and Me by David Suchet

David Suchet, CBE was born 2 May 1946 and is a renowned English actor who played the role of detective Hercule Poirot

As a character actor, David Suchet enjoyed his freedom to play a variety of roles in any number of stage and cinematic productions. Unlike heart throbs of either gender, fear of aging need not haunt the career of a character actor, as casting is not based upon youth and glamor. Ironically, due to his brilliance in his best-known role as Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot, David Suchet was, well beyond forty, often greeted with rapture by enthralled female devotees. 

What brought about this celebrity status?
Having acted in Shakespearean companies and performed in productions written by other renowned playwrights, when first offered the part of Hercule Poirot, he felt mildly offended. Asked how much of Ms. Christie’s work he had read, Suchet replied, “Not one word.”

Still, this fact did not deter those directors who believed him suitable for the part.  In fact, this may have proved beneficial, in that it meant taking on the role with no preconceptions. Hence, at age 42, Suchet’s dedication to acting was such as to spur him to research the 62-year-old Poirot with the thoroughness needed to portray Beethoven, Stalin or Einstein.  This entailed sifting through Agatha Christie’s work for every reference to Poirot, then compiling notes on both his qualities and flaws.

If Poirot’s perfectionism and obsessive tidiness were annoying, Suchet was prepared to present them as such. On occasion, he also let the audience glimpse the loneliness, especially during the holiday season, of those who, like Poirot, live their lives almost entirely via intellect, with a minimum of emotion.  In addition, Suchet’s physical and verbal characteristics would need to undergo major changes.  At forty-two, his body required significant padding in order to represent Christie’s detective who, in addition to being twenty years older, was plump, with well-tended moustache and distinctive French-Belgian accent. 

As tends to happen to authors who have created a character which takes on an identity of its own in the public consciousness, some believe Agatha Christie’s publishers brought pressure to bear on her to continue to write novels in which Poirot’s investigative work proved pivotal.  Indeed, Ms. Christie once wrote in a newspaper, “There have been moments when I have felt, why, why, why did I invent this detestable, bombastic, tiresome little creature, eternally straightening things, eternally boasting, eternally twisting his mustache and tilting his egg-shaped head?  In moments of irritation, I point out that, by a few strokes of the pen, I could destroy him utterly.”

And yet, she did not. During the next 30 years, she continued to write mystery novels centered on his abilities as the ultimate sleuth. Such was her prestige that no outside influence could have impelled her to do so.  Indeed, she published her short story, “Curtain” describing Poirot’s demise, not long before her own death.  From Suchet’s perspective, having enacted his final episode as Poirot, he and his cast shed tears of genuine mourning.  Hercule Poirot, in his way, had become a part of each of them.