Conversations with Tom Hardy and Director Steven Knight of LOCKE

okay we are ready to roll I'm Bruce fretts on the moderate of this evening I'd like to introduce the writer and director of the film Steven Knight and the star Tom Hardy so I read that Steven Spielberg saw the film and called you Tom and had one question for you which was how did you do that so any question good for Spielberg is good enough for me so what did you tell him when he asked you how did you do that well he did not she just say those words he said that he sat there and he it would there with somebody and they were watching it and he didn't believe that I could pull a performance off like that everything was more how how did you do that why was I compelled to watch something for so long about one person sat there right well I just embellished it a bit so how did you I mean just physically take us through what it was like shooting a film you shot over eight nights is that correct yeah we decided to do everything differently really and the initial idea was to do something like this and to try and look again at how you get people to engage with the screen for 90 minutes so we shot the thing we put three cameras in the car on a low loader and we shot the thing beginning to end in sequence with the other actors in a hotel conference room with a real phone line to the car I would cue the actors in sequence to make the call so we'd finish the film we'd have a brakeman shoot again and we tried to shoot it twice a night for five nights and then we got some extra so we ended up with 16 versions of the film Wow and are you actually driving the car or is there a rig that on the car or no and I was too much to ask to drive on this on the fifth night I drove because they turn the cameras around outlet of em right and the windscreen so I'm been on the back of the low loader the you know there's lights and my autocue as well right right so how did you know time would be the right person to pull this off and you know if he can have some money on the screen for 90 minutes I better be good and I think he's the best we've got so so yeah I mean you know he and as you as you just saw he pulled it up yeah so take us through the the the writing of the film and coming up with the concept before Tom became involved I mean at what point did you attach him to it and I mean did you have a image of the character in your mind before that yeah I mean it began I just finished making a more conventional film and in the process of doing that we tested the digital cameras by shooting from a vehicle on motorways and in urban environments and when you see just that on the screen it looks very hypnotic and I thought it was quite beautiful and I thought well could that be the theater and then you put an actor into that environment and shoot a play effectively and it needed to be a journey and it's sort of looking at all of the the basic concepts of film so you have a journey and it's a real journey I mean you have the artist is real are the windscreen and the GPS is the future the rearview mirror is the past and just try and use the very limited simple environment to make certain points and it needed to be a journey where something happened that engaged people and that the ambition was that at the end people didn't concentrate so much on how the thing was made as the story in the character and you know we've shown it all over the place and people have a really emotional reaction which is great mmm-hmm did you ever think it wouldn't work I always thought that it would Tom and I would like it we didn't know anybody we didn't know if anybody else when we showed did at Venice and the lights went up and people with tears and all of this it was fantastic so it's great and how much of a collaboration was it with Tom coming up with character coming up with the script I mean it was a block then when you started shooting or was there a lot of but this thing this project has taught me something about script and character which is the script was locked in and the script is pretty much word-for-word because it's on a Porter prompt but the it that almost means there is more performance input it's almost like that's there that's just the basic thing and then the character comes from everything that the actor does and it sort of makes you realise that the script is something and it's quite a solid thing but the performance is fluid and it was different all the time different every night you know you find yourself discovering new stuff about any any section any sequence of script because of the way it's performed by Tom mm-hmm and Tom how did you come up with the characters voice and physical luck I mean what what input did you have in terms of that before you started shooting to be fair right everything is in the case file like get the this the script is everything and I didn't have to deviate from the script and that not in any way shape or form and there was no embellishment on anything that was it was verbatim the script and it's a very very clear script and and and characters are unlocked through action and then very specifically so there was nothing to embellish on it apart from just two and plus because I was reading for the whole film there was any time to to kro-bar anything or try any tricks or anything like that so it was a very straight read um so the the only two things really that I brought to the table was and I was and three actually cuz in the house when I suppress the father monologues we discussed I'm going a little bit deeper into those was a chunky jumper and a beard which I insisted on why did one of our viewer what I liked my beard I didn't want to shave it off so I incorporated that in yeah my general personal hygiene yeah and then I like no no but it made sense to have that because he reminded me of a ship's captain anyway so it takes so anybody can steer the ship in the comm Bedell you know in the storm it takes a specific type of type of captain or and the car and the contained environment lends itself to me as some kind of lifeboat or some kind of safety vessel a space of safety a containment vessel within the storm right so that's where we had the lifeboat sticker in the windscreen and we had like the charity the Prince's Trust and help for Heroes charities then the embellishments of carrot that came on top of that design-wise you know like the jump was naval but also in keeping with you know a builder you know the shirt was a specific type of shirt you know like a barber type shirt um the beard in dishevelment was just that stuff you know that was the handkerchief up there up the sleeve no I did have a cold so he went with the cold so really that was something yeah that wasn't in the script so I was swigging Bakewell I think as well because an end but it fit nicely and because the collateral choices within the vehicle was specific to character everything there was nothing extraneous or unnecessary and and I suppose the most obvious choice really which was which was mutual was trying to define a sound fireman because the film you get to see what Ivan's thinking but what you hear of Ivan is different to what you see so it in order to create an intimate space where the audience is allowed in to see his private process we wanted also another world which was what everybody heard and what you also here is Ivan's unwavering sort of anchor like voice and how he manages stress and and contains vocally so we had to find a working class I mean it for want of a better expression of being class this but like a blue-collar or grow sweet a man who'd worked from the floor up to success within his business we had to find a regional accent which best fit at arriven so a lot of a lot of regions come with a baggage because they've been used before as characters so I was traded rolling around to try and find one which didn't have any baggage but also enhanced that sense of calm and reassurance we stumbled across Wales which is a you know just on the side of I was a British Isles harina on the west coast yeah West Coast them and it's elementally is quite you know this a rugged terrain and there's a lot of ways to play wet and you learned right you know harsh terrain at time there's a lot of farming folk a lot of industrial and there was something about Richard Burton as well and as he Hopkins and they're sort of mellifluous gentle tones and Dylan Thomas and which is poetic enough to not be supper if ik and and I am going on a lot here so I shot up in a second oh my go but there was gentle and mellifluous about him and kind but at the same time he was built of granite of a sort like the the country that he came from so he you could listen to him and he was kind because the lot of the things he's saying a harsh so it was important especially under the duress and the stress of everybody else during his crisis that he could sound that he was containing and keeping an order so Wales they seemed like the most the most likely candidates to be able to deliver that that sound that we wanted and that was the only I think the only thing I really went for and put forward on the smorgasbord and so why do you decide to do this film at this stage of your career it's obviously very experimental film you know your career is taking off in terms of being a Hollywood you know blockbuster kind of opening type actor did you have any pause about kind of taking this detour fertile one no because it's not a detour it's a in anyway but a actors act you know and you you do you do what it says on the tin and when an opportunity comes along you just take it with both hands and this there's no difference between a five-dollar performance or a street performance so you know big Hollywood franchise or anything it's whether you know you just get on the front that shouldn't even need clapping I mean that's just the way it is right genuinely unlike and there should be no difference to your input the output is is up to somebody else so the the process is it changes and whatever it takes to get there but but the work is the work and that's really bond line all is I'm just grateful to be working so when you meet people who are super talented then it doesn't matter what form it is if you have the time you do the job mm-hmm did you meet the other actors was that part of the rehearsal process or what kind of relationship did you have with them off screen Steve doing the same we sat around a table for five days with the other actors and whatever direction and character stuff that needed to be done we did there in that sort of controlled environment so that when we went out on the road the actors were equipped to do the thing beginning to end without input from me I mean the occasional bit of input but and then halfway through I wrote letters to all of the other cast not because there's anything wrong with what we had already but we had that so and then suggested other motivations or thoughts for example to Ruth Wilson Ivan's wife I said try it that you've actually wanted to get rid of him for a long time and this is your chance you know take it and see how that affects but the intro undid that with all of them and gave him all a different idea to think about and then the interesting thing about human beings sort of is that it was possible to intercut between the two different motivations and it's like people are like that we've all got a million different at the same time motivation time we've done some very physical roles on-screen warrior and Greg sat right day was responsible for one well there you go and this is a very contained kind of performance I mean was it difficult for you it was a claustrophobic at all that you were in this very enclosed space for the entire shoot no it's just another dynamic you see you get on the floor with maybe you can and they are mine was physical I suppose physical transformation in inasmuch as well Bronson was a sort of calling card and then warrior was was the next step and he'll tell you how difficult it was for me to transform an ad I was horrible you know but um then I ended up in pain as well because I was like I suppose a go-to guy for he will put on weight and he will kick people other than he will be punched and and so that was I suppose my way in so you know but I'm not that guy at all like so you know but that's acting isn't it anyway so um so that was the way in and transformation takes many different obviously these transformations so you can be anything or anybody mhm and so this particular exercise is in containment which was exciting because I haven't done that before on film money on stage and not at this age as well as OB every year goes by you know you learn something new don't you so um so no I wasn't that it wasn't far from home for me personally but I suppose watching it might be for somebody who doesn't know my work and nor should they know my work but it was a pleasure to do mm-hmm did you always want to be an actor I mean when did you know that this was the path for you I've always been a liar and it was the air was there was either making a money from no entertainment or I was never going to be in espionage because I couldn't stop talking about myself so and into too much of an ego for that and too scared I guess and and neither lateral jail so now I'm very lucky to be here so yes no but and Steven this is kind of transition period for you you're moving from writing in to directing I know you've made a couple of other things what was that like to take on a project like this relatively early in your directorial career yeah I mean it was it was again a pleasure because there was very little but there was no pressure and no expectation because the budget was low no one was knocking on the door asking how it was going we were left alone so you just do what you're going to do and it felt like a project that was just amongst us and that was a great feeling but it's you know when you write a script you have the film in your head in pictures you have it completely complete and finished and performed and then you you have to hand it over and it's got to come into the real world which is when the trouble starts but with something like this it's it's trying to get as close as you can to the film in your head and with this because it's so controlled you can get quite close to it being exactly how you thought it should look which is good Tom who are your role models as an actor I know you've talked about Gary Oldman you've gotten to work with him I guess three times now on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Dark Knight Rises and child 44 coming up is he one of your major influences and who else yes he still is even after you met him even after all this time yes um yeah absolutely um this there's a lot of them but I I remember we went to drama school they asked me who I wanted to be a cross between and I think I said ray Fiennes Gary Oldman and Frank Sinatra and subsequently I've changed my mind really yeah because there's lots of people that I would I like a love ESOP you know and then and it'd take a little piece of everybody and then and I think that I'm sort of taking them on board and they come out probably not like how they've gone in as it were song as a collage of lots of different actors and actresses who have affected me really so you the list design list and I'm sure that everybody's list as well including some that I haven't heard of yet that out fine but pretty much the usual suspects mm-hmm do you have a particular technique that you use I'm gonna be trained in a file yeah I'm a strong advocate of any method necessary including fake it to make it I'm if in doubt that works so convincing acting there's two types right there's not convincing right I'm convincing and I don't really care how you get there just get there now uh was this done emotionally difficult free tissue was it hard to get out of the mindset no it wasn't it was a pleasure hey normally things which are tough or complicated are the most fun aren't they and the things that really want to make me kill myself for romantic comedies like because they're there there really are soul destroying for me like a because they're so saccharine how they unpleasant and uh and that's just not interesting you know I do like darkness but I don't I'm like but it's like I'm in it in a light way if that makes sense okay yeah like my daughter's very lights like Idi Amin if that makes sense yes absolutely so how did you achieve the emotional depth of this role I mean the scenes where you're having to what does that mean how did you achieve emotional that you're crying on camera the cameras on your face and you have to like break down in tears do you how do you achieve that theistic yeah sometimes yeah yeah there's no shame in that also where there isn't you know I don't think at the same time obviously the work will open up will open up emotion at times but you can't force that but then also you have continuity in place so there's you know there's many ways to skin a cat you have to you have to tell a story no matter what that takes so I would be lying to say that I wasn't affected entirely by Steven script but if I was affected whilst portraying Steven script and I wouldn't be doing my job I'd be wind Stephen was there any particular role you had seen Tom player that made you think he was right for this yeah I mean inception was that yeah you know the the arrival into that film and the way the film changed after his arrival was indicative of something unusual I think and Tom you had a period early in your career where you're working in Hollywood in the you know around the time of Star Trek and and Band of Brothers not exactly Hollywood but you know working with with with big names and then you kind of went often did some other things that were a little bit smaller and now you've kind of come back into it do you feel like a different person now than you were in those years I think what happened was that I went I ended up hitting the skids and I went to rehab because I thought I was gonna be really famous yeah or something I came out of drama school I got every job that I went up for and then a star check was the combination of a back-to-back I came I got Band of Brothers then black hoedown and I think was Simon French Foreign Legion and then in Star Trek and then nothing and as I waited it to come out I drank myself into oblivion in a way preparing for the anxiety of being super famous and I was very young and stupid and and of course it didn't happen you know wasn't supposed to happen that's okay so I ended up in hospital which was supposed to happen and then when I woke up and that's metaphorically speaking when it when it came to the other side of that expectation because I think anxiety of than fear of success and failure and stuff are that really important things for me to study navigate and to understand as a grown-up still working on that I went back to stage and that's when I did in a row we would all be kings with the labyrinth in London and then and that's why I started again so as I go back to school and learning to walk again you know and that's that's really why I'm generally says about there's no difference between a five-dollar performance or 15 million or 50 million nine hundred when he doesn't matter what the stage is is that's what what you do with the work is is all that you have because that's all I do have ultimately the end of the day is my relationship with the work and my teammates and and so it was just logical that you know and I was very grateful to be alive number one and and very lucky to be working at all to that I started back up on the stage and that's what I was about ten years ago so slowly walked back regardless of whether I was successful or not and what I you know to be able to be in the unprecedented privilege of sitting here talking about our film night lock I didn't expect anything to happen I wanted it and I didn't like I did before was ambitious now it's about and more like achievement but what can I achieve but he's very easy to burn out and and expect and so few of us are employed that I would always do a job and be thinking about the next job and I was never really in the moment not not in the moment as in on the scene but I wasn't even present so um so yes stage and film and TV movies they're all the same really and you don't just want to walk down and do them all and you did a play that Philip Seymour Hoffman directed in Chicago what was that experience like working with them Phil it was a close friend of mine so and that was written by Brett see Leonard who's a very close friend of mine as well and I worked on that for about five years and with Brett we'd go up to Barre Vermont Pennington is it and do their they would do their Bond series up there and I was a sort of invited UK affiliate so I started hanging around and you know try get noticed and I had and sit in and watched the rehearsals and and the rehearse readings and that play developed from there and Phil directed it and helped Brett and encouraged him to write it and subsequently I ended up at the Chicago Goodman's theater a couple years ago I was incredible because Phil is like it was an actor's actor wasn't he you know so and a character and a chameleon so it was hard to be directed by somebody who I unequivocally believed could do everything that I was doing much better than I will ever be able to do so that was horror but but it but it was you know an unprecedent privilege again and I and I loved I loved him you know and you've got some big films coming out you're going to be in the next Mad Max what was it like shooting that film I mean it seems much different than this experience you're out in the middle of the desert for a long period of time is it is it still the same work though no matter I mean like we said five dollar performance versus the million dollar performance or is it totally yeah it is but you have to but then it's about stamina so it's over time you know this that was a six month job and you're shooting much smaller pieces and it's a huge tapestry and orchestration so so it's it's about patience really not a virtue that I was blessed with at birth so like that and stamina and patience and and understanding what what what what team means and that you can't force your hand or change your environment as much as possibly something which is a smaller team collaboration because there's a multi multi-million dollar vessel and ultimately I'm a very small piece of that so yes there is there is absolutely no difference between the approach but the exposure is different because generally you're part of a much bigger machine and what kind of standard it'd take to make this go I mean we're literally shooting all night long I mean was it was there an element of sleep deprivation going on after a few nights oh yeah absolutely I mean it was total sleep deprivation but when when you know that it's a brief shooting schedule then everybody brings everything every day and every hour you give everything all the time and I think that you see that on the screen and you feel it and you know it's going to be over soon so you can you can deal with the discomfort and then all of that that goes with it but I mean it was it was even within the context of the night because they were long nights obviously we shot till he got light but you don't really notice when you do in the work so you didn't feel like you were going against the clock like you were racing against the Sun every night a glass of wine at 7 a.m. kids get into school yeah yeah and you got a call too I mean that must have been always get a cold when you know you and something's important that's when I get a cold la yeah going now avoidance blue and is it true that you're gonna be playing Elton John coming up oh yeah that's totally true yeah yeah what's how are you preparing for that I'm not you're not oh I'm avoiding it you know that's how I prepare for most things just like I avoid it until I have to do it you know and then and then but meanwhile I'm sort of ruminating and I think think I'm thinking on do you know domain it I'll sit with something ago what I know by this day I have to be there so I'll start thinking about it and then as the noose tightens then we'll worry about it more you know mm-hmm it'll be right what's the worst that can happen right haha I'll be and I'll fail abysmally doing it but then you know nobody said that it wasn't gonna be humiliating this job and now you know humiliation is my friend I said it and I mean that is true you know like if I fail trying that's better than me and I'm not trying isn't it absolutely how do you approach playing somebody who is that well-known in terms of their persona I mean and not just doing an impression but trying to find kind of the essence of I mean have you spent a lot of time with him or you can go to pick an argument with someone who's still alive then you find the weakest point and then you extrapolate as much information as possible and their avoidance techniques so they're in all how they you know I suppose it's it's about exposure to that person with Charlie Bronson I spent four years visiting him and then you you get what I got in that and every process is different but if someone's alive or someone's dead that's different again and if someone doesn't even exist that's also different but it's also the same mm-hm so you know any method necessary right so there are certain things that you spend a certain amount of time with someone you'll see patterns repeat themselves you know and everybody has to go to the bathroom you know at some point everybody has to eat you know there's certain mannerisms that everybody will repeat or stories they will tell you that they were and then the next time they tell you they weren't in it you know and the next time you know you just start to listen and you hear things and bits fall off them and I sort of pick up those bits and those are my bits and I'll that together and throw it up and and whatever has gone up is what I put up and that's what I found and that's my version of it so I won't say that I don't do an impression of because I will I will play and pretend I will fabricate and then I will embellish I will try to find with anybody something to neither protect them but neither punish them so I try to defense lawyer them as best as possible so I had to really like that person even if they're doing something particularly heinous I have to understand that and enjoy it I like to throw characters under the bus you know so I'd like to take someone and destroy them and at the same time enjoy everything and revel them for what I believe is truly wonderful about them and then find the middle ground between imagination and just stuff that I picked up and that's just my take on it you know that's not everybody else is and that's where I leave it it's not you don't mean it's not conclusive yeah and how do you feel about this character I mean do you guys agree in terms of whether you feel like he's doing the right thing or run or whether he's a good or bad person is this discussed with his wife because of this one thing that happened in his life I hope people at the end asked the question if he's done because it's very easy to think that he's doing the right thing because he's telling the truth mm-hmm but by telling the truth he's damaging a lot of people and he's almost replicating his father's mistakes by because he's going to be leaving his sons but also he is doing in a sense he's making this journey to prove a point to himself and to his father that he's not the same that he's not like him that there is free will does not predestination and so the journey is proof to himself of something but that selfish is you know that's a selfish motivation and also there should be good and bad I mean I think he's heroic in the way that he sticks to something but is he good or bad I think probably well like all of us he's both him and how do you feel that a tongue I think actor being good or bad or I don't think of any good or bad you know I think there's gray you know it's just it's great then the subject ultimately I think if the subject is very realistic you know I control my own stories in order to see and understand and care and have compassion and empathy I think he's incredibly brave I think at the beginning of the film he has a lot of obstacles and he clears a deck there's carnage and collateral but he he starts with that you know he starts with her a world which is disintegrating and he just knocks it down until he has a clean slate and there's damage but in that way I think that he faced you know he faces his uh his issues head-on clumsily but still head-on and then that way yes I think he's brave I think he's made a mess of things but I don't judge him for it because if I did then you know I wouldn't be really doing my job so I don't see him as bad or good I really like him I ultimately like him but I think it's him it's great to leave lately leave an audience wondering whether they liked him or not or what they would have done in his situation or not and if they could spend time with him you know or if they believed whether that person exists mm-hmm is there significance to his name also being the title of the film it is that a reference to John Locke er yeah yeah well he's lucky in the sense that he's a rationalist and he tries to take things and give them shape he give them order and make them solid just like concrete so yeah it is an examination the Lockean ideal and does it work or not and I think that film suggests that it doesn't work because there's a the chaos is outside the car the attempt to order is inside the car right so what's next for you I mean what do you take on after this projects I mean you know the day job is writing conventional scripts Hollywood really and there's a I've got two films they've got a DreamWorks film coming out in August with Helen Mirren and Bradley Cooper films start shooting in June in London and a Tobey Maguire filming in October which is curtain finished and yeah I mean I do that right for other people to direct win it for certain things but when ideas come that I think perhaps no one else would want to do then I direct them myself yeah do you know what you want to direct next aristos yeah yeah I've got an idea which exactly which will hopefully Tom will be an emic yes yeah and and again trying to find new ways of you know filling that screen and getting people to engage that isn't I work with Chris menges the DP and he's constant whenever you're filming they've conventional films like what why are there all these trucks you know what are all these trucks earful and it's almost like trying to find ways of reducing the process and just capturing performance that's all I really am interested in to me well I think you did an amazing job and I have to say that I'm sure everyone here feels the same way we can't wait to see what you guys do next but thank you very much for taking the time

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 52,176

Rating: 4.9632545 out of 5

Keywords: SAG-AFTRA, Acting, Foundation, Steven Knight (TV Program Creator), Actors, Conversations, Tom Hardy (Film Writer), SAG Foundation, Locke, Screen Actors Guild Foundation, Q&A, Interview, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Conversations Online

Id: DqXn9m7VciY

Length: 32min 30sec (1950 seconds)

Published: Tue May 13 2014