On Adam Robertson
Adam and I met while playing teenage school boys in a ‘Taggart’ feature – his first job out of drama school. I was the good guy, he was the bad guy… our roles in real life soon reversed. Adam is a moral compass. (You just have to know how to hit it when it gets stuck.)
After years of friendship, during which we had both made the mistakes in life that most of the people I find I like best seem to have similarly made, we went for a long walk. On our walk I told him I had been thinking that he should join me in a new kind of film and theatre company. By that time Adam was about to start running a vegetarian food business out of Borough Market with his lovely new wife Anna, but acting and producing had always called him away from the various other businesses and sensible jobs he had done so successfully.
A week later he’d read all the stuff I’d written so far and agreed that he wanted ‘in’ on the company, which we then named Western Edge Pictures. We sat on the South Bank and decided pretty quickly that we wouldn’t make a ‘short’, as so many industry insiders in the UK feel is necessary. We wanted to go straight to a feature.
“Any ideas?” he asked, as we watched the grey Thames oozing towards the sea in front of The National Theatre.
“Well, I have this idea about some boys on a camping trip in west Wales…”
One of the first things I did in writing the story was cast Adam in my head, as Bill.
Adam is a good man. He cares about people and the world equally. His goodness is infectious to most people, and hilarious to me. His goodness has a bluntness. A straight, heavy, indelicate absurdity that no matter how sincerely expressed – I just can’t take it seriously. (Of course my seat in Hell is already paid for, but recognising the humour in his finest quality is at least what makes the character of Bill so watchable in Third Star I think.) You can totally see in Adam’s role, even though their views are poles apart, exactly why the other boys – indeed why we ALL – would love to have a Bill in our lives – and why I need Adam Robertson in my own.
So, skip forward to pre-production. It becomes obvious that Third Star is going to be a bit ‘bigger’ than we first imagined and the producing is going to need both of us full time. Adam immediately stepped aside from acting. He didn’t NEED to be a movie star. The film was more important. But a strange thing happened. The more we auditioned guys, with Adam reading Bill for guys trying out to be James, Davy and Miles, the more obvious it became that no one – no matter how good – was going to replace him as Bill. It seems crazy now to imagine we wouldn’t have cast him.
(It also seems crazy to imagine that we would have made the film without Kelly Broad who we brought in at this point to replace Adam in production. Another lasting friendship and partnership was created there – but that’s for another day.)
Over the coming months the cast was solidified around Adam. And he was unwittingly still providing me with dialogue for the film.
“Biscuits… they’re great on their own – but dip them in tea – it’s a whole other journey.”
A direct quote from Adam in the office that he would repeat as Bill on camera a year later.
That’s not to say there is no divergence between the character and the man. The complications of real life are after all inevitably greater than those of any invention. Adam is also considerably brighter than Bill (no matter how well he hides it.)
He is sensitive and passionate and for all his confidence and bombastic Alsatian pup-exuberance, arriving on set threw him a little. After all our hard work on bringing our first Western Edge picture to production, exactly as we planned to, I noticed a rare uneasiness about him in the first few days. Eventually I was able to ask him how he was doing and he admitted to being a little in awe of what we had achieved, and a little humbled by the opportunity to shoot in that location, with such a great crew, and with such a heavyweight cast. I was amazed. No one could deserve it more. No one could understand how we had got there more clearly than he and I – but where I, thrilled though I was by all of it, had begun already to be frustrated by the small scale, his humility was touching. Where so many men about to star in a film would find their ego taking over – he experienced a fleeting moment of doubt in his otherwise sure-footed stride though life.
Within days of course he was well into the groove. He went up a gear in fact. There are still so many ‘Bill moments’ that make me laugh. And his delivery of the line “Why can’t you take an overdose like normal people?” that he so effortlessly imbues with the innate humour and the gut wrenching tragedy simultaneously, as only great actors can, is just one example of his huge talent.
Any actor will tell you that playing close to yourself is the hardest gig you’ll get. Adam had to get his version of Bill spot on and all the while receiving less care than I gave to the other cast. He triumphed.
We opened the film in his native Scotland, at the Edinburgh Festival. Adam had won one of the festival’s Trailblazer awards fro exciting newcomers and was determined to enjoy the experience “to the max”. I realised, in a rare moment of warmth, that seeing that big-hearted freak on the red carpet in his kilt was pretty much all the reward I needed for the journey he and I had shared. His joy was typically unfettered, uninhibited and honest. Somewhere between an overgrown Hobbit on his way to a rave, and a young Sean Connery – as if shouldering the mantle of being the next King of Scotland would be as easy as breathing.
Long live Adam Robertson.
On Benedict Cumberbatch
There is definitely something alien about Benedict Cumberbatch. This was exaggerated the first time we properly met. He arrived late, he often is, but with the flurry of apology that he means utterly, and sounds faintly bored of having to give so frequently. He was wearing his crash helmet and wet weather biker’s jacket. It was a modern style so had the moulded Kevlar pads and bumps that shaped his body like an exoskeleton.
He is immediately intelligent. He’s on his front foot and yet asking questions. One instantly gets the impression there is no depth to any conversation he is not willing to plumb.
Over the long casting period we discussed with him many times, which of our four leads he could play. What makes him different from most of the actors we saw was of course that he can play so many different parts. Again it’s the hint of ‘shape-shifter’ that gilds his gifts.
At first I was loathe for him to play James (thinking he may play another role). I felt that having become well known for playing Stephen Hawking so brilliantly he would be perceived as some sort of a “rent-a-cripple”… But there was something I needed in James that so few people could portray. And of course Benedict understood it immediately, which is why he is one of the great actors of his generation.
James is a hero. We have to love him. We have to understand why the boys love him and will go to the extreme they do with him… But he’s also a bit of a pompous dick. I like to think this is what makes him believable. All these characters have flaws because we ALL do.
But it takes confidence and belief, total artistic commitment and an amazing lack of vanity for a young actor in his first real leading role to know that he can play this character on the edge of likability and get away with it. Of course Benedict does.
The ability to play these complications is another matter. He is of course just a brilliant actor. All the boys were. For me his most impressive ability, as I have said before, is to be technically brilliant, while all the while looking as though there is nothing but gut reaction going on. Watching him physically train to play James (He dieted, ran the cliffs and swam in the cold sea), and also delve into the meaning of every line in rehearsals, and then plot the effect of his illness on his body and mind as it would be in each scene (shot in the wrong order), while all the while being a joy to be around was impressive to witness. To see it as one performance in the final cut was remarkable.
He is rare even amongst the acting breed. If the character description says handsome: he is. If it says Nasty: he is. Older: he is… Younger: he is. For this reason I just can’t wait to see what he will become.
Working with him was a delight. I learned so much. It was so often easy to see what he was like at ten years old. He’s a giggler, and a brilliant mimic and, like the other boys, he thought nothing of carrying kit up the steps from Barafundle Bay, even after having been on camera all day.
When we cast him in Third Star, his role in Sherlock was yet to make him the global star he is now. This of course did so well for us in to one respect and yet his schedule, by the time we released, made it impossible for him to do enough press. Fame had swept him up. And yet, when we talk, I am really aware that he is enjoying it by revelling in the experience of the work far, far more than any of the perks of it.
One evening long after the shoot he called me to ask if he could come to my home to watch Have I Got News For You. “Sure. Why?”
“Because I’m hosting it?”
I sat and watched him watching himself. He was thrilled that he “got away with it”, that his suit looked nice; that his memory of people laughing at the right times, on and off script, were real. He was edgy throughout and so relieved when it was over. It was strange to see him so effected by it at first– but of course I realised he was having to be himself. Like the great chameleons of the stage and screen, having to decide on a version of himself to go on camera was a risky business for him.
I’m not sure to what extent that was a turning point, but throughout that period I really felt he had to adjust to life as Benedict Cumberbatch in some way – and he found his feet. Whatever personal doubts he had had, that were inaccurate, are far fewer now. Being really appreciated for what he does best has made him happier in his own skin… So he can spend the rest of his life enjoying wearing other peoples.
Today – June 3rd 2011
J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play “…and straight on till morning for many days.”
In the course of the current roll out of THIRD STAR I’m doing lots of Q and A’s around the UK. I really like it. (I like Q’s and I like A’s – what’s not to like?) The people who come to take part are, of course, film fans and so I have something in common with them already. On top of that – talking about the journey of this film with strangers, while I’m not one for counselling, is in some way cathartic.
One of the most asked questions though, is why the title or why the title had to change?
For a long time the film had the title “Barafundle Bay”… anyone who’s seen the film will be able to work out why (unless they’re dumber than the leader of the RMT). If you haven’t it’s because that is the (real-life) place that Benedict’s character wants to see one last time with his best mates. It started as a working title and stuck.
Film investors want to know in advance that a professional who sells films – a ‘Sales Agent’- thinks it ‘might’ make its money back. Our Sales Agent came on board very early and told me that the title had to change. This didn’t bother me too much. I had always hoped that in a very wordy film a line or phrase would leap out me. It never did.
Jump ahead three years and sure enough I have spent the entire time having to spell out the title to EVERYONE who we meet, phone, cast, and employ. For some reason people take a long time to get it even though it’s phonetic.
Before I know it the shoot is over, the edit is drawing to a close and I still don’t have a title. We’re rapidly approaching picture-lock, the grade and our title designer needs to know what the film is called.
At this point of course there isn’t just me, hiding in my study. All the parties who have joined the film are giving their opinion and we are now naming the film by committee! Some of the suggestions are so bad that I am ready to take my name off the film… “Forever Loved” was an all time low.
Eventually, as I was actually researching something else, I saw an old illustration from Peter Pan and thought that Peter’s instructions on how to get to Neverland might work. I like the fact that James would misquote things – hence Third star instead of Second – giving Miles the opportunity to say “Fuck. No wonder we’re lost.”
In J.M. Barrie’s original tale (in the 1904 plays), Peter led Wendy and her brothers to Neverland by flying ‘second to the right, and straight on till morning for many days’, though it is stated in the novel (written later in 1911) that Peter made up these directions on the spot to impress Wendy, (This in fact struck me a very James thing to do.) Wendy and Peter then find the island only because it was out looking for them. (the genius of Barrie.)
In the 1953 Disney film, Peter Pan, the word ‘star’ is added to the directions Peter speaks: ‘second star to the right, and straight on till morning.’ That phrase is widely quoted, and was used again in the 1991 movie Hook. But the less said about Hook in a film blog the better.
The title THIRD STAR had arrived and was quickly signed off. The link to Peter Pan is inalienably British and subtly enforces the idea that these are Lost Boys and that in a way, James never will grow up.
I liked it, but I didn’t love it. The two words in isolation made it a bit tougher and more ‘boysy’ – which was good. And the aim of a title that would travel all over the world was achieved – but it took a brilliant bit of design to bring it to life. Franki Goodwin, who designed the poster and titles, picked the perfect typeface but crucially added the simplest four pointed star as the dot of the ‘i’ and suddenly it felt like ‘our film’ again.
The link to the stars, and fate, and travel had long inspired this film and now we’d come full circle. So, that’s the ‘A’ in more detail than I can usually give to the ‘Q’…
But here’s some other stuff I found out as some nice wider reading.
Did you know:
The third brightest star in the sky is Rigil Kentaurus, otherwise known as Alpha Centauri, which literally means foot of the centaur.
It’s also known as Rigil Kent, Toliman, HR 5459 or the even catchier, HD 129620… (Anyone looking for unusual baby names may want to add that last one to the list.)
If you’d like to take a look, here’s where it is… Right Ascension: 14 39 35.9 – Declination: -60 50 07 (Yep… right there.)
Although its ‘Apparent Magnitude is -0.27’ its ‘Absolute Magnitude 4.4’ (Hey – we all look different in the mirror.)
This beautiful astral body boasts the Spectral Type: G2V (…I KNOW!!!!!)
But our THIRD STAR… is also sometimes known as Proxima Centauri.
Why? Because it’s the closest to us.
Yes. At a mere 4.3 light years… (not the brightest star – not the second brightest – but the third brightest star)… the THIRD STAR is the closest.
Take a look tonight. Raise a glass even, as many a traveller has since before we knew quite how we all hung together in this big bright universe. Good on you Alpha Centauri.
mug7 