Post by beckettologist on Nov 15, 2010 14:17:39 GMT -5
Gillian Anderson on Wallis Simpson drama Any Human Heart
New cinematic drama Any Human Heart certainly holds no punches when it comes to brazen historical audacity. Not since Forrest Gump have we seen a protagonist slip through the decades with such unflappable ease. Only this isn't Hollywood film - it's TV - and with the purse strings tightened by the latter Channel 4 have done the impossible: created a beautifully-envisioned treat for the senses on a shoe-string budget.
Breathlessly directed by Michael Samuels and based on the best-selling novel by William Boyd; Any Human Heart tells the epic story of one man's journey from the cradle to the grave. Every life, Logan says, is both ordinary and extraordinary. Logan's life – as a struggling writer – is simmering to the brim with both.
Taking in the Parisian sights of Hemingway, the intrigue of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the world politics of both the Spanish Civil War and World War Two, the four-part series is hardly short on historical inspiration. Nor is it short on stars either. We caught up with just four of them – introducing Jim Broadbent [older Logan], Gillian Anderson [Wallis Simpson], Hayley Atwell [Freya] and Sam Claflin [young Logan] – to find out more...
Jim Broadbent, Logan goes through so many changes throughout the series. Would you say he was an archetypal actor's role?
Jim Broadbent: The third Logan [the Protagonist's third and final incarnation played by Broadbent] certainly goes into all sorts of adventures and takes on certain personas to a degree. What each Logan has in common is, they've all been written by the same writer [William Boyd, author of the bestseller Any Human Heart] and the writing is consistent.
Gillian Anderson: They all love women.
Hayley Atwell, your character is the love of Logan's life. How did you work that character?
Hayley Atwell: It was very clear when I read the script, how distinctive the women are. How Freya stands out and what she is for him...the word is "home". It's odd because I don't think Logan is a very nice man – I think he's a bit of a coward and a bit of an idiot when it comes to women, and she knows what she's getting herself in for from the very beginning, so that was the challenge. How do I not make her look like a walkover?
Did you see any of yourself in Freya?
HA: I'd like to be like her. I think she has quite a rational way of looking at the situation, considering she knows from the start he's married with a kid and I think that pains her. But that's not the kind of pressure she'd put on him and I think she's very accepting of his situation and seems to be a little bit more in control of her love for him. I don't think I'm like that at all!
Gillian Anderson, you're actually playing a real person [Wallis Simpson]. What responsibility does that bring to the role?
GA: A lot more then I realised. It just made me more nervous – I think it's the first real life person I've ever played and she's so iconic and everybody has such strong ideas about who she is and what she represents. I just had to buckle down and do my work until I felt I had a semblance of who I saw her as.
What was your personal opinion on the Duchess?
GA: Fortunately I actually knew very little about her and about their relationship [with Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor]. I've read bits and pieces over the years and I've actually been asked a couple of times to play her...I was learning about her and a lot about them and so I felt like I was coming unencumbered to an interpretation. She comes off the page quite strongly.
And what was it like working with Tom Hollander? [Who plays Prince Edward]
GA: He's lovely. We've been friends for a long time and we discussed it beforehand. He's a very funny human being and is a pleasure to work with.
Jim, throughout any Human Heart, it talks about life being a mixture of good and bad luck. Does Logan think the good has outweighed the bad?
JB: Oh, I don't know. I think it's properly consistent with what his father originally told him: It's a mix and its fairly balanced. Its always bad luck at the end – you die!
Sam Claflin, you have the delicious task of playing a young sex-hungry Logan. I hate to lower the tone but there's a lot of sex...
Sam Claflin: It was a little awkward to say the least. I don't think I'd even kissed a girl in a show before. I think we kind of laughed through it and got through it as...a threesome? It was good fun. I wouldn't say I'd like to jump into bed with the next woman who comes along in television, but I wouldn't mind!
Do any of you keep journals or diaries, like Logan in Any Human Heart?
GA: I did for years – from a teenager to my mid-twenties – until I got into the public eye and then I got scared. The thought of actually writing what I really think – down on a piece of paper – that might be picked up by anybody terrifies me.
SC: Er, no. I feel like I've let myself down.
HA: Yeah, my mum's still got all of them! Now I like writing quotes, or things people have said to me - less about my life and more about what other people have said.
JB: Never had. Never had the discipline. Thank god for those who do.
Any Human Heart begins on Channel 4 on Sunday November 21.
www.aoltv.co.uk/2010/11/15/gillian-anderson-on-wallis-simpson-drama-any-human-heart/
New cinematic drama Any Human Heart certainly holds no punches when it comes to brazen historical audacity. Not since Forrest Gump have we seen a protagonist slip through the decades with such unflappable ease. Only this isn't Hollywood film - it's TV - and with the purse strings tightened by the latter Channel 4 have done the impossible: created a beautifully-envisioned treat for the senses on a shoe-string budget.
Breathlessly directed by Michael Samuels and based on the best-selling novel by William Boyd; Any Human Heart tells the epic story of one man's journey from the cradle to the grave. Every life, Logan says, is both ordinary and extraordinary. Logan's life – as a struggling writer – is simmering to the brim with both.
Taking in the Parisian sights of Hemingway, the intrigue of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the world politics of both the Spanish Civil War and World War Two, the four-part series is hardly short on historical inspiration. Nor is it short on stars either. We caught up with just four of them – introducing Jim Broadbent [older Logan], Gillian Anderson [Wallis Simpson], Hayley Atwell [Freya] and Sam Claflin [young Logan] – to find out more...
Jim Broadbent, Logan goes through so many changes throughout the series. Would you say he was an archetypal actor's role?
Jim Broadbent: The third Logan [the Protagonist's third and final incarnation played by Broadbent] certainly goes into all sorts of adventures and takes on certain personas to a degree. What each Logan has in common is, they've all been written by the same writer [William Boyd, author of the bestseller Any Human Heart] and the writing is consistent.
Gillian Anderson: They all love women.
Hayley Atwell, your character is the love of Logan's life. How did you work that character?
Hayley Atwell: It was very clear when I read the script, how distinctive the women are. How Freya stands out and what she is for him...the word is "home". It's odd because I don't think Logan is a very nice man – I think he's a bit of a coward and a bit of an idiot when it comes to women, and she knows what she's getting herself in for from the very beginning, so that was the challenge. How do I not make her look like a walkover?
Did you see any of yourself in Freya?
HA: I'd like to be like her. I think she has quite a rational way of looking at the situation, considering she knows from the start he's married with a kid and I think that pains her. But that's not the kind of pressure she'd put on him and I think she's very accepting of his situation and seems to be a little bit more in control of her love for him. I don't think I'm like that at all!
Gillian Anderson, you're actually playing a real person [Wallis Simpson]. What responsibility does that bring to the role?
GA: A lot more then I realised. It just made me more nervous – I think it's the first real life person I've ever played and she's so iconic and everybody has such strong ideas about who she is and what she represents. I just had to buckle down and do my work until I felt I had a semblance of who I saw her as.
What was your personal opinion on the Duchess?
GA: Fortunately I actually knew very little about her and about their relationship [with Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor]. I've read bits and pieces over the years and I've actually been asked a couple of times to play her...I was learning about her and a lot about them and so I felt like I was coming unencumbered to an interpretation. She comes off the page quite strongly.
And what was it like working with Tom Hollander? [Who plays Prince Edward]
GA: He's lovely. We've been friends for a long time and we discussed it beforehand. He's a very funny human being and is a pleasure to work with.
Jim, throughout any Human Heart, it talks about life being a mixture of good and bad luck. Does Logan think the good has outweighed the bad?
JB: Oh, I don't know. I think it's properly consistent with what his father originally told him: It's a mix and its fairly balanced. Its always bad luck at the end – you die!
Sam Claflin, you have the delicious task of playing a young sex-hungry Logan. I hate to lower the tone but there's a lot of sex...
Sam Claflin: It was a little awkward to say the least. I don't think I'd even kissed a girl in a show before. I think we kind of laughed through it and got through it as...a threesome? It was good fun. I wouldn't say I'd like to jump into bed with the next woman who comes along in television, but I wouldn't mind!
Do any of you keep journals or diaries, like Logan in Any Human Heart?
GA: I did for years – from a teenager to my mid-twenties – until I got into the public eye and then I got scared. The thought of actually writing what I really think – down on a piece of paper – that might be picked up by anybody terrifies me.
SC: Er, no. I feel like I've let myself down.
HA: Yeah, my mum's still got all of them! Now I like writing quotes, or things people have said to me - less about my life and more about what other people have said.
JB: Never had. Never had the discipline. Thank god for those who do.
Any Human Heart begins on Channel 4 on Sunday November 21.
www.aoltv.co.uk/2010/11/15/gillian-anderson-on-wallis-simpson-drama-any-human-heart/