Kiwi’s finest hour
Award-winning Kiwi filmmaker Anthony McCarten has already brought Winston Churchill and Stephen Hawking to life - Freddie Mercury is next, writes Bridget Jones.
Anthony McCarten can see himself in Winston Churchill. And he can see some of Winston Churchill in him, too. It was probably the same with Stephen Hawking, and it’s about to be revealed just how much of Freddie Mercury lurks inside him as well.
The Kiwi – whose career bio features as many different sides of himself as there have been famous men on the end of his scriptwriting talents – has made his own name in Hollywood by bringing these big, familiar characters to life on the big screen.
His most recent effort, Darkest Hour, is a bio-pic about Britain’s wartime prime minister.
‘‘The people I’m drawn to are sort of self-created. They came from backgrounds where not much was expected of them, necessarily. Even Churchill, nothing was expected of him, really.
‘‘His father had written him off as a teenager. But by force of will, and dedication and devotion and passion, they made themselves into people who influenced the entire human story. I just love that, I love the out-ofnowhere character who makes a difference.’’
McCarten, who now divides his time between London and Los Angeles, grew up in New Plymouth and started his career as a journalist, working on The Taranaki Herald. He then learned creative writing under Bill Manhire at university.
McCarten knows there’s something of a hint of unexpected success about him, too.
There have been novels (he’s written seven), plays (at last count, Ladies Night, the hit he co-wrote with Stephen Sinclair set in the world of male strippers, has been translated into 12 languages), and in 2015, he was made an Honorary Literary Fellow in the New Zealand Society of Authors. More recently, though, McCarten has focused on writing and producing some of the biggest, often historical, drama films of recent years.
In no particular order, there’s a film about the two living popes (Popes Francis and Benedict) coming up, and one about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. He’s linked to a script about the News of the World phone hacking scandal, another about the terrorist attack at the 2008 Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and the Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, is being filmed now.
In 2015, he received two Academy Award nominations for his work on the Hawking biopic, The Theory of Everything. It was that recognition that gave him the confidence to tackle the story of Churchill in Darkest Hour.
The film is set in Britain’s darkest days, during World War II. The fall of France is just hours away, the Allied forces are trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, and the threat of a Nazi invasion of the UK is inescapable.
Churchill, played by Gary Oldman, who has received a Golden Globe nomination for his role, has just taken over as prime minister, and is left to navigate his way through two choices; negotiations with Hitler, or fight on and risk it all.
It balances the undoubted greatness of Churchill’s resolve and skill as a leader and an orator with the political tension of the time and the self-doubt the prime minister was carrying.
Over a setting of just four weeks, the leader made the mark he is still remembered for today – delivering three of the most famous speeches in history, including the celebrated lines, ‘‘We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds,we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender’’.
‘‘I identify with that urge to make a difference,’’ McCarten says. ‘‘At the centre of this movie is the proposition that words can make a difference, and that is certainly something that drove Churchill and it is something that drives every writer. We devote our lives to it, and in that regard, I strongly identify with that journey that he made. I strongly identified with that dream of a person who believes there may be some place for them on the word stage.’’
Bringing any historical figure to life must be a daunting prospect, but to choose to put your words in the mouth of an orator like Churchill was so overwhelming, McCarten put it off for years. He first had the idea for the film, which he also produced, more than a decade ago.
‘‘It’s a little presumptuous to think you can come up with words worthy of him, jokes that are on a Churchillian level,’’ he admits. ‘‘But after the success of The Theory of Everything I was emboldened and I thought, well I’ll just roll the dice and see how I go.’’
It was as much a learning experience as it was a journey of discovery for McCarten. But it was also frightening.
‘‘The more I read about the rules the great orators used, the more I realised, of course, this is how you stir people’s hearts and you persuade and cajole and move people out of fixed positions. The techniques are quite menacingly easy. It turns out we are all quite easily swayed if someone knows what they are doing.
‘‘One of Winston’s most lasting, valuable qualities was his candour. He was a man almost incapable of intrigue or deceit – how rare that is in a politician, to find they are incapable of untruths? We’ve enjoyed this from leaders of the past, and we should expect it today.
‘‘The present and the past are always in conversation with each other and by looking at the past we can measure the present.’’
And it’s his own personal history – and New Zealand history – that is bubbling away under the surface that might just bring McCarten home to work, one day.
‘‘There’s one I’ve been shaping for a while about the pioneer experience, coming out on the first ships. I’ve done a bit of research over the years on some of my forebears. The audacity of paying a few quid and getting on a sailing ship and going to a foreign land with a chest of clothes and the likelihood you would never return to your homeland, and then be, essentially, dumped on the shores of this untamed country – it is the most extraordinary adventure story.’’
Perhaps McCarten can see a little of himself reflected there, too.
❚ Darkest Hour
on January 11. opens in NZ cinemas