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Features
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Michael Apted's State of Grace
As he turns the corner on his 66th birthday, British-born filmmaker Michael Apted is simply thrilled to have finally made a movie co-starring Albert Finney.
Friday, February 23, 2007 at 6:00 PM
By Daniel Robert Epstein
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George Pimentel/WireImage.com
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Apted with the film last fall in Toronto
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Amazing Grace may look and feel like a British movie, by virtue of its UK locations, British Empire 18th century narrative and Anglo actors. But director Michael Apted, whose feature credits include Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorky Park and The World Is Not Enough, insists it is Hollywood through and through.
“This was Hollywood financed from beginning to end,” Apted reveals during a recent interview with FilmStew. “Literally we were meeting with Hollywood on an hourly basis.”
“Walden Media came into this with their own script,” he adds. “There were lots of scripts along the way that I was handed, which no one really was much interested in it. The notion of bringing politics into the center of the story was new. [Screenwriter] Steven [Knight] and I were the last people to come aboard.”
Even though the tale of William Wilberforce - an idealist and spiritual thinker (Ioan Gruffud) who challenges the British Parliament to end slavery - required a gaggle of wigs, costumes, horses and other period props, it cost only $28 million to make. This is a good thing, says Apted, given the fierce competition these days for moviegoers’ hearts.
“I don’t think you should spend much more money on a film like this,” he suggests. “Though you might get lucky, these are tough films to sell and to get people to come in and see it. These are risky films.”
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Ray Mickshaw/WireImage.com
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Gruffud at last month's Santa Barbara Film Festival
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It was something of a small miracle that co-star Michael Gambon was able to participate, as he had to squeeze in Amazing Grace in between his tight shooting commitments for The Good Shepherd. But after spending literally his entire career trying to get Albert Finney to star in one of his films, Apted says landing him for the role of Wilberforce’s mentor John Newton turned out to be fairly effortless.
“He just loved this script, the lead character and the period in history,” Apted reveals. “It is not a story people know that much about, so he said he’d do it. In some ways it was the easiest film I’ve ever had to cast, because I think people just loved the material and loved what it was about and were really taken by it.”
When Amazing Grace premiered at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, Gruffud garnered some very impressive critic and festivalgoer reviews for his performance. But Apted says it’s not always easy to push through people who are the same age as the characters they play.
“These were very young men who were in these important political positions and I wanted to preserve that,” he explains. “I wanted to preserve the real age difference between the establishment and the younger people, so I needed good, young actors. But I also needed some financial credibility and the fact that Ioan had done The Fantastic Four and had quite a following in the UK with Hornblower made it easier to sell the idea of using much younger people than you normally associate with box office clout.”
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Avika Gilboa/WireImage.com
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Finney, still a robust force at age 69
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Apted says he had only minor battles with Walden Media about the amount of religious elements to include in the storyline of Amazing Grace. Although he did not want in any way to diminish or demean the spirituality of Wilberforce, it was critical that the religious subtext served the protagonist’s character arc.
“I was very interested in someone who used this religion to give himself power and strength and fire and yet didn’t make his religion his political platform,” Apted explains. “That he made social reform and his relatively radical ideas into this political platform and used this religion to drive himself, and yet didn’t isolate himself or polarize himself with his beliefs.”
“I think that was a great template for a number of great men in my lifetime,” he continues. “Martin Luther King, Mandela, Gandhi… People like that who didn’t allow themselves to be just boxed in by the religion. I thought it was a great story, a great political character. I think keeping it balanced between the politics and religion to me was crucial, not letting it fall over into being a movie about faith and values and whatever.”
With the Academy Awards just around the corner, Apted – a Governor of the organization – is staring once again at great irony when it comes to the category of Best Documentary. Even though his epic British living series kicked up again in high style last year with 49 Up, it is alas ineligible for cinema’s top non-fiction prize.
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Mike Marsland/WireImage.com
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Co-star Michael Gambon
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“I have always been unlucky, because the Up films have been played on television so they have never qualified for the Academy,” Apted bemoans. “Still, I think that requirement is one of the reasons that documentaries are in this period now. Because the Academy insists that the films are shown in the theaters.”
“They don’t necessarily play in theaters for very long,” he adds. “But if you’re in the theaters, you get written about, you get reviewed and you have a much higher profile than if you go straight on to television. I think that, along with Michael Moore’s great achievements, contributed to more of a theatrical experience.”
Meanwhile, given the fact that Apted is part of that rarefied club of Bond movie directors – he uncorked the third Brosnan entry, The World Is Not Enough, in 1999 – we just had to ask. What does he think of the new 007, BAFTA Best Actor nominee Daniel Craig?
“I thought he was very good,” Apted replies. “It’s a slightly different spin on Bond. But Bond is this amazing franchise that has survived by successfully changing. It will be interesting to see where Daniel’s spin takes them and how they can keep it fresh or whatever.”
And if that spin eventually led to an offer for Apted to direct another 007 flick? “I’d come back anytime,” he insists. “I had a good time. I don’t know how often they can keep playing that game. But they’ve been so successful in keeping the same voice.”
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