Up At The Villa Interview director and stars in conversation
Nick Walker
The film adaptation of Up At The Villa, Somerset Maugham's tale of love set against the rising tide of Fascism in Italy, is released on April 14. 6degrees heard what director Philip Haas and two of the film's stars, Kristin Scott Thomas and James Fox, had to say about it
Question - Philip, can I start with you by asking you about the guest star of the film - Mel Brooks!
Philip Haas - Anne Bancroft [who is in the film] is married to Mel Brooks and we had the pleasure of Mel on the set, so I thought it would be a good idea to have him in it. I said "What would you like to do?" He said he might like to play a priest but then decided that the outfit would be too warm in the summer! I had two daughters who were holding his hand in the movie so I thought it would be great for them to do a scene with Mel. Put it this way: my daughters were easier to direct than Mel!
Question - James, you're quoted in the production notes as saying that one of the things you were delighted about was the dialogue in this film. You said it reflected an age when people spoke rather well. Was that a major factor when you saw the script?
James Fox - A well written film is a pleasure to be in for actors who have been brought up to say dialogue and yes, this is a well written film about an age when there used to be conversations. My character was trained to express himself well so that was a pleasure.
Question - Kristin, this is your second movie with Philip, so can we deduce from this that very little persuasion was needed to get you on board?
Kristin - Absolutely none. My second-and-a-half, actually. Philip told me he'd been asked to do the story by Sydney Pollack and would I be interested? So I rushed to London, bought the book and read it and loved it. But we'd been looking to do something together for quite some time, hadn't we?
PH - Yes, we had a fantastic time doing Angels and Insects and wanted to quickly find something else to do. Up At The Villa was an instance where both of us had read the book and wanted to do it before Belinda [screenwriter] had even read the script.
Question - Kristin, how difficult is it to get into the mindset of a character like Mary, who's very much a woman of the Forties and who, like a lot of characters in Philip's films, has a very rich interior life but doesn't externalise that quite so well?
KST - Something like that is not very difficult. There's so much information given in the novel and the adaptation of it by Belinda was very faithful to it so everything I need to know was there. I don't see it as being a problem of playing someone from another time because our human instincts haven't changed that much over 50 years. I don't really see it as a period film. It's a story. Of course the speech patterns and the morals are of that period. That was interesting because when you read the novel the characters put on this façade, but really they'd be thinking the same as we'd be thinking and probably doing now. The scene at the end of the film with James's character really illustrates that perfectly: saying things but really meaning something else.
Question - Philip, you seem to make films where people never say what they mean. There's a lot of dancing and posturing.
PH - I guess I'm attracted to films that have a subtext. I like to make films where you can catch something new on a second viewing. On period pieces, sometimes one can be freer with them and you're not so much bound by what people know is going on now. Maugham's a wonderful writer. People tried to adapt 'Up At The Villa' in the earlier days when sexuality was a problem, so now 60 years later we're here doing it.
Question - Can you give us an insight into the casting process? There are people in the film like Sean Penn who play roles you wouldn't expect them to play.
KST - Yes, Sean usually does completely different things. It was so great that he should be interested in it and willing to take the risk of putting on a tuxedo and doing something different. We'd always wished it could be someone like Sean Penn so we said, "Let's ask him!"
Question - Did he have voice lessons for the part?
PH - No, he has a wonderful ear and wanted to do something not sounding like his native Malibu.
Question - And Anne Bancroft?
PH - She just seemed ideal and I can't imagine anyone else doing it.
Question - Kristin, unlike many actors you seem quite happy to do a big Hollywood film like The Horse Whisperer and then do a more European, small-scale film. Is it quite a struggle deciding what to do next?
KST - Yes it is, not only because of the obvious exposure type things but also because of really mundane timing. When we made this picture it took us nine weeks and The Horse Whisperer took six months. It's just the practical side of it. If you're going to make an American film you need one year to do it. Mind you, this is an American film.
PH - It was financed in part with money from the States. It was largely an Italian crew. The production designer and costume designer, Paul Brown, who did the costumes on Angels and Insects, were English. It was made in Italy largely with Italians and then a cast of Americans and English.
KST - That was another reason for wanting to do the picture. I wanted to do something with Philip and Paul Brown. I knew we were going in as a team. There's not that thing when you've got the huge American star and everyone else is scuttling around him.
Question - Philip, you talk about yourself as an outsider. Does that attract you to stories where you look at communities from an anthropological point of view?
PH - Generally, they tend to be stories that are inherently dramatic, stories that are do-able and that I'm drawn to.
Question - Kristin, when you read the novel was there one key thing that gave you the clue to Mary's character?
KST - There's this idea of coded behaviour that has to be respected. I loved the way she was rebelling against that. The scene that really clinched it for me was the end scene with Edgar when she suddenly does a U-turn in mid-conversation and realises, "it's now or never and if I don't say something my life will be in ruins". That one sentence changes everything and I really liked that.
Question - You mentioned that the impulse to do the film didn't come from you. Also, there hasn't been a Somerset Maugham adaptation for quite a while. Why now and do you feel this will bring him back into mode?
PH - If I remember correctly this particular novella was written in the late Thirties and was first serialised in the States and was quickly optioned for movies. A few years ago I met Gore Vidal at a dinner party and he said he'd been asked by Metro to do it. In his diaries, Chris Isherwood talks about having a stab at it and it not turning out very well. Sydney Pollack is the executive producer on the film and approached me and Belinda to do it. They'd already had a number of scripts that they weren't happy with and we never saw those scripts. It was a film that didn't come to me initially. Belinda worked on the script and Kristin said she'd do it. James was the next person to come on board and it came together quickly. Paul Brown, who was a trusted collaborator, went to Italy with me to start finding locations. I've been asked how I found the villa: it was pretty easy because it was on the cover of all the books. It's called Villa Cetinale and it was the first time the owner had given anyone permission to film there.
Question - James, your character is the only decent one in the film and he gets shafted. Yet he never asks for a shred of support from the audience, which makes the character stronger. How had you arrived at doing that?
JF - I didn't, I expect that's the way Phil cut it!
Question - You're extremely modest, James, because the way you tell it all you did was just turn up.
JF - [Edgar's] very self-assured up until the moment she turns him down and he doesn't know why. And surely the killing of that boy has something to do with it.
KST - We also don't know whether she tells him the whole truth.
Question - Kristin, you said a few years ago you were fed up with playing upper class English women, but obviously you saw something in this role. Is it a problem that people perceive English actors - and the same question might apply to James - as being mainly fit for upper class roles or the parts of villains?
KST - It's rather limiting. But there was something really touching about Mary and it was that she was "all pretend" and didn't really have any money.
JF - Sometimes we don't feel the way others see us but we wait for people with great imagination, people like Philip, to use us in ways we haven't been used before.
Question - Kristin, what different part would you like to play?
KST - I can see your point about us being typecast but I don't really see it as a problem. It's boring to have to wear the costume but really each character is so completely different. Fiona in Four Weddings is so different from Mary in Villa that I don't really see any point in trying to escape from that. As with period pieces, it's really about who the characters are.
Question - James, would you be interested in playing a very different character, like Bob Hoskins in the Long Good Friday?
JF - I've done that and tried to do it again recently and it was really embarrassing! No, I'll leave Bob Hoskins to do that. It's wonderful to play a part like Edgar who's unsympathetic, because there are levels and layers to the part. It's satisfying to do. I'm looking for parts that have shading and dimensions.
Question - Kristin, the French have almost adopted you as their own, haven't they?
KST - I've been living there for 20 years and I certainly feel it's my home now, even though I love to come back to England. But when I do I feel it's a foreign country. Last year I was the mistress of ceremonies - I'm not sure that's the right phrase - at Cannes and it was the first time they'd ever taken on a foreigner. Yes, I've been pretty much adopted.
Question - Kristin, you seem slightly scathing of the American movie-making machine. Given the chance would you give up on large-scale movies entirely?
KST - It's a completely different way of working. It is a huge machine and you join in and sign on the line and give your life to them for however long. But it can be great fun. The last one I did with Sydney Pollack and Harrison Ford was just a joy - but it did take five months. If I've still got access to that then great. It's just completely different!
Question - You've worked with Harrison Ford and Robert Redford. Do you have any views on actresses in Hollywood being cast opposite much older men?
KST - It's a tricky question. Why won't they give me someone my own age? But that's what I mean by it being a business; you either go with the flow or forget it.
Question - James, It must have been great fun for you to do Mickey Blue Eyes and send up the sort of starched characters you sometimes play.
JF - Yes it was great fun and I relished the opportunity. That part didn't have any really good lines or scenes but Hugh [Grant] wanted me to do something fun with it, which was challenging when you really haven't got a part!
PH - I'd like to address the question of actors and actresses straddling the two worlds of Hollywood and independent cinema. For a director it's really important that Kristin and James do some Hollywood films because it allows me to make films like Up At The Villa. Next year I'm going to do a film with Glenn Close called Chekhov's Sister and you need to have Glenn Close in the movie to be able to make the thing, so it's great that Kristin and James are making my future career possible.
Question - How important to you is Sydney Pollack? Does he act as your "point man" and negotiate with studios before you make the film?
PH - Up At The Villa wasn't much different from the other films I've made. Sydney was instrumental in asking us to make the film and securing the financing and being supportive. He was busy making Random Hearts and he views himself rightly so as a director. When he wears the hat of producer it's a gentler hat than as someone who's a Hollywood producer.
Question - James, what's next for you?
JF - In film it'll be The Golden Bowl where I play a character who is married and isn't rejected! He has a very happy marriage with Angelica Huston and they are the marital rock amid all the chaotic love that's going on. Henry James points out a relationship that is rather poignant for that reason. It's a very nice part.
Question - And Kristin?
KST - I've just taken quite a lot of time off. When we finished Random Hearts and this movie I decided I needed a break so I took a year off, which is closing now so I need stuff to do and I haven't really decided what yet.
