Kevin McCarthy (Twitter/Instagram: @kevinmccarthytv) spoke with Aaron
Sorkin,
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eddie Redmayne (
9:02 ) about "The Trial of The Chicago 7".
VIDEO
Eddie on collecting things: "Nowadays I'm afraid I've got that
whole thing where I collected
over the years sort of you know CDs and albums and things, and then as the
technology moves
on they become frustatingly kind of it's not all in one place, so I'm now
afraid I have moved to
kind of a digital era even though I have a good proper DVD."
Eddie on how Tom Hayden's character affects him on a personal level: "I
knew nothing
about Tom before I started this film, and the more I researched him, the more
I was astounded
by the integrity of spirit that this guy had, and I think that whenever you
meet someone that is
sort of deeply admirable and you get to sort of really immerse yourself in
their world for a
moment, it makes you want to be a better person. It makes you want to look at
your own
hypocrisies because he was someone that really... - you know I don't want to
say he put his
money where his mouth is but he's put his integrity where his mouth was and
lived the way
that he spoke. And so it's made me question that in myself a lot."
On how does he find his way into an accent: "I started out weirdly -
often in England,
if you're an actor you start out doing English things and English superior
jobs. And
weirdly, my first play in London was an Edward Albee play, and one of my first
films
was The Good Shepherd playing an American character..., and I did lots of
little films
that were lots of different American accents. They were indie films and I
worked with
a brilliant dialect coach guy called
Michael Buster . And then I went to this English
period dramas phase, basically only playing English. And what's weird is when
you're
known for that, that's then the offers you get. And what I love is that I
think
Aaron Sorkin had actually seen a play I did on Broadway, called Red - I don't
know
- in which I played American and so he was one of the few people in Hollywood
"oh maybe that guy can play American". And he gave me this part and I worked
with Michael Buster again. And I love it as a way of working because I start
with
the accent actually and it's a bit like learning to play - I'm not someone
that can jump
into accents, I can't do an impression of someone, I can't. It's not inherent
to me.
I don't have that skill, so I have to start a bit like learning to play the
piano.
You start with kind of scales or you start with little exercises, and very
technically,
but I have to start months and months beforehand because by the time I'm on
set,
I want it to be so in me, that whatever's thrown at me, whether it's
improvisation
- you know - it's deeply rooted in my body. And this was a film that didn't
have
money so didn't have necessarily like you could didn't have that time and
support,
but they kindly allowed me to work with Michael for a period beforehand."
"You could do anything to anything by taking it out of context."
It's such a brilliant line from the movie!
In the next video, Eddie talks about Tom Hayden, whom he plays in the movie.
VIDEO
Eddie also talks about what he loves about the film and about working with
Aaron Sorkin.
"One of the things I love about this film, it doesn't give answers really. Like the World was not
solved by the resolution of how this trial ended and some of the major issues with our political
systems remain fragile and unworkable, or seemingly unworkable, and at the moment in the
world where everyone is sort of standing then with bewilderment, the idea of continuing
conversations seems vital to me. And that's what I love about what Aaron's done..."
"... and it was this extraordinary thing, I've never had that access to a writer in which
you saw him going to his head and be in that place where he was when he wrote that
specific word, and that idea of that clarity is overwhelmed. And the other thing is
amazing is he just writes in music, in a musical way, and sometimes you see him
by the monitor - he's not watching the monitor, he's literally just listening, and he can
hear instinctively when the thing is jazzing, when it's riffing or when it's cooking
because he hears it in his ear, and it plays how he once imagined it."
I think this interview was recorded on the set when they were filming the courtroom
scenes in Hoboken, New Jersey.
