Casting your theatre pals is a Genius idea
Michael Grandage gathered a top-flight cast for Genius, his big-screen directorial debut.
colin Firth plays Max Perkins, a legendary publisher who helped discover authors such as thomas wolfe, played by Jude Law. nicole Kidman portrays aline Bernstein, a celebrated stage designer who was wolfe’s lover. Laura Linney is Louise sanders, Perkins’ wife.
Perkins also helped put F. scott Fitzgerald on the literary map. he’s played by Guy Pearce, and Dominic west is ernest hemingway.
Genius marks the first movie from the Michael Grandage company, run by Grandage and partner Jamie Bierman.
Grandage and Jude know each other well — the actor starred in his hamlet and henry V. he worked with west when he was artistic director of sheffield theatres, while Vanessa Kirby, who plays Zelda Fitzgerald, is another theatre acquaintance.
the director also offered smaller roles to other actors he’s worked with over the years.
Katherine Kingsley plays a character described in John Logan’s screenplay as ‘purring woman’. she interrupts a dinner and drags thomas wolfe off to meet her friends.
Grandage alumni Gillian hanna, richard Dempsey, Ian Drysdale, corey Johnson, alex Large, harry attwell (who played in several Grandage productions) are all there, somewhere; as is Lucy Briers, who appears as Max Perkins’ secretary.
One of Grandage’s (few) film credits was as an amputee in nicholas hytner’s film the Madness Of King George.
he explained that he was part of a company working with hytner at chichester in 1985. when a few years later hytner was preparing to make a film of the alan Bennett play, he sent a note round to all his acting mates: ‘no parts, but I’ve got a morning’s filming. tick box whichever you want below: sailor, pig farmer, amputee.’
Grandage completes shooting on Genius today and with a cast and crew of such distinction it’s bound to feature in the next awards season.