The year’s most-haunting drama
The director of a heartbreaking coming-of-age tale was so emotional at the end of the shoot he almost broke down, finds James Croot.
Before working on his latest project, Andrew Haigh admits he was actually scared of its eponymous ‘‘hero’’ and his ilk.
But so in love was the 45-yearold British director with Willy Vautin’s 2010 novel Lean on Pete, that he decided he had to overcome his fears.
The result is a powerful, heartbreaking, coming-of-age drama that was the talk of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and now this year’s New Zealand equivalent.
At it’s heart, Pete is tale of a troubled teen Charley (All the Money in the World’s Charlie Plummer) and the fading racehorse he befriends while working for a hardscrabble horse trainer (Steve Buscemi). It’s a story that’s more War Horse or Into the Wild than Flicka or Black Beauty.
Speaking to Stuff, Haigh said he first encountered Vautin’s book after it was recommended to him by his partner.
‘‘I read it on a plane after doing some press for my [2011] film Weekend and fell in love with the story. Even though my life was nothing like Charley’s, there was just something that I connected with about him and his constant need for some kind of security or happiness.
‘‘The fact that it was set in a world I knew nothing about just appealed even more.’’
After securing the rights and obtaining the necessary financing, Haigh was determined to make his adaptation as authentic as possible.
That meant crossing the Atlantic to conduct research by staying in lots of motels and attending county fairs and making sure they could shoot in real locations.
‘‘I had a certain idea of what the American West is supposed to look like,’’ Haigh said, before reminiscing about his battles with the producers over their exact filming locations in Oregon – at some points more than seven hours from the state’s largest city, Portland.
‘‘They always wanted us to be near a road and I wouldn’t do it.’’
Haigh also eschewed Portland’s regular tourist sites preferring instead to film in the parts ‘‘no one would go to’’.
‘‘There’s an idea of what a city is when you visit it. You’re not going to hang out in Delta Park, or maybe you won’t go to the racetrack. But I liked the idea of going to the underknown outskirts.’’
He believed that British directors are attracted to shooting in America because of the wide open spaces that are available.
‘‘We live in a part of the world
‘‘Even though my life was nothing like Charley’s, there was just something that I connected with about him and his constant need for some kind of security or happiness.’’ Andrew Haigh
where there isn’t much space. But then again, maybe it’s just that we’re fascinated with America.
‘‘Our relationship may be a close one, but we’re also very different.’’
That also applies to the mindset of its people, which is one of the attractions of Vautin’s book, Haigh added.
‘‘What I always loved about the book was that even though situations get difficult for Charley, he was always driven by home.
‘‘Coming from a European background, I think there’s something about America’s hope, even if it doesn’t always fulfil its ambitions.’’
Another aspect Haigh adored about the book that he tried to stay true to in the movie was that characters drift in and out of Charley’s life.
‘‘In movies, often supporting characters have a big moment, then they come back and have another big moment.
‘‘That never feels truthful to me and, here, having them disappear as quickly and randomly as they came in, accentuates to me the kind of sadness of Charley’s life.’’
As well as the racehorse going through his paces, Lean on Pete also features a number of scenes of Charley running – something that made Haigh feel a little guilty.
‘‘We’d do a take and I’d go to Charlie, ‘can you do it again please?’
‘‘I ended up making him run miles and miles and by the end I just couldn’t do it.’’
He also admitted that, contrary to all his expectations, he struggled with the final day he worked with Pete’s equine star Starsky.
‘‘We’d been working with him for seven weeks and we had a tricky shot and only 20 minutes to get it right before the sun set.
‘‘I got really over-emotional and I had to go and have a little walk into the desert because I really wanted to get it right.
‘‘I thought I was having an emotional breakdown.
‘‘Working on this, I realised the power of horses and the connection you can have with one.
‘‘I know that Charlie definitely felt it. So maybe, from now on, I will be riding horses on the streets of London.’’