| Essexboys -
Film |
TOM WILKINSON
John Dyke
Tom Wilkinson has worked with both the Royal National Theatre
and the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as three years spent
at the Nottingham Theatre under the directorship of Richard
Eyre. A supreme performance as Pecksniff in the acclaimed BBC
dramatisation of Martin Chuzzlewit has capped an impressive
television career that includes Crossing the Floor and A Very
Open Prison. On the big screen he is perhaps best known for
his performances in The Full Monty and Shakespeare in Love.
Other film work includes Wilde, In the Name of the Father and
Rush Hour. He has also worked with Ang Lee on both Sense and
Sensibility and Ride with the Devil.
He saw the character of Dyke as something of a dilemma: "He's
an evil character, but I think you've got to play him essentially
as a good man - albeit, I guess, trapped in a different world.
The reason he's in this alien world is because he wanted to
be someone, he's excited by the criminal side. When you get
a choice people will always go the bad guy part because they've
got the best lines. But the good guy is harder to play and that's
what I like, I like the challenge.
"I did spend some time building up the character. I think
I took the idea of a guy that comes from a family who has once
had money, a sort of gentile poverty. The family probably couldn't
afford to get him to Eton, but they could send him off to a
third rate public school. I think from there the army is a probably
a pretty short step. Working on that basis, the idea of making
lots of money quickly would appeal to him.
"He's more like the Lockes than he thinks. I reckon he's
hardened to the core, even if he is cuddly on the outside. I
think he is probably rather steely inside. It's a much more
complex crook that the role I played in Rush Hour. There they
wanted a sort of archetypal smooth English villain, and I was
only too happy to serve it up.
"ESSEX BOYS has a really nice script, and I thought it
had a lot of potential. That is why you always choose something
- because of the script. Choosing something for the money isn't
always a road you should go down. Money's a nice thing, but
you can do too many bad films like that you know. It depends
what kind of life you want. Another attraction was that by doing
ESSEX BOYS I could go home at night. If I could walk to work,
that would be an ideal!
"The size of movie doesn't matter to me - it's all essentially
the same drama, the same job. For instance, I didn't really
notice huge wads of money floating around while doing Rush Hour,
although we knew it was thought to be a fairly big budget. Provided
what you come out with is acceptable, then it's a job well done.
"As I said, I did a lot of mental research into my character
so it was not especially an advantage or disadvantage to a have
the writer around. It was unusual though - in fact, most writers
aren't around on a movie. I've found most writers are very jealous
of their scripts and they don't like you altering a syllable.
But Terry and Jeff were pretty good about it.
"On the directing side Terry always knew what he wanted,
which gives you such confidence. He's a nice guy to have around,
especially if you're an actor. Having camaraderie on a film
set is always good. I did a film a couple of years ago where
there was real tension on the set and it just didn't work at
all.
"Another great thing about the movie was the opportunity
to plays with boys' toys. The gun-play is really good fun. It's
fulfilling a boyhood dream to actually have guns go bang in
your hand. Yes, it's great. It isn't something that I spent
my life doing - blowing people away, but it's okay.
"I think all English actors would give their right arm
to do a gangster picture and a cowboy movie, because that's
what they saw when they were kids. Those were the most glamorous,
and most appealing films when we were young. I've done a kind
of cowboy movie called Ride with the Devil, where I got to ride
horses, carry a gun and wear a hat. Thankfully it was a very
slow horse!
"With violence in film, I don't get the perspective that
you have to actually do it - I wouldn't do it. If somebody said
I've got to actually hit them, I wouldn't do it. I couldn't
do it. The whole point of acting is that it is acting; it's
not real. There are times I've done it on stage. I slapped Steven
Rea once in a play on stage, and for some reason we used to
do it every night. I used to slap his face quite hard you know,
and it didn't bother him - but it's the only time I've ever
done that.
"ESSEX BOYS is an intense movie, but I can come out of
character for lunch, and then go back into character again quite
easily. As an actor you should be able to click your fingers
and be the role. It's no problem for me to go to lunch. I don't
get embarrassed easily on set either. My sex scenes with Alex
were actually quite good fun. I'm not often asked to do love
scenes - although I had a few in The Governess. I think if I
really had to have sex when the camera's rolling, then I would
want to limit the number of people on set. But this? It's just
another part of acting. Sex in a way is quite easy to fake,
(not that I would know!). It's one of those things you get to
act time to time that is quite easy to do. It's like anger is
easy to do.
"I saw Alex in Moll Flanders, and must admit I thought
she was superb. I hadn't worked with Sean before either. It's
odd that, with him coming from Sheffield, that he wasn't in
The Full Monty with us. He didn't say anything about it, but
I'm amazed really. The only part he could have played though
would have been Bobby's [Robert Carlyle] I suppose. He must
have been grinding his teeth a little bit over that one. I got
on really well with Sean on set. He's a bit shy, but once he
gets to know you it's just fine. And I do think shyness is a
nice trait in an actor.
"It's little known, but I actually hail from close to Sean.
Originally I'm from Yorkshire, that's where I was born. But
I was then brought up in Canada till I was eleven. Of course,
it means that I don't know anything about gangsters, or the
supposed Essex underworld. But I didn't feel I needed to do
that much research. If what you've got is in the script, you
don't need to do any. I was in Wilde playing the Marquis of
Queensbury - I'm 6'1 and the real Marquis is 5'4, and I thought
that if they aren't bothered, then I wouldn't be.
"I don't enjoy watching myself a lot. There are whole movies
that I've done and never seen including The Governess and Rush
Hour. I think that in general people don't like they way they
look ... however they look. To me that's the reason why people
don't watch themselves on screen. Sometimes it's good. I went
to see Shakespeare in Love just a few weeks before I did the
US press junkets. I'm really glad I did, because as soon as
I saw it I knew it was going to be a winner. I didn't have any
doubts whatsoever, which is really good when you're selling
it to the journalists." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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