Stephen Merchant The comic writer tells Michael Doherty about working with The Rock again, for his new wrestling movie
Michael Doherty catches up with Stephen Merchant, the writer- director of the hit new movie, Fighting With My Family
Stephen Merchant is familiar as Ricky Gervais’ right-hand man in such wayward-winning TV series as e O ce, Extras and Life’s Too Short. But the big man from Bristol is also a writer, an editor, a director and a stand-up in his own right. His latest venture sees him get behind the camera for Fighting With My Family, the true story of a young woman from Norwich who dreamed of making it big in US wrestling, and eventually became Paige, the Queen of WWE
Michael Doherty: When I heard that you and e Rock were making a movie about wrestling, I assumed you must have come across the story and then contacted your old Tooth Fairy co-star Dwayne Johnson. Turns out it was the other way around...
Stephen Merchant: It’s true. I can’t take any credit for stumbling across this story! I was actually embarrassed by the fact that I had never heard of this woman who went from such humble beginnings in Norwich all the way to the top of WWE. at’s Hollywood, as far as wrestlers are concerned. It was a real rags-to-riches story, unearthed by Dwayne who then sent it to me. Initially, I thought, wrestling, not interested: this is going to be boring. But then I fell in love with this family and found their story so appealing.
Clearly you didn’t want this lm to be of interest only to wrestling fans....
e only thing I was interested in was the family. I wanted the lm to appeal to non-wrestling fans like me. I wanted the wrestling community to like it, too, but I didn’t want to be beholden to them so that nobody else would understand it. It’s a universal story that could have been Billy Elliot or e Commitments.
You’re not a devotee of WWE, but were you a fan of the UK wrestling as a child – Big Daddy, Kendo Nagasaki and so on?
I would watch the Saturday wrestling with my granddad, who was a big fan. Even as a kid, I couldn’t understand the appeal. I could tell it wasn’t real and, let’s be honest, Big Daddy or Giant Haystacks didn’t have the physiques or the athleticism of the guys in the WWE! ese were men with the physiques of darts players trading punches. It was like a ght in a Wetherspoon’s car park, but on the telly. And who ever thought that Hay would strike fear into an opponent?
Casting is everything, but Florence Pugh couldn’t have been the obvious choice to play a wrestling superstar?
Flo auditioned for me but I saw about 60 di erent women so it was a very tough role to cast. Flo came back several times. She read with me and worked on the physicality and on the accent. I knew she was a great actress, having seen Lady Macbeth, but she wasn’t an easy t for the role: nor indeed was Lena Headey as a working-class wrestling mother.
How was it to shoot the big wrestling sequence at an actual WWE event?
A f*cking nightmare, pardon my French! It was a low budget lm so we didn’t have the time or money to indulge ourselves. e big nale ght was at a real WWE spectacular and they gave us just one hour to lm the whole thing. is is where my friend Dwayne came in. He was acting as MC. I told him not to get carried away and he must have done 20 minutes ad-libbing with the crowd and taking sel es. I was thinking, Jeez, I know this is important, but wrap it up mate! In fairness, he really knew how to whip up a wrestling crowd.
Of all the hats you wear – actor, writer, director, stand-up – which gives you the most satisfaction?
I do get itchy feet, so when I’m acting, I sometimes wish I was writing; and when I’m writing, I’d be thinking about directing or editing. If I had to just choose one lane, it would be writing. at’s where you get the blank page or a blank screen and create something yourself. You have to create a world of characters, of stories and of emotion. at’s the most interesting challenge.
Your next role is that of a serial killer in a drama co-starring Sheridan Smith. at must have been an interesting challenge....
It was! If you had asked me when I was in my 20s could I have seen myself playing that role I would have said no: not because I didn’t have ambitions as an actor but because I assumed I would always be a comic performer. I could do my schtick well and I would be happy with that. It was only over time that I felt more con dent as an actor and looked for bigger opportunities and juicier roles. I really enjoyed that process and this role is a natural extension of that. It feels like a real challenge. As Simon Cowell always says on e X Factor, ‘it’s important to get out of your comfort zone.’ I feel a bit like that!