Post by althea on Oct 8, 2011 1:39:37 GMT -5
I borrowed this from Holly, over on LJ, great interview thanks for posting it ................
australian interview
www.viewauckland.co.nz/cinemas/ironclad-interview-feature-interview-4577-2.html
James says some interesting and revealing things here-oh and he swears a lot too
Is there any practical application for swordplay?
James Purefoy
In real life? No. Oh, yes. I am a member of a fencing club. Which is a very
different thing, isn't it? Because obviously when you're doing swordplay on
films you know exactly where every blow is going to come but when you're doing
it in real life you've no idea where it's going to come and that's rather
thrilling.
If you're going to make a film about something brutally violent, what's the
point of not showing the brutal violence?
Did you injure anybody?
James Purefoy
On this film, no.
Have you ever injured anybody?
James Purefoy
Yes. On Solomon Kane, we were shooting this moment where I'm assaulting a castle
with a rapier and the idea was to stick it into somebody's neck here [mimes
action] and then drag him along with just the top two inches of the sword as I'm
talking to somebody else, and the guy moved at the last second in a way that he
shouldn't have, and it went through his cheek and landed on his tongue. But he
was a very butch stuntman. I was obviously horrified, because I can't bear
hurting people. And I said, "I am so sorry – it's awful," and he said, [putting
on Czech accent] "No, James, just make movie big success and then I boast."
Was anyone injured this time? I mean, you escaped unscathed ...
James Purefoy
Do you know, I'm having trouble remembering whether anybody was actually hurt. I
think we were pretty damn lucky. I know that doesn't make great copy – you'd
much rather if I said people had a limb severed, but actually we didn't. We were
pretty damn good on this. You know, I mean nicks and cuts and grazes but nothing
serious. Which is rare.
That's not a real arm that's used to beat someone to death with then?
James Purefoy
Clearly not.
Are you getting sick and tired of the rain, wind and cold on your film sets?
James Purefoy
I just want to make a movie in the Bahamas. That's all. I was watching that Mad
Dogs the other day and they all got to go to Majorca for, I don't know, two
months? I mean, having said that, I lived in Rome for two and a half years when
we shot Rome, so it's all penance now.
Did it interrupt filming at all or was it just, 'Great, we'll just shoot anyway'
in the rain?
James Purefoy
No, we just shot in the rain. But, it's only rain. Obviously somebody in the
office here is going, 'Oh, the conditions were just horrific,' but I shot
Solomon Kane, four months in minus fifteen degree temperatures where my costume
froze to my body, so frankly, a little bit of Welsh rain and mud is not that
difficult to deal with.
Do you think it adds to it in any way? A bit of method acting?
James Purefoy
Mm-hm-hmm, don't get me started on that. No, I think it's always good to have an
atmos, isn't it? An atmosphere that you're working against. And these are tough
men. They wouldn't have even noticed it was raining – it was just rain.
Was there quite a bit of camaraderie on set then with the other actors?
James Purefoy
Yes, but I think that's crucial and it's very important for a film that is using
that template of the Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven story, that template
that you're hanging the film on. It is kind of important that you get a bunch of
actors who are going to get on with each other. And fortunately we had not a
wanker amongst us. Which is often not the case but there was no ego, there was
no problem with that. There was gentle ribbing and joshing and joking. And a lot
of people had worked with each other before – I'd worked with Derek Jacobi,
Brian [Cox], and Jason [Flemyng] a couple of times and Mackenzie [Crook] twice,
so, you know, it feels like just old friends coming back together.
The violence is so convincingly medieval. I wonder if part of the humour might
be rooted in that. This is, I think, the first film where somebody clubs
somebody to death -
James Purefoy
- with an arm. Yeah, possibly. Is that a first? It might well be a first. I do
think the violence in it is extreme but then I've never been good at being soft
on it in that way. If you're going to try and make a film about something that
is brutally violent, what's the point of not showing the brutal violence? So
that's the question. The question is why I made the film in the first place, but
it's not a question about how extreme the violence is. It is violent and it was
violent and it was known to be one of the most brutally violent sieges of the
medieval times in the whole of Europe. I mean, it was horrific. And I think
that's the important thing – I don't think that we over-glamorise or make it
sexy, the violence. I think we are pretty honest about it.
What certificate is it?
James Purefoy
I don't even know. I mean it should be an 18. If it isn't, there's something
wrong.
The character you play is a very religious man and he's taken the vows. Could
you understand that?
James Purefoy
I think you can understand it. I don't think you have to look far today to see
people, men mainly, the odd female suicide bomber but men, mainly and the
appalling atrocities that they've committed. And they believe that they have a
Get Out of Jail Free card in terms of eternal damnation because they're doing it
"in God's name." And it's not just Islamic extremists, it's religious
fundamentalists in the United States who believe that they can shoot the owner
of an abortion clinic, but they're doing it "in God's name." It's any arsehole
who commits unspeakable violence on anybody else in God's name. I have no time
for it. I don't have much time for real violence at all. I think there are
infinitely better ways of changing the world than using violence. Sitting round
a table talking is a pretty good start.
You're doing such a spread of media at the moment – you're currently in a play,
you've got this film out. What are the film scripts like? Is that a reflection
of the kind of film scripts you're getting offered that you're diversifying out?
James Purefoy
It's all pretty random, to tell you the honest truth. I wish there was a plan.
Has the recession changed the kind of scripts that do become available? We seem
to have an awful lot of spandex being used for superhero movies, for example.
I'm surprised we haven't tempted you that way.
James Purefoy
Well, no. No. God, no, I'm far too old. The very idea of doing that. I think
certainly it helps that we have an enormous industry here, we have incredibly
skilled workforce, you know. But this is not anything new. We have a huge amount
of skilled craftspeople and very good tax breaks for big American movies to come
over here. I did John Carter of Mars and I know that they saved a LOT of money
coming over here to use our facilities here.
That's been on the go for some time ...
James Purefoy
I know, but they've got a huge amount of post-production to do on it. I mean, I
know that half the effects houses in London are working on John Carter of Mars.
But yeah, it just takes forever to do that. It won't come out until 2012. So
that's a full two years after we shot it.
I have no time for any arsehole who commits unspeakable violence on anybody else
in God's name...
How much research did you do?
James Purefoy
A lot. I mean, a lot of reading about Templars, because that's who my character
is. And how to work that weapon. How does the long sword work? What do you do
with it? So a lot of reading of books about that. It's all fascinating. It's
always interesting, because I've done a lot of sword movies and you use a rapier
in a very different way than you use a sabre or a short sword. But the long
sword is a whole weapon. Not just the blade, which is what other ones are. You
can chop a man clean in half with a broadsword. There's an awful lot of spinning
and turning - it's like a dance. So if you slice through somebody – now,
normally, with a sword you'd stop and come back for another chop and stop there,
but because it's so heavy, a broadsword, you [mimes slicing someone in half] and
it keeps coming, you hold on behind it.
Which is why we called it Florence, because once you set it in motion you had to
"go with the Flo." So it's all to do with spinning and keeping up with the
momentum of the blade and just slicing as it goes. But then it's not just that
end of it, you've also got the pommel, which is a hard steel piece on the end of
it, which is used as you come that way [mimes swinging sword again] you can then
reverse it and break somebody's head in with it. Or with the crossguard, there's
that idea of taking people's eyes out, gouging. So the whole weapon is, like I
say, it's not just the blade – every part of it is used.
So were there broadsword classes before filming then?
James Purefoy
No, no, not so much broadsword classes but I worked with Richard - Richard Ryan,
our stunt guy, is somebody that I've worked with a lot, so we sit down and we
talk. I have an interest in it so it's not like I'm playing a brain surgeon
where I really, really need to work something out, how that works. I'd done a
lot of it, so it's about adapting different methods of fighting.
How much of it is you then, that we see on screen?
James Purefoy
All of it. I don't think I had a stunt double at all, actually, on this one.
The horse riding? Also you?
James Purefoy
Yeah, yeah.
When you started out as an actor, was this the sort of thing that you wanted to
do?
James Purefoy
Yes, I think you sort of probably do end up doing the thing you want to do if
you're lucky enough. And I loved watching movies when I was a kid. I haven't
done a World War II movie, at all. I'd love to do a World War II movie, because
those were the sorts of things I used to watch. I used to love Guns of Navarone
and Where Eagles Dare. I wasn't big on Star Wars, funnily enough. It sort of
passed me by, Star Wars, entirely. I was much more interested in really moody
characters, you know, Clint Eastwood and The Man With No Name and those kinds of
slightly hell-raisey actors. I loved all the Burtons and the O'Tooles. I loved
Lawrence of Arabia. I was blown away by that the first time I saw it. And they
were men, you know, they were men's men and there was nothing kind of
metrosexual about them. They were big guys and I guess the parts I play now are
parts often that are big men, so yes, I think I probably am influenced.
There are some of us who are still mourning for Rome where men really were men.
Wasn't there supposed to be another series of that?
James Purefoy
Well, you know, I think they regretted it – I know HBO regretted not doing it
again. I don't think they quite realised how big it was going to be. And it was
also blisteringly expensive. Eleven million dollars an hour. And we were
slightly buggered up here. The BBC did a very strange thing where they put
somebody in charge of re-editing the first three episodes here who did such a
shocking butchering of the pace and the effect that we never really recovered
from it. So if I step off a plane in New York or LA I get a lot of reaction
about Rome, whereas here it never really took off. I mean it's quite
extraordinary how a hundred million dollar series can be given to a junior
producer and editor and they f*ck it up really badly.
And that was simply to put it on TV over here?
James Purefoy
Here is the "reason" - somebody said 'Cut out a lot of the politics of the first
three episodes, because the British public know a lot more about Roman history.'
And that meant that it unbalanced it, it became much more about the sex and the
violence. And so suddenly it became "The Rompy Rome," "The Sex and the Sandals."
But actually, when people go back and they look at it, they go, "Actually, no,
hang on, there's much less of that." And they've spun it. And that's what they
were trying to do, they were spinning it as this quite outrageous series,
whereas actually there was quite a lot of dry politics there that they
eviscerated.
What can we expect from Camelot then?
James Purefoy
Well, Camelot – because Camelot is pretty mythic anyway, you can do pretty much
what you like on Camelot, can't you? I mean, they stayed as close as they could
to Le Morte d'Arthur and Thomas Malory and I think they're going to do a great
job. And again, they've got some fantastic actors in that. My character is very
much Mark Antony in medieval times. If you were missing Mark Antony, tune into
Camelot – he's reappeared, with a big beard.
Were you missing him?
James Purefoy
I think I was missing him a little bit. He was a great character. He's one of
those great, fantastic characters to play because you never know which way he's
going to go. And he's a very dangerous man because of it. You know, not hugely
clever. So like a lot of not hugely clever people, they're quite dangerous.
When you say you mainly get recognised more in LA, is that generally?
James Purefoy
No, just the Rome thing.
If you were missing Mark Antony, tune into Camelot – he's reappeared, with a big
beard...
Can you walk down the street here?
James Purefoy
Oh God, yes. And I take great pride in that and I don't – I've never been
"celeb-y" actor. You don't catch me falling out of nightclubs at three o'clock
in the morning. Well, very rarely.
Well, I hope you remember your pants.
James Purefoy
Well, precisely. I find it all a bit baffling, the whole celeb thing and I don't
really get it. I don't get why people do it to themselves. I don't understand
why. There are plenty of restaurants in London without paparazzi in front of
them, so go there if you don't like being photographed. Why choose The Ivy?
Is there a particular time period you think you would have thrived in? You've
touched on so many different points in history.
James Purefoy
I have. It's always about money though, isn't it? You have to be rich, in any of
those time periods that I'm talking about. Life is just hideous in mediaeval
Britain if you're not rich. It's hideous in Roman times if you're not rich. It's
hideous in the fifteenth century if you're not rich. Life is very short and
brutal and unpleasant and there's no medicine and it's cold and the food is
f*cking disgusting and it's all about what can you buy. Regency England, if
you're rich, I'd imagine was pretty good. I played Beau Brummel once and that
was a lovely part to play. I like Regency England. That was pretty good.
australian interview
www.viewauckland.co.nz/cinemas/ironclad-interview-feature-interview-4577-2.html
James says some interesting and revealing things here-oh and he swears a lot too
Is there any practical application for swordplay?
James Purefoy
In real life? No. Oh, yes. I am a member of a fencing club. Which is a very
different thing, isn't it? Because obviously when you're doing swordplay on
films you know exactly where every blow is going to come but when you're doing
it in real life you've no idea where it's going to come and that's rather
thrilling.
If you're going to make a film about something brutally violent, what's the
point of not showing the brutal violence?
Did you injure anybody?
James Purefoy
On this film, no.
Have you ever injured anybody?
James Purefoy
Yes. On Solomon Kane, we were shooting this moment where I'm assaulting a castle
with a rapier and the idea was to stick it into somebody's neck here [mimes
action] and then drag him along with just the top two inches of the sword as I'm
talking to somebody else, and the guy moved at the last second in a way that he
shouldn't have, and it went through his cheek and landed on his tongue. But he
was a very butch stuntman. I was obviously horrified, because I can't bear
hurting people. And I said, "I am so sorry – it's awful," and he said, [putting
on Czech accent] "No, James, just make movie big success and then I boast."
Was anyone injured this time? I mean, you escaped unscathed ...
James Purefoy
Do you know, I'm having trouble remembering whether anybody was actually hurt. I
think we were pretty damn lucky. I know that doesn't make great copy – you'd
much rather if I said people had a limb severed, but actually we didn't. We were
pretty damn good on this. You know, I mean nicks and cuts and grazes but nothing
serious. Which is rare.
That's not a real arm that's used to beat someone to death with then?
James Purefoy
Clearly not.
Are you getting sick and tired of the rain, wind and cold on your film sets?
James Purefoy
I just want to make a movie in the Bahamas. That's all. I was watching that Mad
Dogs the other day and they all got to go to Majorca for, I don't know, two
months? I mean, having said that, I lived in Rome for two and a half years when
we shot Rome, so it's all penance now.
Did it interrupt filming at all or was it just, 'Great, we'll just shoot anyway'
in the rain?
James Purefoy
No, we just shot in the rain. But, it's only rain. Obviously somebody in the
office here is going, 'Oh, the conditions were just horrific,' but I shot
Solomon Kane, four months in minus fifteen degree temperatures where my costume
froze to my body, so frankly, a little bit of Welsh rain and mud is not that
difficult to deal with.
Do you think it adds to it in any way? A bit of method acting?
James Purefoy
Mm-hm-hmm, don't get me started on that. No, I think it's always good to have an
atmos, isn't it? An atmosphere that you're working against. And these are tough
men. They wouldn't have even noticed it was raining – it was just rain.
Was there quite a bit of camaraderie on set then with the other actors?
James Purefoy
Yes, but I think that's crucial and it's very important for a film that is using
that template of the Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven story, that template
that you're hanging the film on. It is kind of important that you get a bunch of
actors who are going to get on with each other. And fortunately we had not a
wanker amongst us. Which is often not the case but there was no ego, there was
no problem with that. There was gentle ribbing and joshing and joking. And a lot
of people had worked with each other before – I'd worked with Derek Jacobi,
Brian [Cox], and Jason [Flemyng] a couple of times and Mackenzie [Crook] twice,
so, you know, it feels like just old friends coming back together.
The violence is so convincingly medieval. I wonder if part of the humour might
be rooted in that. This is, I think, the first film where somebody clubs
somebody to death -
James Purefoy
- with an arm. Yeah, possibly. Is that a first? It might well be a first. I do
think the violence in it is extreme but then I've never been good at being soft
on it in that way. If you're going to try and make a film about something that
is brutally violent, what's the point of not showing the brutal violence? So
that's the question. The question is why I made the film in the first place, but
it's not a question about how extreme the violence is. It is violent and it was
violent and it was known to be one of the most brutally violent sieges of the
medieval times in the whole of Europe. I mean, it was horrific. And I think
that's the important thing – I don't think that we over-glamorise or make it
sexy, the violence. I think we are pretty honest about it.
What certificate is it?
James Purefoy
I don't even know. I mean it should be an 18. If it isn't, there's something
wrong.
The character you play is a very religious man and he's taken the vows. Could
you understand that?
James Purefoy
I think you can understand it. I don't think you have to look far today to see
people, men mainly, the odd female suicide bomber but men, mainly and the
appalling atrocities that they've committed. And they believe that they have a
Get Out of Jail Free card in terms of eternal damnation because they're doing it
"in God's name." And it's not just Islamic extremists, it's religious
fundamentalists in the United States who believe that they can shoot the owner
of an abortion clinic, but they're doing it "in God's name." It's any arsehole
who commits unspeakable violence on anybody else in God's name. I have no time
for it. I don't have much time for real violence at all. I think there are
infinitely better ways of changing the world than using violence. Sitting round
a table talking is a pretty good start.
You're doing such a spread of media at the moment – you're currently in a play,
you've got this film out. What are the film scripts like? Is that a reflection
of the kind of film scripts you're getting offered that you're diversifying out?
James Purefoy
It's all pretty random, to tell you the honest truth. I wish there was a plan.
Has the recession changed the kind of scripts that do become available? We seem
to have an awful lot of spandex being used for superhero movies, for example.
I'm surprised we haven't tempted you that way.
James Purefoy
Well, no. No. God, no, I'm far too old. The very idea of doing that. I think
certainly it helps that we have an enormous industry here, we have incredibly
skilled workforce, you know. But this is not anything new. We have a huge amount
of skilled craftspeople and very good tax breaks for big American movies to come
over here. I did John Carter of Mars and I know that they saved a LOT of money
coming over here to use our facilities here.
That's been on the go for some time ...
James Purefoy
I know, but they've got a huge amount of post-production to do on it. I mean, I
know that half the effects houses in London are working on John Carter of Mars.
But yeah, it just takes forever to do that. It won't come out until 2012. So
that's a full two years after we shot it.
I have no time for any arsehole who commits unspeakable violence on anybody else
in God's name...
How much research did you do?
James Purefoy
A lot. I mean, a lot of reading about Templars, because that's who my character
is. And how to work that weapon. How does the long sword work? What do you do
with it? So a lot of reading of books about that. It's all fascinating. It's
always interesting, because I've done a lot of sword movies and you use a rapier
in a very different way than you use a sabre or a short sword. But the long
sword is a whole weapon. Not just the blade, which is what other ones are. You
can chop a man clean in half with a broadsword. There's an awful lot of spinning
and turning - it's like a dance. So if you slice through somebody – now,
normally, with a sword you'd stop and come back for another chop and stop there,
but because it's so heavy, a broadsword, you [mimes slicing someone in half] and
it keeps coming, you hold on behind it.
Which is why we called it Florence, because once you set it in motion you had to
"go with the Flo." So it's all to do with spinning and keeping up with the
momentum of the blade and just slicing as it goes. But then it's not just that
end of it, you've also got the pommel, which is a hard steel piece on the end of
it, which is used as you come that way [mimes swinging sword again] you can then
reverse it and break somebody's head in with it. Or with the crossguard, there's
that idea of taking people's eyes out, gouging. So the whole weapon is, like I
say, it's not just the blade – every part of it is used.
So were there broadsword classes before filming then?
James Purefoy
No, no, not so much broadsword classes but I worked with Richard - Richard Ryan,
our stunt guy, is somebody that I've worked with a lot, so we sit down and we
talk. I have an interest in it so it's not like I'm playing a brain surgeon
where I really, really need to work something out, how that works. I'd done a
lot of it, so it's about adapting different methods of fighting.
How much of it is you then, that we see on screen?
James Purefoy
All of it. I don't think I had a stunt double at all, actually, on this one.
The horse riding? Also you?
James Purefoy
Yeah, yeah.
When you started out as an actor, was this the sort of thing that you wanted to
do?
James Purefoy
Yes, I think you sort of probably do end up doing the thing you want to do if
you're lucky enough. And I loved watching movies when I was a kid. I haven't
done a World War II movie, at all. I'd love to do a World War II movie, because
those were the sorts of things I used to watch. I used to love Guns of Navarone
and Where Eagles Dare. I wasn't big on Star Wars, funnily enough. It sort of
passed me by, Star Wars, entirely. I was much more interested in really moody
characters, you know, Clint Eastwood and The Man With No Name and those kinds of
slightly hell-raisey actors. I loved all the Burtons and the O'Tooles. I loved
Lawrence of Arabia. I was blown away by that the first time I saw it. And they
were men, you know, they were men's men and there was nothing kind of
metrosexual about them. They were big guys and I guess the parts I play now are
parts often that are big men, so yes, I think I probably am influenced.
There are some of us who are still mourning for Rome where men really were men.
Wasn't there supposed to be another series of that?
James Purefoy
Well, you know, I think they regretted it – I know HBO regretted not doing it
again. I don't think they quite realised how big it was going to be. And it was
also blisteringly expensive. Eleven million dollars an hour. And we were
slightly buggered up here. The BBC did a very strange thing where they put
somebody in charge of re-editing the first three episodes here who did such a
shocking butchering of the pace and the effect that we never really recovered
from it. So if I step off a plane in New York or LA I get a lot of reaction
about Rome, whereas here it never really took off. I mean it's quite
extraordinary how a hundred million dollar series can be given to a junior
producer and editor and they f*ck it up really badly.
And that was simply to put it on TV over here?
James Purefoy
Here is the "reason" - somebody said 'Cut out a lot of the politics of the first
three episodes, because the British public know a lot more about Roman history.'
And that meant that it unbalanced it, it became much more about the sex and the
violence. And so suddenly it became "The Rompy Rome," "The Sex and the Sandals."
But actually, when people go back and they look at it, they go, "Actually, no,
hang on, there's much less of that." And they've spun it. And that's what they
were trying to do, they were spinning it as this quite outrageous series,
whereas actually there was quite a lot of dry politics there that they
eviscerated.
What can we expect from Camelot then?
James Purefoy
Well, Camelot – because Camelot is pretty mythic anyway, you can do pretty much
what you like on Camelot, can't you? I mean, they stayed as close as they could
to Le Morte d'Arthur and Thomas Malory and I think they're going to do a great
job. And again, they've got some fantastic actors in that. My character is very
much Mark Antony in medieval times. If you were missing Mark Antony, tune into
Camelot – he's reappeared, with a big beard.
Were you missing him?
James Purefoy
I think I was missing him a little bit. He was a great character. He's one of
those great, fantastic characters to play because you never know which way he's
going to go. And he's a very dangerous man because of it. You know, not hugely
clever. So like a lot of not hugely clever people, they're quite dangerous.
When you say you mainly get recognised more in LA, is that generally?
James Purefoy
No, just the Rome thing.
If you were missing Mark Antony, tune into Camelot – he's reappeared, with a big
beard...
Can you walk down the street here?
James Purefoy
Oh God, yes. And I take great pride in that and I don't – I've never been
"celeb-y" actor. You don't catch me falling out of nightclubs at three o'clock
in the morning. Well, very rarely.
Well, I hope you remember your pants.
James Purefoy
Well, precisely. I find it all a bit baffling, the whole celeb thing and I don't
really get it. I don't get why people do it to themselves. I don't understand
why. There are plenty of restaurants in London without paparazzi in front of
them, so go there if you don't like being photographed. Why choose The Ivy?
Is there a particular time period you think you would have thrived in? You've
touched on so many different points in history.
James Purefoy
I have. It's always about money though, isn't it? You have to be rich, in any of
those time periods that I'm talking about. Life is just hideous in mediaeval
Britain if you're not rich. It's hideous in Roman times if you're not rich. It's
hideous in the fifteenth century if you're not rich. Life is very short and
brutal and unpleasant and there's no medicine and it's cold and the food is
f*cking disgusting and it's all about what can you buy. Regency England, if
you're rich, I'd imagine was pretty good. I played Beau Brummel once and that
was a lovely part to play. I like Regency England. That was pretty good.