’S PRISON PALS
DIRECTOR PAUL KING TALKS US THROUGH A CHARMING AND SURPRISING SET-PIECE
PADDINGTON 2
MAY have more heartwarming moments. It certainly has more tear-jerking moments. But there’s a particular kind of comfort to be derived from a beautifully conceived and executed visual gag, and this is the finest to be found in Paul King’s glorious sequel. When the Browns visit Paddington in prison (long story), he’s just a lonely bear, adrift in an empty frame. Until he’s joined by Brendan Gleeson’s Knuckles Mcginty. And then Noah Taylor’s Phibs. And then Aaron Neil’s Spoon. And Robert Stevenson’s Jimmy The Snitch. And on and on and on, until virtually every pink-clad inmate in the prison, it seems, has squeezed into the booth. We asked King how he pulled off The Pawshank Redemption.
THE CONCEPT
The idea was very much baked into the script, as a tribute to Cal Mccrystal, a comedy director with whom King had worked in his formative years. “He’s a total genius,” says King. “When we were thinking about prisons, I thought about those visiting rooms and square windows and thought, ‘That’s just the sort of thing Cal would do.’ It could be a really fun window, because you can’t see what’s coming out the sides. So you start with this very bleak image of Paddington, lost and alone. And by the end, he seems fine and has got loads of friends. But they’re the most worrying friends.”
THE LINE-UP
“We essentially started with the window, and worked out how many people we could get,” says King. For the record, there are 14 prisoners in the frame by the end, with some sticking their heads in at obtuse angles. As each character was introduced by Paddington (played on set by Gus Brown, “who can channel Ben Whishaw pretty well”), they pop up and say a line by way of greeting. This meant there could be very little improv, as the timings had to be exact.
THE NAMES
Extravagant comedy names are a staple of King and co-writer Simon Farnaby’s comedy, and that’s very much the case here. As well as the above cons, Paddington is joined by T-bone (Tom Davis), The Professor (Jamie Demetriou), Squeaky Pete (Geoff Banks), Double Bass Bob (Emeson Nwolie), Farmer Jack (Nicholas Lumley), Mad Dog (Deepak Anand, who barks his introduction), Johnny Cashpoint (Stephen Mcdade), and Virgile Elana’s Charlie Rumble. “It was quite hard finding those names, because your first ten are generic prisoner names like Razors and Stabby Dan, which aren’t quite PG territory,” says King.
THE CONSULTANT
Mccrystal is credited as ‘comedy consultant’ on the film. As well as kneeling uncomfortably under a table to make his brief appearance as disgraced MP Sir Geoffrey Wilcott, he was brought on board to help choreograph the prisoners’ entrances, for maximum comedic effect. There was just one problem: King forgot to tell the actors. “He’d been working on this movie for months, but nobody really saw him apart from me and Simon,” laughs King. “So you had Cal popping up from the table saying, ‘I think the ordering is wrong. I think he should come in second.’ And Cal said he could hear all these grand actors go, ‘Who the fuck does that guy think he is, telling the director how to make the fucking scene?!’”
THE EXECUTION
“It was probably the most takes we did of anything,” recalls King of the shot. He estimates they did 30. “It’s one of those things you have to get super-fast, and people can’t come in before their name is said. But it was super-fun.” And it seems that 30 was the minimum number for Whishaw in the recording booth, as he tried to replicate the rat-a-tat timing of the dialogue while maintaining Paddington’s jauntiness. “I know we recorded that scene until Ben was ready to cry,” laughs the director. “Ben is very patient, but we broke him with that one.”