Ralph Fiennes has called for trigger warnings, which let audiences know if there is upsetting content, to be scrapped saying people should be "shocked and disturbed" by theatre.
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The 61-year-old British actor, known for period drama The English Patient, Schindler's List and The Grand Budapest Hotel, is starring in an immersive touring production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Fiennes told BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: "I think we didn't used to have trigger warnings. I mean, there are very disturbing scenes in Macbeth, terrible murders and things.
"But I think the impact of theatre should be that you're shocked and you should be disturbed. I don't think you should be prepared for these things and when I was young, (we) never had trigger warnings for shows."
The two-time Oscar nominated actor, who won a Tony award for best actor in a US production of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1995, agreed that it should be "got rid" of and said that physical warnings for issues such as strobe effects should still be flagged.
"Shakespeare's plays are full of murderers, full of horror ... It's the shock, the unexpected, that's what makes an actor (in) theatre so exciting," Fiennes said.
British actor Simon Callow has previously called for getting rid of trigger warnings in a letter to The Times newspaper after it emerged a theatre had told audiences that The Sound Of Music touched on "the threat of Nazi Germany and the annexation of Austria".
Known for romantic films A Room With A View and Four Weddings And A Funeral, the 74-year-old said theatre is "a safe space" and "not a pulpit, but a gymnasium of the imagination".
Fiennes also called ticket prices "worryingly high at the moment, particularly in the West End" when asked about London's Savoy Theatre having reportedly STG300 ($A581) ticket prices for Plaza Suite starring husband and wife actors Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker as a couple in the comedy.
"I have to confess I was invited to the opening night (for Plaza Suite) and I got a freebie," he said. "It was very good. Yeah, they are brilliant, brilliant, brilliant comic performances."
Fiennes maintained that prices can come down as he said his production of Macbeth - which has upcoming dates in London and Washington - has "20 per cent of our tickets across the board" at the STG15 to STG20 mark and 50 per cent are around STG50.
Australian Associated Press
