Interview with Nadine Labaki (writer, director and star of Caramel) - October 26th, 2007

Promoting: Caramel
Venue: Sofitel Hotel
Interview type: One-on-one


ViewLondon (VL): So far, Caramel has been shown in France, Switzerland, Lebanon, Toronto, Dubai and Spain. What's the reaction to the film been like so far?

Nadine Labaki (NL): It's been amazing, everywhere we go. It's amazing how, even though the culture is different, people are reacting very warmly – it's a very warm feeling overall, it's a very positive reaction. People feel connected to this film, connected to the characters. They identify with them, they identify with the situations.

VL: I was amazed to read that the cast were all non-professional actors. Can you say a little about that?

NL: Yes, it's the first time they've acted. I wanted to use non-actors because I wanted to give the audience the impression that they were spying on other people's lives, not that they were watching a fiction with actors that were pretending to be someone else. I just wanted them to be who they were in life, to be the same in the film. So I didn't ask them to act, I just asked them to be. But the casting took a long time, it took over a year.

VL: It was your first film as a writer-director, so how difficult a decision was it for you to act in the film as well?

NL: It came when I started working on the casting and when I started auditioning the other parts. When I was playing Layale with them and I was with them in the scenes, it would create a very strong bond between us and it would just make the best come out of them. Because I was with them in the scene I could really direct it the way I wanted it and they would react to whatever I was saying. And it created something really strong, so that gave me the strength and the courage to say, yeah, I can do it. Even though it wasn't going to be easy, I decided to go along with it, because it really created something very special. And this friendship that happens in the film is a real friendship, you know, it's not fake. We really are all friends now. So it was not an easy adventure, but I'm happy with the result.

VL: The film reminded me a lot of Pedro Almodovar's films. Was he a particular influence?

NL: I absolutely love his films but he has a fantasy world where his situations are unreal or they're the result of his imagination or fantasies, whereas in my film it's based on reality and true things. But I think there's a similarity in that we both talk about women in a very loving way and I adore his films. Actually, the character of Gisele is a very Almodovarian character but it wasn't deliberate, although I take it as a compliment.

VL: Are there any other directors you admire?

NL: I love Lars Von Trier, the Coen Brothers, Woody Allen and an Iraqi director called Bahman Ghobadi.

VL: Do you know what your next film will be?

NL: No, I have many themes that I'd like to explore but I don't know yet. I'm still not obsessed with one. I need to be obsessed with something before I write about it, because I want it to be as true as possible. So I'm just waiting to see what will happen next.

Note: I've posted interview notes in the comments section below.

Interview with Roxane Mesquida - October 24th, 2007

Promoting: The Last Mistress
Venue: Sofitel Hotel
Interview type: One-on-one



ViewLondon (VL): Obviously you've worked with Catherine Breillat before (in A Ma Soeur and Sex Is Comedy). Were you always going to play the character that you play? Was it written for you?

Roxane Mesquida (RM): Well, no. Not really. I didn't know that I was going to play this character. We really want to work together all the time but this character is only 16 so she was scared that I was maybe too old for the role (I'm 26). She needed a big difference between (co-star) Asia Argento and the girl playing Hermangard. So she had these doubts about me for the role and one day we went to a retrospective of her movies and there was a screening of A Ma Soeur and Sex is Comedy, so we saw them together and she looked at me and said, “Oh my God, you're exactly the same! You haven't changed!” And at this moment, she realised it was completely possible for me to play a 16-year-old girl. Well, I'm always 16, in all the movies I make! And it's really funny because it's the third time I play a virgin in her movies – I've started to specialise in losing my virginity on screen.

VL: What was your favourite scene to film?

RM: My favourite scene was when I cried on the cliffside. It was really cool, because it was really hard. I had to run upstairs like maybe 20 times, it was really high and every time Catherine said, “No. You smiled a little. Go back.” I didn't smile! I almost passed out, I was like, “Please Catherine, I promise, I didn't smile...”. And so I cried for real.

VL: You don't have many scenes with Asia Argento. Did you get to know her at all?

RM: I have only one scene with her and the really interesting thing is that Catherine asked me to never speak with her. And I never spoke to her on the set, so I don't know her at all. And when I saw the movie for the first time, I realised why Catherine asked me to do that. So, in this scene with Asia, where I'm looking at her, you can see in my eyes that I really don't know her and I'm asking myself questions about her.

VL: What was it like working with (male lead) Fu'ad Ait Aattou?

RM: He's a model and it was his first role. It was really interesting. I really love acting with actors who've never acted before because there is something fresh and spontaneous about them. And Catherine is so good at directing actors – even if you're not an actor, you can only be good in her movies.



Note: I've posted interview notes in the comments section below.

Interview with David Proud and Sasha Hardway - August 24th, 2007

Promoting: Special People
Venue: Delegate Centre, Edinburgh Film Festival
Interview type: One-on-two



ViewLondon (VL): How did you get into acting and how did you get involved in the film?

David Proud (DP): I was in a TV series called Desperados on CBBC and that was my first big break. From that I managed to get an agent and did a documentary on BBC Three and went straight from that to Special People. I wasn't in the short film version that was filmed in 2005, I just joined it for the feature. But I'm really glad to have done it. It was certainly fun filming it and it's been brilliant coming to Edinburgh and promoting it.

SH: I found an agent who handled actors and models with disabilities, so I joined her agency. I'd got a few jobs from her before – I did a Stephen Poliakoff film, which was quite a big BBC budget film at the time. It was called Friends & Crocodiles – I got carried by Damian Lewis. But this is the biggest film I've been in so far, like, with the most lines. And I was in an article in the Big Issue about disabled actors and that's how Justin (the director) found me.

VL: Tell us a bit more about the short film. How did that come about?

DP: Well, the whole idea is based around [co-star Robyn Frampton], because she wrote a complaint letter to her council and said there's not enough access and something about TV shows. And they got in contact with 104 Films (the production company owned by the director and producer). So without Robyn venting, it probably wouldn't have come off. It was a good mix of her venting and Justin and Dominic getting together and writing a script about it.

VL: How important to both of you is the idea of presenting disabled characters in films and on TV?

DP: We are starting to see more films and TV shows that explore disabled issues, but I'd really like to get to the point where the wheelchair isn't relevant to the character. A guy from Desperados is in a children's show called My Spy Family and his wheelchair is purposely not mentioned – he gets picked on because he wears glasses, not because he's in a chair. So there's no reference to it and that made me smile quite a bit, because he's just a regular character. So you've got to show people in the industry that it can be done and then get people into just regular roles.

VL: So do your agents lobby for that particular sort of thing?

DP: My agent is brilliant. She puts me forward for anything in my age range. She does keep a keen eye out for projects looking for disabled artists, because that's obviously my niche, but if there's a part in my age range, she'll put me forward for it.

VL: And Sasha, you're a model as well. Are you happy to continue modelling and acting or do you feel more pull towards one than the other?

SH: I'm happy doing both, but I think I'm more drawn towards acting.

VL: Have either of you got any other projects coming up?

DP: For me, I've got a project in development with 104 Films that we're trying to get funding for. It's a short film that I wrote with Jason Maza (Dave in Special People). I've seen quite a few different scripts and it's encouraged me to get my own ideas down.

SH: And for me, I'd like to, so if there are any acting parts about...! And in the meantime, I'm modelling. They tried to get the fashion show into London Fashion Week but they failed. Because it's all based on disabled models doing the catwalk and the clothes range is specifically designed for people in wheelchairs. The website is www.wheeliechix-chic.com. So I've been doing some modelling, but I really want to do some more acting.

Interview with Olga Kurylenko - August 24th, 2007

Promoting: The Serpent
Venue: Apex Hotel, Edinburgh
Interview type: One-on-one


ViewLondon (VL): How did you get involved with The Serpent?

Olga Kurylenko (OK): Eric (the director) was looking for a girl…well, I don’t want to say…

VL: I think I can guess. The script calls for an incredibly beautiful girl, right?

OK: (laughs) Yeah and he tried a few models, I guess and it didn’t work out and then he met me and it was good.

VL: Your character is essentially the bait, isn’t she?

OK: Yes, but mainly I’m the victim because she’s used by Plender. She has no papers, so basically she’s illegal in France and you can imagine that he probably took her passport and makes her do all these things because she has nowhere to go. But that’s what attracted me to the part, you know, she’s not a mean person but she does bad things. It’s like a contradiction – she’s a victim but because of her there are many men whose lives get destroyed.

VL: I assume you weren’t shooting for that many days? You’re only in a small handful of scenes compared to the other two.

OK: Well, I did ten days. You know they cut a lot of scenes out.

VL: They cut some of your scenes out? Were there any specific scenes that got cut that you really liked?

OK: Yeah, in the scene where I drug Vincent, there was much more dialogue, but I guess it was too long so they shrank it. And also with Chandras, the lawyer in the beginning, now we only see what she does with him on the video camera, but in the beginning there was more of a seduction, you know, I invited him to my house and so on.

VL: Next to you, my favourite part of The Serpent was the unusual staircase. How was it filming those scenes?

OK: Oh my God, that was terrifying. I was freaking out. I’m scared of heights – I can’t even go out on my balcony and I’m on the fifth floor. So can you imagine, for me, falling down? It was crazy.

VL: You did the whole falling scene yourself?

OK: I did the whole thing myself yes. There was a stunt girl but I did the whole thing myself – I don’t even know why they invited the stunt girl. I wore a harness and I was attached by cables and there was a guy who controlled it all. There was a mat on the floor and it was about ten metres high. So first they dropped me and it was like real speed, you know, real falling and then they slowed it down at the end. But the first moments were real and I was white (with fear). And Eric played a joke on me, because during the shooting, I was really, really scared and he saw that. And at the end, at some point, he said to the guy, “Okay, drop her”. And I got so scared, I screamed like this, ”Aaaaaah!” and he said, “Okay, we got it, that’s the shot”.

VL: We recently saw your Vampire movie, the short film you made with Elijah Wood in Paris, Je T’aime. How was that?

OK: It was amazing, I loved it. It’s the only part I’ve played where I don’t play a human being. The director told me to think of my character as an animal and that was good advice, because it made me change my way of thinking. It’s a pity it was a short and that it couldn’t be developed a bit more. I’d love to do a full-length vampire movie, but a classic one, you know, not a stupid one. Like a fairy tale, with beautiful costumes.

VL: If you’d been asked, would you have been one of Keanu’s vampire brides in Coppola’s Dracula?

OK: Of course I would! Yes! It’s a beautiful movie.

VL: What have you got coming up next?

OK: Well, after The Serpent I did an American film called Hitman – it’s based on a videogame and it’s coming out in October or November. It’s also my first American film.

Note: Interview notes posted in the comments section below.

Interview with Julie Delpy - June 7th, 2007

Promoting: Two Days In Paris
Venue: Chesterfield Hotel
Interview type: One-on-one


ViewLondon (VL): How difficult was it to put the film together, because obviously you’re doing pretty much everything yourself: writing, directing, editing, composing and acting?

Julie Delpy (JD): Well, it was quite hard to get money from anyone. Luckily the producer believed in the film like crazy and that really made the film happen. Basically every day we had the news that we were getting no money and we ended up with very little to make the film, but even though we didn’t even have enough to finish the film, we shot it and then the producer was able to find a company that lent us money to finish it. But what was great was that no-one was in the film for the money and they all worked their asses off.

VL: You cast a lot of friends and family in the film. Were they encouraged to improvise at all? What kind of direction did you give them?

JD: You know, originally I wanted to improvise quite a lot of the film and then as I met Adam a few times, I realised it wasn’t going the direction I really wanted for the film. And then when I told my parents about the film they said “We don’t want to improvise a word. We’re actors, we need scenes.” So I started writing the film and ended up with 110 pages of screenplay, basically the whole film. There’s a few little chunks that are improvised, but it’s funny because people don’t know, because it seems almost more staged than the other stuff. Just little chunks like the gallery, but not the whole gallery, just little chunks.

VL: Adam Goldberg is fantastic in the film and I gather you wrote the part especially for him. What was it about him that made you want to use him in the film?

JL: Well, he’s the sad clown, kind of thing. It’s like the sadder and more upset he looks, the more people are hitting him on the head, the funnier he looks. And he has great comic timing and I wanted someone who looked funny when they were upset. But he resisted a lot of the comedy stuff – he didn’t want to be jealous, he was like “How could I be jealous of these guys? I mean, look at me…”

VL: The script is excellent. The arguments are very believable, much more so than in any relationship comedy I can really think of.

JD: Well, I’ve argued a lot in my relationships (laughs). And I’ve witnessed a lot of arguments too.

VL: How much of it was drawn from actual arguments you’d had?

JD: Well, you know what it’s like when you’re a writer, you’re in the middle of breaking up with someone and you’re like, “Ooh, good line”. It’s like the pathetic side of being a writer, you never really stop observing, even yourself. Some of it is taken from other people but you know, in the story, it can be totally fantasy and made-up things, but I like to take the dialogue from real things.

VL: What have you got coming up next?

JD: I have The Countess, that I wrote. It’s a drama – it has nothing to do with comedy, hopefully. It’s about murder, cruelty and power and destruction. It’s very, very dark. So that’s my next film that I’m directing and starring in.

Note: Interview notes have been posted in the comments section below.

Interview with Rosamund Pike - April 16th, 2007

Promoting: Fracture
Venue: Dorchester Hotel
Interview type: One-on-one


ViewLondon (VL): How did you get involved with Fracture?

Rosamund Pike (RP): I’d just done Pride and Prejudice and I happened to be in L.A. so I auditioned for it and Greg (director Gregory Hoblit) really took up my cause for me with the studio. He really stuck by me and was very supportive. And I found out that I’d got it on the night we opened Pride and Prejudice in New York, so it was a fantastic night.

VL: The film’s a lot of fun and it looks fantastic, too. Was that part of the appeal?

RP: It’s just the kind of film I’ve always wanted to be in. It’s the the kind of film I love to see so I wanted to be in it. And Kramer Morgenthau is a genius cinematographer. I love it. Some people might think it’s a bit camp but I love all the shiny surfaces and the fact that you see the reflection in the blood and you see someone and then you realise it’s a mirror as he steps out and everything is reflective, you know, the floors, the walls, the glass.

VL: Gregory Hoblit has a reputation as a reliable thriller director. Had you seen any of his previous films?

RP: I’d seen Primal Fear but not Fallen. But it’s the kind of thing he does really, really well and he’s a total law junkie. He’s a lovely, lovely man, too. He gets this sort of twisted, creepy feel to his films and he couldn’t be a nicer man. It’s funny to be fascinated by the law and yet look for films that ultimately diminish your faith in the legal system.

VL: What was it like working with Ryan Gosling? He seems like he’d be a very serious actor on set.

RP: He is serious, I mean he takes it seriously and it does it quite alone, but by the end he trusted me and we got to work together. But that’s the thing, it’s so frustrating – you finally get into a rapport and you’re really creating something and then it has to end. But he had some fun with it too. We did this love scene that ended up being cut and he said, “Come on, Rosamund, we have to get down, we have to get sweaty” and I said, “Oh, I don’t think I’m going to get sweaty” and he goes, “No, no, with me, you have to get sweaty, come on, down, press-ups”. And I wasn’t going to be outdone by this bloke so we got down to do press-ups and it was very embarrassing, because by about three I was done and sort of falling on the floor. So then I realised that Evian spray is the way forward. You get just as sweaty and hopefully more elegantly so.

VL: Thanks very much, I’ll bear that in mind.

RP: (Laughs) Yes. If you want to ever go for the sweaty look, Evian spray is the way to go.

Note: I've posted notes for the interview in the comments section below.

Interview with Emma de Caunes - March 7th, 2007

Promoting: Mr Bean's Holiday
Venue: St Martin's Lane Hotel
Interview type: One-on-one


Question (Q): Who do you play in the film?

Emma de Caunes (EdC): I play Sabine (Bean, Sabine, you see?). I become his friend because I drive a Mini, like his Mini in London, the same, so he is astonished by my Mini. His only goal is to see the beach in Cannes and I play an actress who is just starting out, she’s doing commercials and she has a small part in a movie in Cannes so she gives him a lift with the Mini and then the adventure starts.

Q: So there’s no romance?

EdC: You can’t talk about romance really with Mr Bean, you know? He’s such a child trapped in an adult body but he’s not really comfortable with love. It’s more about friendship.

Q: Were you aware of Mr Bean before you signed on to the movie?

EdC: Of course, of course. I’ve been a big fan for a long time. As you know, maybe, my dad (Antoine de Caunes) did a TV show here and he so when I was younger he brought back tapes of Mr Bean and I liked it a lot.

Q: What was it like working with Rowan? I hope he didn’t spend the whole time in character?

EdC: Um, he was really concentrating the whole time and I really understand that, it’s so difficult and I was so amazed by his work. It has nothing to do with normal acting, it’s physical, his body is his real instrument. And also, with this kind of comedy, it’s all about rhythm, you have to catch the perfect rhythm because the joke won’t work if it’s one second too late or too early.

Q: Does he come to the set as Mr Bean or does he come to the set in the clothes and switch on the character when the cameras roll?

A: Oh, no, he’s Rowan Atkinson and then action! And then suddenly…it’s amazing to see the way he splits the two. I guess he’s had Mr Bean in him for a long time and he knows him perfectly. Sometimes he was improvising and it was hard for me not to laugh.

Q: In the paper today there was a picture of Rowan promoting the film on a beach in Sydney and you’re here in London. Does that seem fair to you?

EdC: (Laughs) Yeah, that’s not fair! I want to go to Sydney too.

Note: I've posted notes on further questions that didn't make the published version of the interview in the comments section below.

Interview with Amelia Warner and Ringan Ledwidge (star and director of Gone) - February 27th, 2007

Promoting: Gone
Venue: Soho House
Interview type (one-on-two)


Question(Q): Where did the idea come from? Was it based on any of your own nightmare backpacking experiences?

Ringan Ledwidge (RL): Well, the script was something that Working Title brought to me, so it didn’t originate with me, but funnily enough, I have had a slightly sort of obsessive American lock onto me when I’ve been travelling before and had to leave under cover of darkness one morning to shake him, only to bump into him again two months later with another group that he’d locked onto. So, yeah, I know those guys that you just cannot get rid of and part of that fed into the script.

Amelia Warner (AW): I haven’t actually had any back-packing experiences, I need to get out there and do it. I kind of missed the gap where all my friends kind of did it. I’m going to try and do it soon, so maybe I’ll get some horrible stories then.

Q: How did you get involved in the film?

AW: I just read the script and liked it and went in and auditioned. Several times.

RL: Ha ha! Poor Amelia. I did have her sort of coming back and repeatedly doing the rather more extreme moments in the film, round the table, pretending the room was the Outback.

Q: The film’s a fairly intensive three-hander, was that at all reflected in terms of your off-screen relationships with Shaun and Scott?

AW: Yeah, I think it was, in that Shaun and I rehearsed with Ringan in London before we went out there. We had two weeks of unconventional rehearsals, you know, going to art galleries, sitting in a park, swapping music, that sort of thing. So when we went out to Australia there was definitely a friendship there already and I think Scott deliberately kept his distance a bit. Also, being English, there’s all that weird kind of stuff, so that definitely played in real life, I mean that was just our dynamic. Obviously there was the occasional moment of tension because it was just the three of us and it was so claustrophobic at times.

[At this point a mouse runs out from behind the skirting board in Soho House]

AW: MOUSE!

RL: That’s odd. This is really high up for a mouse.

AW: That’s so weird. I have mice in my flat and I swear they’re following me around London.

Q: What are your next projects?

AW: I’m working on something called The Dark is Rising in Romania. It’s a series of books about a little boy in an English town who gets magical powers. It’s directed by David Cunningham and co-stars Christopher Eccleston and Ian McShane and, er, some kids.

RL: I’ve just finished a screenplay about a guy in a tollbooth and this vast accident happens right in front of him and brings a new person into his life. So hopefully that’s what I’ll be moving onto next year.

Note: I've posted several notes for this interview in the comments section below. They're basically questions that I didn't end up typing out for the interview.