Caffeinated Clint
Producer Duncan Kenworthy was determined to find the perfect cast for "Love Actually" – and if you’ve seen the film, you’ll know he did. In this chat, Kenworthy talks about the film, leading up to it’s DVD release in Australia.
Q.The DVD is coming out. How did you get such a grand cast?
DK: The one thing that Richard (Curtis) and I learnt especially for Four Weddings is that when you audition, there is no point in doing it by halves, you just do it. You just go on and on and on because to me, in a way, a good film is a good script and a good cast. Basically most of it is done at that point. So we kept on, we met everybody several times, even well-known people. We just wanted to be sure that we had got the perfect cast. We didn’t intend for them to be famous, although we, Robert Altman, who is the master of this genre, Richard and I actually went to a master class that he gave at BAFTA here, talking about Gosford Park. And one of the things that he said that was very interesting was that he cast stars in his films not because people like stars, but if you have a lot of characters it is easier to fix in your mind who the characters are the first time you see them if you already know the face. You know who they are instantly. When I think of Gosford Park I can think of a lot of people that I know, but the smaller parts with the unknown actors I have forgotten! I think that it does work. We knew that it was an advantage to have famous faces, but we didn’t really set out to have a cast necessarily at this level.
Q: Talking of the Four Weddings and Bridget Jones, this theme is so successful. What do you think is the biggest reason for that?
DK: Audiences love romantic films and there are very few really romantic films that make you laugh a lot. The genre romantic comedy generally means romance because they are often not hugely funny. I think that Richard is very good at making people laugh a lot and also delivering the romantic notion that is associated with the genre. Why is he good at that? He is quite un-English in many ways for somebody who was head boy at Harrow School; his father is Czech and has Australian nationality, he is sort of an outsider insider in many ways. Maybe that is part of why he is good at looking at who we are. But he is also very un-English in a sense that he is very much in touch with what he likes, what makes him happy. He was the first person that I ever met who didn’t show any embarrassment about how much television he watched. Here we would say that I watch a little bit. But he said no,
I watch it all the time and I love ER and I love East Enders and I love… He loves pop music; he could tell you what was number one in the charts in 1975 and for how many weeks. He is like a child in that sense. He has huge enthusiasm, which he is in touch with. For writers who aren’t like that it must be quite hard for them to be in touch themselves as they write, but for him it is easier.
Q: I heard that there is a lot of stuff that is going to end up on the DVD, do you have any favourite of those?
DK: Liam’s part, when he accepted it was a lot more comedic than it is now in the film. I was keen from the start that it would be as much as possible about the relationship between him and his son rather then a love story between the boy and the girl, because I thought that we would never quite believe that, really. Whereas, the emotion between a stepson and a stepfather is very real. There were a couple of set piece scenes with Liam that were cut out. In fact not so long ago Liam said to Richard, “if ever you write a comedy role I would love to play it!”
Q: Liam’s character hooks on to Internet sites, which I believe is on the DVD?
DK: He does that Internet thing as Claudia Schiffer enters that site and he can’t get out of it and he goes into a porno site. Sometimes things pop up by mistake and the doorbell rings and it was his father-in-law and he had to then persuade Sam to pretend that he had been playing around with the computer and it was all a bit high concept. And then there was also Sam’s girlfriend, the one he may or may not (rumble) with, called Joanna, which is also the name of his mother. So Liam then lip-synched to try and cheer Sam up, he put on the Scott Walker song, Joanna, and then did this very funny lip-synching around the room. That is on the DVD.
Q: Do you think that British producers are now going to try and copy your formula for romantic comedies?
DK: They are very welcome. I think a lot of people have tried to find the next Richard Curtis, and that sort of talent is not thick on the ground. It is ten years since we shot Four Weddings and I think things have changed a bit here in that British comedies are now a little bit better known around the world then they used to be. As with most industries that aren’t Hollywood, the British industry is under finance, it is quite hard to make films with stars because we can’t afford them unless they are in films with American budgets and so on. So we are always looking as an industry to try and find genres that are inexpensive and that can make an impact with less, without the impact that comes with seeing Julia Roberts on the screen. Comedies are definitely one of those, also horror films; it is the traditional sort of film student route. How do you make a big effect cheaply? When people laugh they generally laugh all at the same time. Whereas if you make a drama some people like it and some people don’t. I can see why people want to make comedies. They are quite hard to make, especially romantic comedies, it is hard to make them well.
Q: In America people seem to like films like Richard’s and also films like The Full Monty, but on the other hand they don’t seem to be copying them. Is it that British? Why do you think that they aren’t able to copy it?
DK: I think everyone wants to. The romantic comedy, it feels like a strange thing to say, but it is one of the hardest genres to get right. Why does it seem strange? Because, if it is done right it seems so light and easy and it always annoys me that the actors never get attention. Julia Roberts did a brilliant job in Notting Hill but everyone just assumes that she is being Julia Roberts. In fact, Hugh, people now know that the character that Hugh plays in these parts isn’t Hugh Grant, it is more Richard Curtis actually, but he works incredibly hard in getting that tone of lightness to make it seem effortless and real. That is really skilled acting. So, it is a hard genre to get right. Romantic comedy, the formula if you like, you meet two people at the beginning of the film that you know, as an audience, are made for each other. They have to be together, they don’t know it, and generally speaking they hate each other or whatever. Then you have to keep them apart until the end of the film. 40, 50 years ago, it was easy to do that, in this day and age with mobile phones and emails and Concorde, it is much harder to generate ways, so that is an added complication to the genre. It is really quite hard to make a romantic comedy work well. It is not surprising that people don’t do it that often.
Q: An American was wondering the other day what people would say in this country where the film is jokes so much about the Prime Minister? They didn’t get it and were very upset about it. Is this just the American press or do you think that the public will understand?
DK: I don’t know. In some ways, I want to say that I don’t care one way or the other. What I love about this is that we have been accused for years of making our films to please the Americans, making formulated, caricature versions of Britain that will play well in the mid-west, and that has never been true. No matter how many times you say that we are only making it for ourselves, the British always accuse us of making American friendly films. At least here, where now we are being accused of being anti-American, maybe people will stop saying that!
Q: Bringing Billy Bob Thornton in, was that part written with him in mind?
DK: No. Somebody who saw the film the other day said that it was his best performance, which I liked. Casting is quite hard; it was like casting Julia Roberts’ boyfriend in Notting Hill, when you want an actor to come in being a star you want someone recognisable, someone of stature, like the President of the United States. When we looked at it we found out maybe 15 American stars have played the American President, but not a single British actor has played the Prime Minister.
Q: Has Mr Blair seen the film yet?
DK: He hasn’t, no. He has had other things on his mind. It is very very hard to persuade someone to come in, a star, play a one-day role and be humiliated. They are very happy to come in and have a very showy part that makes them look great, they can get out of bed for that, so it was fantastic that Billy Bob agreed to do the part because in some ways it is a thankless role.
Q: It is quite a political statement from him because he is very anti-American himself!
DK: I don’t know if that is true, I don’t think so.
Q: It was written before the Iraq war?
DK: Yes, it was written before, and of course it was in the air at that time and we thought "Oh God, what is going to happen? Will a year from now the situation have changed so much that it doesn’t make any sense?" At one time we thought of not making it the American President and making it the French President but that would have been absurd in a different way. That would have been all about food import or something whereas at least with America it is the most powerful nation and there is relationship between two countries.
Q: What about budget? Could you really afford all of the cast?!
Without going into too much detail; there is an acceptance on the part of stars and their agents that if they are in an ensemble film, where they are not carrying the film, it is less to do with how much work they do and more to do with how much profile you are using up. If somebody is carrying the film that is a huge risk for them in terms of their career. The great thing here that made it much easier for everyone to take the parts, and Hugh is very clear about this, is that nobody was carrying the film. If the film flopped, it wasn’t any of their faults. I am serious; they do make these calculations so therefore they charge you less. So in some ways it all added up to what it would have been if you had two big stars carrying the film, you sort of divide it up. This was a cheaper film to make then Notting Hill.
Q: Are there any other genres that you would like to tackle besides romantic comedy?
I think that it is a much more mature film in many ways then Four Weddings or Notting Hill. I am very excited about the possibility about Richard, he has toyed with the idea, writing a film about his parents, a drama. Everyone has got serious issues in their lives that they would like to deal with. I think that my favourite parts of the film are the Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman and the Laura Linney bits, the ones that have question marks hanging over them at the end. I am delighted that we have the higher concept, the Billy Mack and Colin who goes to America and his dream come true. Those are great and only Richard does that stuff, but I am really interested to see what he does next. To see if he writes something that is even more in the direction that this is going in.
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LOVE ACTUALLY is released on DVD in Australia April 21st
