Going Supernova
Buddies Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci deliver career-defining performances in this poetic and poignant snapshot of a couple facing down the spectre of terminal illness together
Supernova is not a science-fiction or a superhero movie. It’s a road trip. So that means sex, sleazy motels, maybe even a briefcase of drugs and a shootout, right? Wrong – but you won’t be disappointed. In fact, there’s a lot about this film that defies expectations.
Directed by young British director Harry Macqueen (Hinterland), who also wrote the script, Supernova follows a road trip in the Lake District taken by couple Tusker (Stanley Tucci) and Sam (Colin Firth) in a camper van. Tucci and Firth, both working a chunky-knit realness look here, are an astonishingly convincing couple, with a tender physicality between them. As most of the film comprises conversations between the two men in their van, it’s a testament to their performances that the film remains hugely engaging throughout. They’re assisted in no small part by their director Macqueen’s masterfully spare script and his unerring directorial eye, which balances the couple’s intimate interactions with the breath-taking beauty of the British landscape they travel through.
The story is deceptively simple: writer Tusker has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and his long-term musician partner, Sam, is trying to discuss their future prospects, with limited success. Supernova makes for funny, touching, and sometimes heartrending viewing, but it’s never mawkish — a note that’s hard not to strike when exploring this territory. Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci are at the height of their acting prowess. The film is an emotional journey, and one you’ll thank yourself for joining.
Tucci responded to the story immediately. “My agent sent me the script, and said the director wants to attach you to it,” he explains. “I read it and loved it. Then I watched the first film Harry had directed [Hinterland] — which he made for a tiny budget. I thought it was beautiful. When we met, I told him I thought the other guy should be Colin Firth, which he agreed would be amazing. I slipped the script to Colin, and he read it and felt the same way…”
Being approached by someone close to him with a film idea wasn’t an unusual occurrence for Firth. “What was unusual was being interested in something that reaches me that way,” he admits. “It’s not uncommon someone says, ‘Take a look at this, let’s do this together,’ but it’s very unusual to read a good script. It felt authentic, and immediately resonated with me. It’s a very mysterious thing, and it’s difficult to put your finger on exactly why.”
As with some of the best relationships, role play came up early. “The script itself was so beautiful, I almost didn’t care who I played,” says Tucci, “but once Colin signed on, I started to wonder if I was right for my role, whether maybe I was better suited to his role…. Then one day Colin said he’d been thinking the same thing! We talked to [the director]
Harry, and he kind of blanched, but he put together a few scenes and we read them, then switched. We all agreed it made sense. I don’t know why, exactly, but it just seemed to work better that way.”
Tusker and Sam are a gay couple, but their closely observed relationship is something anyone watching can identify with, from their little acts of love, to arguing over whether or not to use the satnav. “That’s the beauty of the film,” agrees Tucci. “It reminds me of something Colin said to me: ‘The more
“It’s unusual to read a good script. It immediately resonated with me” Colin Firth
specific something is, the more universal it becomes.’ It really doesn’t matter if it’s two women, or a woman and a guy, or two guys.”
“I fell in love with the script as it was, so it’s very difficult to imagine what might have been,” adds Firth. “I don’t want to speak on our director’s behalf, but I think Harry mentioned to me that when he first embarked on it, the couple had been a man and a woman. Then he’d questioned himself, why should it be? Maybe I should question why that’s automatically where my thoughts go?”
The glue that holds the film together is Firth and Tucci’s undeniable chemistry, an intimacy that radiates from the screen. “We’ve known each other a long time, so we’re very comfortable with each other,” explains Tucci. “I think that particularly with people our age who’ve been in relationships for a long time, there’s an ease between them.”
“These two have been together for 30 years,” continues Firth. “Stan and I have had plenty of time to get bored of each other as well. We’ve mocked each other. We’ve wound each other up. And we’ve cared for each other. We’ve been through some pretty difficult stuff in the 20 years we’ve known each other.
“I’ve come to care for Stanley as much as I care for anybody. It’s very hard to find a substitute for that — that the person I’m playing opposite is somebody that I’d happily hold in my arms and look after. There aren’t a lot of people in this profession I feel that way about — and that takes us a long way in telling this particular story.”
Firth and Tucci have both played highprofile gay roles before. “The greatest compliments I got were from the gay community, and gay friends and relatives,” recalls Tucci of his iconic role in blockbuster The Devil Wears Prada. “They said, ‘You portrayed a gay man in the way we’d always hoped someone would portray a gay man.’ Of course, that’s down to the way it was written, and how it was directed — I certainly can’t take all the credit. But it’s important to me to be truthful, never to make fun of my character, or make him camp when there’s no need for it. It would be completely inappropriate to do that. I based his behaviour and style on people I knew, friends. I wanted to do it because it was a great role, but also because somebody else might do it and f*ck it up.”
Colin Firth played a middle-aged gay professor in fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford’s directorial debut, the critically acclaimed A Single Man. Although the lead character’s sexual orientation was part of the story, both Ford and Firth saw it as one of many important components.
“There were so many other factors,” says Firth. “It was about grief, it was about being a certain age and the kind of inventory you make about the value of being alive, particularly if the person you most love is gone. I knew nothing about Tom Ford as a filmmaker, because he wasn’t one — so it was a very unknown quantity. We’d met on a couple of occasions and I was quite compelled by him — but making a movie? And not a movie about the fashion scene or whatever world I associated him with; this was about a lonely professor in the early 1960s, who’s grieving. I was intrigued.
“You can get a little jaded at a certain age, and I just thought, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here, but I’m just going to take a leap.’ Tom [Ford] wasn’t particularly engaged in the business of gay identity when he was making the movie. I remember listening to him at a press conference saying that if someone asks him ten things about himself, the fact that he’s gay would be somewhere on the list, but not somewhere near the top.
“Christopher Isherwood [author of the novel A Single Man] wrote gay characters for decades without presenting their relationships as anything controversial or different. He was pretty ahead of his time in that respect.”
Playing a gay couple as straight men wasn’t something either Firth or Tucci took lightly; both were aware of those who may argue their roles should be filled by gay actors. “I don’t have a final position on this,” says Firth, “I think the question is still alive. It’s something I take really seriously, and I gave it a lot of thought before doing this. Whenever I take on anything, I think it’s an insufferable presumption. I don’t really feel I have the right to play the character. That’s always my starting point. What do I know about this person’s life? How can I presume to set foot in this person’s lived experience, let alone try to represent it?
“My hope is in that in the process, if one is thoughtful and empathetic — and that has to be part of the job description — you’ll find something truthful that will resonate with people. Then it’s up to your audience to
“People said, ‘You portrayed a gay man the way we hoped someone would’” Stanley Tucci
decide whether or not you had the right to do it. Otherwise it’s being colonial about it
— I can’t just go around marauding through other people’s experiences.”
“As a society, we’re still struggling with the fact that people can’t be openly gay,” says Tucci. “For so many years, gay men and women have had to hide their homosexuality in showbusiness to get the roles they wanted — that’s the real problem here. Anybody should be able to play any role that they want to play – that’s the whole point of acting. Everyone should just be able to be what they want to be, without judgement. Maybe someday we’ll get there — although I don’t think it’s going to be in my lifetime. And that’s tragic.”
Far more central to the film than the issue of gay identity is that of dementia, something that — with an ageing population — is becoming increasingly prevalent in the UK. All too many people have some kind of experience of the condition, directly or indirectly, and Firth is one of them. Knowing this, it’s a particularly brave performance — and an act of generosity to others who are in his position, offering them consolation by knowing they aren’t alone.
“Dementia has affected my family,” reflects Firth. “Profoundly. Over several generations. It’s ongoing. I can’t single out who. I can’t get their blessing to do so, because they have advanced dementia.
It’s touched me very closely. It was one of the things I most engaged with about this project. Losing a loved one to any illness has its own particular form of torture, but there’s something very specific about losing someone to dementia because it goes to the core of identity and personality.
“You’re losing them in strange stages — the person’s still in front of you, and you can recognise them, but they don’t recognise you. It’s very mysterious, and painful in its mystery. It’s devastating — and it’s also ubiquitous. It’s so common. The majority of people who will read this are touched by it.”
The conversation turns to how we have been living over the past few months. The pandemic has wrought many changes, but surely none more extraordinary than the birth of Tucci as a social media star when his video of him making a negroni cocktail for his wife on Instagram went viral and shook the world. No one was more surprised than Tucci.
“I was shocked and staggered,” he exclaims. “I barely know how to use my phone! I couldn’t believe what happened. Nobody could. But it was awfully fun. Suddenly, I had liquor companies calling me up. I was sent so much booze that even I couldn’t drink it all!”
Firth shamelessly basks in the glory of the celebrated mixologist. “The only thing I can now tell people that impresses them is that I’d tried one of his negronis before he went viral. I was there first! When it comes to food and drink, I don’t question Stanley. He’s absolutely the boss.”
Supernova
is released across the UK on 20 November
Things can get really hairy for pop stars – just ask The Vamps’ Bradley Simpson, Connor Ball, James McVey and Tristan Evans, as they reminisce about/visibly recoil from some of the bespoke, erm, ‘gifts’ they’ve received from fans over the years. “We did get a bag of pubes in the early days… that was quite bad,” 25-year-old Brad recalls. But that wasn’t the worst of it. “We had to stop fan mail because we [also] got a used tampon in the post,” Tristan, 26, grimaces. Bandmate Connor, 24, adds: “It was in a nicely wrapped envelope and it had ‘YOLO’ [written] on the side of it.” Gross.
Ironically, though, that sentiment — you only live once — rings true on the group’s newly released number-one album, Cherry Blossom (out now), which is all about being present and living in the moment.
Ahead of their performance at the Attitude Awards 2020 next month (December), the chart-toppers sat down (well, Zoom-ed in) for an in-depth chat about how they feel reborn as a band, the subject of sexuality fluidity and, in the case of James, 27, his struggle with body dysmorphia.
However, one question remains unanswered: what exactly did Tristan get up to in South America…?
How did you guys cope during lockdown? Take up any interesting hobbies? T:
I got a yoga mat, a thick one, and did some stretches and exercise on there.
I’m partial to a bit of dogging myself — downward dogging, that is. How about the rest of you?
B: A bit of downward dogging [laughs], then we finished the album. I know that sounds so cliché, but we went into corona with the album 85 per cent done and then spent the full three months of lockdown finishing everything off.
It’s been a couple of years since you last released an album. How important was it for you to take a breather?
J: This is technically the fifth album that
we’ve done, and in that time we’ve [also] done probably six or seven tours. For the first time, well, in forever, we said, “Right, let’s re-evaluate exactly what we want to do, both personally and musically, and take a bit of time away to redefine what we believe The Vamps to be.” That was really important… we needed to get, kind of, bored and get that energy and excitement again before doing this album.
The ‘structure’ of being a pop star, or a member of a band, is quite rigid: you make an album, you release said album, you tour, then you return to that same template all over again. At any point, have you felt close to burnout?
B: We were on this weird cycle of: write the
first album, tour it, while you’re touring that, writing the second one, and then it’s like this snowball effect… Creatively, we definitely were, like, the tank was very, very low. We needed to have a bit of time to come up with new ideas; it’s hard to do that when you’re always going.
I remember interviewing you all when you were first starting out, around 2014. Is it a bit mad to think you’re still together? Boy bands don’t tend to last this long.
T: It’s quite cool to go against [the] stereotype of a band breaking up after a certain amount of albums, or when they’re going through a hard time. With us, we’re best friends and I feel like that comes before anything else and it always
has… When we found each other, it was something special. It’s obviously rare for a band to still be around and I think that’s why we feel lucky and fortunate to have each other… you have to surround yourself with positive people, who [want] the best for you as well as themselves. One hundred per cent, these boys are that. Should I be calling you a man band now? C: We’ll take anything [laughs].
Let’s talk about the album, Cherry Blossom. You’ve previously said that the title ties into the idea of rebirth.
B: We stayed in Japan [at the end of our last tour] and immersed ourselves in Japanese culture… [Cherry blossom] is this very brief, beautiful moment that is the highlight of everyone’s year, and I think that notion of the fragility and transience of a moment, if you were to take that and stretch it out, put cherry blossom season throughout the year, it would lose its brilliance, it’s like [how] the best things are fleeting and short. That was the whole idea, to create an
album that was taking that notion but in a positive way. Be present during these beautiful moments, rather than being negative, because they’re short. Enjoy them while you’re in them.
One of my favourite tracks is Would You and the lyric: “When you kiss me, you had your eyes open.” Personally, I like it when a guy kisses me with their eyes open, then again, I’m quite into creepy men.
C: That’s niche, man!
T: I agree with you because a lot of people think like, kissing with your eyes open is when you’re not connected or in the moment. But I feel like, for me – and for you as well – when you’re kissing someone, I don’t mind making eye contact. I want really wide, are-they-having-a-stroke open eyes. B: That was not the vibe of the writing process, but I love to see how it resonates with people differently, this is the beauty of music [laughs].
T: Kiss me! *looks wide-eyed into the camera*
Oh, stop, it’s too early. So, what are the tell-tale signs that a relationship is going sour? J: Brad may disagree with [this]… when it takes them a long time to get back to you by text. Brad, you’re telling me something.
B: No, I’m just a very bad texter [laughs]. I still love you, don’t worry. Also, when your belly stops fizzing with excitement and you start retching instead. C: Sounds like food poisoning. B: I think you’ve got a gluten intolerance. In that case, I’ve ended a lot of relationships when I should have just given up eating bread. I also really enjoyed your song Protocol: “Don’t know the protocol for fixing a broken heart.” When was the last time you had your heart broken?
T: I’d say around about a year and a half ago, and I think, well, we went on tour, so it was crazy. That was the South American tour, so… [laughs].
J: What could you have gotten up to there, Tris?
B: Well, there’s a lot of steak and red wine, that’s probably what you’re saying, Tris,
That’s isn’t how it? I get That’s over the a break-up. cure. Eat a load of meat. T: Exactly [laughs]. B: I hope you keep all of your comments in this interview. Please keep them in. Obligatory dating question… James, I know you’re due to wed at some point, but who is single, and who’s not? C: I’m not single. B: Neither am I. T: I’m seeing someone, and James is obviously getting married. When are you getting married, James? J: Hopefully, next October now, mate. Bizarrely, it would have been in three weeks, originally… we’re getting married in Dorset, where I grew up. Nice. I suppose lockdown at least gives you more time to think, am I making the right decision?
J: Yeah [laughs]. It’s been weird, actually. Normally, [my fiancée] Kirstie and I — I don’t know what it’s like with you boys — but when I get home from a long tour, normal life with The Vamps, we always have an argument the night I get back,
always. I think it’s because I get used to living very selfishly on tour, and then all of a sudden you have to do other things… But during lockdown, we probably only had two or three arguments over six months. B: Moochie takes away any stress. J: You say that, God… B: [Apart from] when she shits on the floor. Presume Moochie is an animal, not a person? J: I’ll show you her, she’s just here *turns camera to his dog* She’s like the emoji dog, isn’t she? She’s very cute. So, you’re performing at the Attitude Awards next month. How much of a connection do you feel to the LGBTQ community?
B: We’ve had friends who have come out over the years, and it’s a community that we want to continue to support and show love [to]… We’ve had amazing moments with fans over the years, who have spoken to us in meet-and-greets. I remember one in particular, where they came up and were like, “Your music really helped us to gain the confidence to come out.”
T: One of the most beautiful moments in my life, one hundred per cent, is when my brother came out. He came out quite late — I think he was 27 — and I was one of the last people he told. He said, “I was more worried about what the people close to me would think,” and I thought that was crazy. We live in 2020 and everyone, whatever they are, wherever they come from, whatever they look like, should be accepted… He is much more himself today because he came out and I’m just so proud of him. Sexuality has become a lot more ‘fluid’ in recent times, with artists like Harry Styles not putting a label on their own. Has sexuality been a clear-cut thing for you guys? Have you always known which ‘box’ you fit in, for want of a better phrase? T: Personally, yeah. I think I’m extremely open — open-minded to try anything and very experimental, sexually, and when it comes to relationships. Are we talking about South America again? T: [Laughs] I’ve always been firm with what I am. >
“WE’RE BEST FRIENDS, AND THAT COMES BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE” TRISTAN
J: Where I grew up in Dorset is, sort of, five years or maybe even 10 years behind on elements of racism, sexism and homophobia… Growing up in that environment, you almost felt pressured to be pigeonholed into something that was very conventional: “I am a man, I love women, I play rugby.” Moving to London, touring with the band and doing many things, I think it’s really opened all of our eyes up to how the world is and really should be, embracing diversity and difference.
I’ve realised in the past few years that I’m attracted to personalities… obviously, I’m marrying Kirstie and it’s brilliant, but, you know, I do think everyone at some point in life — regardless of if they’d admit it or not — [is] attracted to different genders all the time. There are elements of things, it might not always be a sexual thing, for example, but you can really, really admire someone, cherish someone, value someone and find them attractive in a certain way…
I do see, you know, men often and I’m like, he’s really, really attractive and I’m, like, drawn to them in a certain way, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I want to marry that person or sleep with that person, but you do have tendencies and desires to do that. I think that’s a really good thing. For years and years and years, we were [persuaded against] feeling those impulses through societal pressures, but definitely for me, personally, I think I’ve changed in that way over the past few years.
There shouldn’t be any boundaries.
I do a lot of yoga and mindfulness and I think the whole practice of mindfulness is being aware of your emotions, but not necessarily viewing them as absolute, defined things [and] that’s the same with urges and impulses… Everyone, like James said, has different urges and has different impulses, but no one should be feeling like, oh my God, I’ve got to dispel that, especially among men. It’s about going, OK… that’s just a natural part of being a human being… I think the rigidness is where the danger lies, of being, like, you have to fall in a certain category.
James, you recently spoke about your struggle with body dysmorphia and your decision to have liposuction surgery at 20. Would you mind taking me back to that time?
J: It was only a few weeks ago that I decided I wanted to speak about it. I was watching a Vamps tour diary from Australia, from, like, 2015, maybe earlier, and I realised that, in that video, I wasn’t really being myself. I was over-compensating, and it was three weeks after I’d had this surgery… In that moment, I really felt like I was confident, in control of my life and, I guess, my emotions. Looking back now, I realise how detrimental that state of mind was, not only for my relationship with Kirstie, but with The Vamps and the touring crew and stuff.
So, I took the decision prior to that to have this surgery because I felt — I think there’s a few reasons. One, going back to growing up in Dorset, there was a general consensus of looking perhaps a certain way. It was the time when there were a few of these American lifestyle shops, with all their branding and advertising being men on beaches with surfboards. Being 15/16, I gravitated towards thinking I had to look a certain way. I starved myself for quite a long time, which sounds a bit like a hyperbole headline, but I really did. I didn’t eat bread for a year, I didn’t have any condiments for a year… it got to a point where I was carrying around powders of protein and stuff. I’d done that and I realised I still wasn’t happy with my body. I’d wake up, look at myself in the mirror and just not be happy. If you wake up first thing in the morning and critique yourself, I think that’s quite a dark place to be.
I took the decision to have this liposuction because I couldn’t lose any more; I had breast tissue which you can’t lose through exercise or lifting weights, so I did that thinking it would [have] all the answers. I guess for a long time it felt like it did — but it really didn’t. It’s only been recently that I realised I was in a bizarre place and I think it would be unfair for me now to say, “Oh, I went through a [tough] period and I sorted it out and I was
fine.” The reality is, it’s massively affected me, even today.
One way of me trying my best to see it as a chapter that I’m moving on from is to unearth everything and speak about it. That’s one thing that we do well in The Vamps, we really try our best to communicate how we feel, now more than ever… I am grateful for these boys. Men in particular don’t often speak about these issues. It still feels taboo.
J: The reason I didn’t speak about it [body dysmorphia] is because… the immediate thing you think is vanity. You think, they are obsessed with themselves, they want to look better than everyone else, their life revolves around them[selves], but in many ways it was an opposite thing for me. I kind of revelled in destroying my body, which sounds really weird. I enjoyed putting myself through the pain, to have that control. I think having conversations like this is really important because, like with other elements of mental [health], or the other struggles communities feel, when
you talk about these things, you help break down those constructs around a subject. Well, thank you for speaking about it, it’s not an easy thing to talk about. Right, a random question to finish things off… have you had a hero moment? Ever come to someone’s rescue?
B: Me and Con were on the way back — I can’t remember where we’d been.
C: We’d been to the cinema.
B: That was it. We were in Shepherd’s Bush, and we were jumping on the Tube. There was a guy who was teetering on the edge of the Tube [platform]. There was us two, another woman, and we were looking, oh my God, is this [happening]? We could see he was really thinking about it and we were like, right, and we just pulled him back from the edge… It was a strange thing, wasn’t it, Con?
C: He started laughing when we put him on the bench.
B: It’s a very sobering thing. You just don’t know what people are going through. The Vamps’ new album Cherry Blossom is out now
“I’D WAKE UP, LOOK AT MYSELF IN THE MIRROR AND JUST NOT BE HAPPY” JAMES