Q: And Peter Ferdinando really takes method acting to new levels and puts on a rich South Yorkshire brogue as the villain, Deacon Bradshaw.
|
|
HH: I wanted to get away from all those stupid British gangster geezer films, which I hate. I first came up with the character of Deacon while making Cleanskin. Sean Bean was playing a classic tough guy in that movie, but wouldn't it be funny, I thought, to have such a powerful, commanding character under the thumb of a domineering mother. Imagine Clint Eastwood or Lee Marvin in their heyday cowering in front of a vicious bawdy mother. So that's when the idea of Deacon Bradshaw first emerged. Deacon is permanently angry, scared of his mother and with an '80s mullet! Deacon's meant to be larger than life and he is.
|
|
Peter suggested the accent. He is a method actor, though I don't know whether he'd call it that. He came in for his first scene and he's talking to me in this perfect Northern accent. He kept that accent for the entire shoot on and off camera so then it's the last day of shooting, with Amanda Donohoe in the car scene and I shout, 'Cut!' and then he starts talking me in his normal London accent and everyone in the crew was just looking at him, they couldn't understand what had just happened. He's an extraordinary talent who immersed himself completely in the role. I think everyone was very scared of Peter.
|
|
He was doing his first scene with Peter Polycarpou, and he wants to get slapped for real. I refused as did Polycarpou, but Ferdinando insisted. So Polycarpou reluctantly whacks him 10 times across the face, full force. That must have hurt and I hope that in the film you can tell it did. Ferdinando wants to feel the anguish and pain of his character in all forms, so as a director this is a gift, actors who take it to these places are my favorite type of actors, it comes across the screen, you feel it. And he gets a shoulder wound in the film, so Ferdinando puts this gaffer tape under his armpit which rips the hairs harshly every time he moves the arm, so he's feeling the pain for real.
|
|
And I love the sheer angry power of his performance, especially his big speech about the 1982 England football team and how great things supposedly used to be back then. That scene is about a man longing for a past and it's long gone. It's a time when things were simple for Deacon. We had to cut it back. You'll get the full 12-minute version on the DVD extras. We had a whole section of the speech about Jan Michael Vincent, Geoff Capes, budgerigars and Lewis Collins.....
|
|
Q: Veteran Amanda Donohoe plays Deacon's vicious mother, the man-eating pub landlady Dawn Bradshaw who devours Ben Schwartz.
|
|
HH: She just came in and did it, and did it with such inspired viciousness. And she pulls it off. Now I can't imagine anyone else in the role. I think she scared Ben! Takes no prisoners, doesn't mess about, she just went at him!
|
|
It's quite sad when you see Deacon's mother humiliating him constantly and there's that demented, twisted look on Deacon's face but it's also funny and cruel at the same time.
|
|
|
NEXT PAGE, FILMING ON LOCATION
|
|
HOME
|
