CLICK: Do you think, considering some of the budgets that films are getting, that improvisation is still an important tool when everything is so rigidly defined usually?
JL: I think what it allowed, practically what it allowed, was speed of production. It was a very quick…you know Studio Canal, then Film4, the producers, everyone bought into the idea that this was the way we were going to make it. It was exciting to them, and me, to do a genre film with what was essentially a dramatic method, it was a challenge. You know it’s not a common way of doing it. Everyone was interested and bought into that as an experiment, the budget level was quite low-risk to them, all those things allowed the method, allowed it to happen quickly, and allowed it to have freedom. If it had been more expensive, there would have been less freedom, obviously there always is. And there would have been a point where you go, “We need to see a script because we need to guarantee that this is going to work in a certain way.” So I think they took a risk that even if the improvisation was not that good, it would still kinda work. And they were only spending a certain amount to allow for that.
CLICK: From a studio point of view you say it’s low-risk because of the budget, but it’s your first time directing, so how was it coming into this project with this unorthodox approach?
JL: I did a TV movie years ago that was that kind of approach, so I’d done it before and I’d learned quite a few….Actually, it’s interesting because it didn’t really work; it kind of worked, but it didn’t really work. And the mistakes I made that time gave me the confidence not to make those again. And also, because you know, I’ve been directing a lot of TV, so I had the confidence in how to direct actors, how to construct scenes, how to structure sequences and how to get those shots. So I knew what I could do to cover my arse if it all went wrong. I think that’s the difference. I think if it’s the first thing I’d ever directed, I would have been really, really scared to do it that way.
CLICK: Do you think you’ve unearthed future stars in Alice and Iain, considering their performances in the film?
JL: Yeah, I think…I mean, you know, Iain is doing [Agents of] S.H.I.E.L.D. at the moment and he’s just done Ryan Gosling’s film. But he’s been doing stuff for years; it’s not because of my film. But I think my film probably marked him, you know every actor has those kind of transitions into a new chapter: age, experience, style of performance. And maybe that’s what he’s doing. Alice has been in a couple of films, but this is actually the first film she’d done because we shot it before Ginger & Rosa and before Beautiful Creatures. And I think it’s interesting, what they all found is that they were spoiled. You know, it gave them so much freedom. They were able to create the character, which is really exciting as an actor. That I think to go onto those very formal, structured films, discipline is very different. So I think they will go on to be stars. I think they’ve got it. I mean, they’re both charismatic, they’re both really good at acting, and they’re both very smart. Alice is only 18, she was 17 when we filmed, and she’s wise beyond her years. Iain is one of those actors who looks to the end of a story, he’s able to manage his performance. And they’re both very clever. Allen (Leech), I think is brilliant. I think he needs…he’s doing The Imitation Game with Benedict (Cumberbatch) and Keira Knightley and that will be really interesting because that’s a post-Downton shift. I think he’s a really good actor and I think he needs to perhaps find his kind of cinematic identity, which I think he’s doing. Once he’s done that, he’ll be off. You know, he’s so loved and he’s very classy.
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