meant_to_xDDD (James_McAvoy) все записи автора
Q. How do get involved with Inside I’m Dancing?
A. I’d worked with the casting director, Wendy Brazington, a few times before - she’d cast me in Bright Young Things.
I met up with the director, Damien O’Donnell, and we had a bit of a chat. He brought up another actor Steven Robertson, whom he’d already cast in the role of Michael, to Manchester where I was filming Shameless, and we had a three and half hour audition together. It was amazing.
Beforehand, I had said that I’d like to play Michael, but when I did the audition with Steven, I knew that he’d be far better playing Michael and he made me a lot more comfortable in playing Rory.
That audition made me want to do the film. Before I wasn’t sure it would work. After seeing the dynamic I had with Damien and with Steven, I was confident that it would be good.
Q. Were you worried, given the subject matter, that the film might become overly sentimental?
A. We tried our hardest to avoid any sentimentality. We were fighting against that, both within ourselves and within the script, because the tendency is to play for sympathy.
What I found in researching and also working with a couple of guys who had Duchenne muscular dystrophy was that the last thing they want is pity.
You’d rather be ignored than pitied. It’s something that is put upon you and somebody feels very good about giving you and it does absolutely nothing for you - it actually makes you feel worse.
If there is sympathy in the film, it’s hopefully because it should be there and because the audience are feeling it, not because we’re telling them to.
Q. Did you feel under extra pressure because you were a non-disabled actor playing a disabled character?
A. We didn’t set out to make a film about the disabled community - we made a film about these particular individuals who happen to be disabled. I think you have to approach it like that, otherwise you end up with cliches. And I don’t think the film is about the disabled community - it’s about growing up, and first loves and mortality, things that everyone feels. And it’s very funny. It’s a cautionary tale for everyone - we all feel trapped and feel that we can’t grow anymore, until we meet somebody who can open our eyes to the world around us.
You make different types of films as an actor. Sometimes you make a film about an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, like a man being thrown into World War Two. This isn’t that - Rory and Michael are not representative of the disabled community - they are exceptional people, they are not everyday people you will meet. That’s what’s exciting about them.
If people say ‘I don’t know if a disabled person would do that’, I say well that is Rory. That’s hopefully why people will enjoy watching this, because Michael and Rory are slightly off the scale!
Q. How difficult was it to play a character, who’s a wheelchair-user?
A. The fact that Rory was a wheelchair-user gave me half the character, because that informed his psychology so much. I kept thinking, what would it be like to have once been able to walk around and have memories of doing that and then have to use a chair?
My experience was nothing compared to somebody with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but I was in it 12 hours a day because nearly every scene was with me and Steven.
You start to get minor symptoms of somebody who’s a wheelchair-user that starts to open your mind a bit. The point was I got to walk away from it every night, and live the rest of my life - for somebody in Rory’s position, they can’t. It made me very humble.
You have to lose your ego in playing a role like this. There’s a bigger story here - you have to respect the story and the people.
Q. Did Damien O’Donnell have a particular directorial style?
A. He was very free - he’s very keen to play with things and let things grow and develop and then there comes a point where we lock it, and he says, ‘We have to stop playing now, we’ve got a job to do it.’
He knows that you have to get it all done as well as create something beautiful. He has a great capacity to let things wash over him- in a way i’ve never seen a director do before.
Making a film is tough work - there are a million different pressures coming at you.
If you’re the director, you’re like the pillow that people beat up, when they can’t sleep at night. You’re under pressure from actors, producers, financiers, and Damien has an ability not to let that affect him and to get on with the film.
He also gave us five weeks rehearsal time in Dublin, which is exceptional on a low-budget film: without it I couldn’t have managed . He made us feel safe and secure and listened to us when we had suggestions about the script.
During those weeks we worked with people from disability groups such as Muscular Dystrophy Ireland, and Disability Ireland. They were tolerant of us and very generous.
Q. What’s next in your career?
A. I’m filming The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, in New Zealand for Disney, playing Tumnus the Faun, which will be a seven month shoot. It’s one of my favourite books from when I was a child.
Hopefully, it’s something I can one day show my kids when I’m older. Up till now my work has always been quite dark, I’ve been dying,or getting shot, or shooting somebody else.
This will be about telling stories to a different type of person.
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