[from Contact Music]

British actor Kenneth Branagh found his head teacher at drama school was not as confident in his acting ability as he was.

Branagh, who plays Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, recalls his blunt teacher felt he lacked all the necessary "ingredients" needed to become a great actor.

Branagh explains, "Early on he told me, 'There are three ingredients of great acting, Kenneth - there's passion, there's poetry and there's humour. You've got the passion, you've got a little bit of the humour but you haven't got any poetry.'

"I found that terribly wounding. But he said it with a laugh, adding, 'You might find it, I don't know - but that's why you are here, isn't it?'"

Published May 7, 2004