Read our roundtable interview with Stephen Frears, who directed the upcoming British romantic ensemble comedy ‘Tamara Drewe.’ The movie is scheduled to begin a limited theatrical release on October 8, 2010, in New York and Los Angeles. The film tells the story of London journalist Tamara Drewe as she goes back to her family farm in the countryside of Ewedown, and follows the infatuations, love and sexual affairs and career ambitions of the people living in the small rural town. Some of his more popular projects include ‘High Fidelity’ and the Academy Award-winning movie ‘The Queen.’
Question (Q): What was your biggest challenge, in terms of keeping true to the graphic novel and making this a unique piece that stands on its own?
Stephen Frears (SF): Well, that, doing all that at the same time.
Q: In terms of deciding on the script? Did you feel that there were any particular scenes that you had to direct in a certain way, keeping in mind the book?
SF: Well, you just have to keep the pitch right. That was the job, that’s what made it interesting.
Q: In the book, Jody’s character (played by Jessica Barden) meets a different demise.
SF: I never understood why!
Q: Can you talk about it?
SF: I once said to Posy (Simmonds, who wrote the graphic novel in which the movie is based on), “Why does she die?” She said in the (Thomas) Hardy book (Far From the Madding Crowd, in which the Tamara Drewe novel is based on), there’s a woman who dies. But it’s a subtle part of the book that she suddenly dies. I thought our decision was the right decision. She could have put in clues. But she was such a wonderful character, why kill her?
Q: You have the two teenage girl characters (Jody and Casey Shaw, played by Charlotte Christie).
SF: We upped them from the book, I just thought they were so wonderful.
Q: You’ve mentioned that they’re kind of like a Greek chorus. They’re kind of like Henry Orient (from the 1964 comedy movie ‘The World of Henry Orient’).
SF: Someone else mentioned Henry Orient to me. I haven’t seen it, no.
Q: It’s a similar dynamic of the musician (character Ben Sergeant, a drummer, played by Dominic Cooper).
SF: Is that right?
Q: How is shooting a movie based on a graphic novel different than shooting a movie based on a regular novel?
SF: The truth is, I’m a beginner in all this. You all know far more about graphic novels than I did. In my life, I’ve read one graphic novel. There’s a whole world out there I had to learn about. I thought graphic novels were Spiderman or Superman, comic books. I found it very, very liberating. Posy Simmonds, in my mind, is a very brilliant woman. I’ve come to see that she does what I do. In other words, she has to decide to do a long-shot or a close-up.
Q: The story-board was sort-of provided with this.
SF: Sort-of. But that didn’t worry me so much. It’s all rather interesting, I wish I had known more about it. Many times in my life, I’ve stumbled into things and later discovered what it is I’ve stumbled into.
Q: Was it less stumbling at the end?
SF: I’ll tell you in ten years time! I adored it as soon as I read it. I thought it was a wonderful idea. It’s only now that I’m beginning to appreciate how interesting it was.
Q: Gemma Arterton (who plays the title role) has spoken about how quickly she was cast in this. Is that typical for you? Did you cast most of the lead actors that way?
SF: Sort-of.Q: What was going through your mind when you cast Gemma?
SF: I thought, I can see she is like the girl in the book. She’s gorgeous and she’s very, very nice. There weren’t many strikes against her.
Q: Is that how you typically cast a lead in a film?
SF: Well, I said “I can’t make this film with famous people. I can only do this if you let me do it right.” In other words, if you cast famous people, you’re creating a group of famous people. I couldn’t do it, it wouldn’t have made any sense. I put together a straight-forward film. This was an instance of someone walking into the room and it all makes sense.
Q: How well known are Gemma and the other actors in the U.K.?
SF: Well, the woman who plays Nicolas Hardiment’s wife, Beth (Tamsin Greig), she’s most well-known for a radio show. People know her, but not like they know Angelina Jolie, it’s not like that. Gemma’s more complicated, because she’s had this extraordinary year. I didn’t really know about all her films when I hired her. I’ve never actually seen a frame of Gemma that I didn’t shoot.
Q: This was originally a comic strip in The Guardian, and then Posy turned it into the novel. In the movie, the colors seem to pop. Was this done purposely, or was it coincidental?
SF: Coincidental. People would read this book and go bananas over it, because it’s such a beautiful book. I was clear that one of my jobs was to honor Posy and to do her justice. When you have something that classy, if you’ve matched her, you’ve done well.
Q: What is it about Roger Allam (who plays Nicolas) that makes him such a great sleazebag?
SF: He’s just brilliant.
Q: He’s played this type of role in other films, too.
SF: I can imagine! Well, British actors always end up playing villains.
Q: You could have made the script a total tragedy or a total comedy. Was it hard to adapt a Hardy piece?
SF: I wasn’t at that stage when Posy composed Hardy into Posy. But it always seemed to me that it was the comic approach, which made it interesting and so fresh. All I read was something that was very fresh and I liked, and if I liked it, I figured audiences will like it as well.
Q: Could you have made it a different way?
SF: No, but there are parts of tragedy. When Beth discovers her husband, how could you have made it anything other than a tragedy?
Q: The two girls are so much fun in the film. How much of their banter was scripted?
SF: Oh, everything. I think I changed a few lines though, after hearing them talk to each other.
Q: Was Jessica a natural, or had she done anything before?
SF: Well, she is coming to Broadway, later this year I think. But she was in a successful play when I met her, and she was on a soap opera. But she’s brilliant. That’s her manner, she’s charming, and everything’s falling into place.
Q: One of the main locations of the film was a writer’s retreat. Did you and your production team do any kind of research on real retreats?
SF: No. They’re known about. But Posy obviously knew what she was writing about.
Q: Which role took the longest, and was the hardest, to cast?
SF: Well, the part that Luke Evans plays (Andy Cobb). There aren’t people like that around anymore. He was wholesome and happy. He was like Curly from ‘Oklahoma!’ We were a bit stumped. But then one of the girls in the office pointed him out, and I said, “Isn’t this what we’re looking for?”
Q: In the beginning of the movie, when Andy’s building the fence, was that something you planned on doing?
SF: Yes, it was in the script. But it caused chaos, because the cameraman insisted on filming Luke with the sun in the background. But it was always written like that, like it could have been from the 18th century.
Q: American filmmakers may have made this movie differently, like making Tamara more sympathetic or remorseful for sleeping with a married man. What do you think of the current American romantic comedies?
SF: I’m the wrong person to ask, I’m too old! I wouldn’t be interested in sweetening it up.
Q: Are there any particular movies you like to watch in your free time?
SF: I like to go see European movies. I tend to see sub-title films. But at the moment, I’m being asked to direct an American film, which is terrific. I grew up on Billy Wilder films, and they weren’t particularly sweet.
Q: The pacing of the movie is interesting, as you settle on a moment before moving on. This that something you encouraged on the set?
SF: Yes, I encouraged it so it wouldn’t be a boring film.
Q: In the sequence with the bath, when she’s talking to the camera, why did you decide to that without any other characters?
SF: It was such a lovely story, and I kept saying, “How do we get this in?” When you try to write it in naturalistically, it was boring. In the end, I said, “Why doesn’t she just say it to the audience? It’s so entertaining.” I was hoping I was making a film in which that sort of thing could happen. The whole thing was very liberating.
Q: Did you try to do bubble thoughts?
SF: We tried it, but it didn’t work. There was a film, ‘Scott Pilgrim,’ that used them, and it didn’t seem to have worked in that.
Q: How did you pick the right music for the movie?
SF: Well, the same guy who wrote the music for ‘The Queen,’ Alexandre Desplat, wrote the music for this movie. You do it by picking good people around you.
Written by: Karen Benardello
