Mark Rylance says he took garlic solution instead of Covid vaccine

Mark Rylance revealed “alarm bells” rang when he along with the rest of the population were urged to have the Covid-19 vaccine leading him to opt for a garlic solution and vitamin C instead.

The actor, 63, only had a change of heart when he had to travel to the US to see his father.

He co-wrote Dr Semmelweis with the playwright Stephen Brown before the coronavirus pandemic happened.

The actor, in an interview with The Sunday Times, said the play acts as a warning not to take the scientific establishment at its word since the start of the pandemic.

“Science started to sound like a religion,” he said. “And really science is no different than religion, just an attempt by men to describe reality.”

Mark added: “I was not convinced I needed it. I took a very distilled garlic solution every morning, and vitamin C, and I sailed through Jerusalem.”

On writing the play he was focused on the alternative cancer treatments that were available to patients.

He doubts the impact of chemotherapy as a friend of his “broke up the cells of a tumour” by relying on vibrations from a Tibetan sound bowl.

“The body knows how to heal itself,” he said. “We don’t need to go in and bombard it with poison. It’s like bombing a city to try and get rid of a little sect of terrorists. You may wipe them all out, but you’re going to breed 25 or 30 [more].”

He has starred in the play Jerusalem and won an Oscar for his performance in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, the BBC’s Wolf Hall adaptation along with Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

Dr Semmelweis, which he also stars in, opens in the West End at the end of this month following a run at the Bristol Old Vic.