Helgelands latest film isLegend, a British gangster thriller about the exploits of the Kray twins.
I wondered how important it was for you to write a masculine story from a female perspective.
She wont forgive him, but she understands him.
I thought that was an important way in, for the audience to understand him also.
Because I dont want to judge him.
Hes my character, you know?
Hes the guy Im making a movie with, in a way.
To be down looking up at him is also wrong.
So I want to be with him, and she allows me to do that.
So yeah, I thought it was crucial to the whole thing.
What was it like coming to this story as an American?
Youre coming to a British gangster story, a British way of life.
Its still gangsters, and the British have a history of gangster films.
The Americans have gangster films.
you’re free to trust your brother.
A lot of American gangster movies are very much about the dark side of the American dream.
I thought the Krays fit right into that, in a sense.
So I recognised that as an easier story to tell.
It has a universality, I suppose.
Obviously, there was a lot of self-mythologising with the Krays.
I have to have empathy for Reggie.
I could empathise with that.
Showing the violence as realistically as we could was important, especially as youre progressing along.
So you slowly strip away the fun until you get to McVitie, which is not fun at all.
That pub scenes really interesting.
Was that on the page?
Yeah, because of who Ron was.
It was fun, because Reggie was very straight hes witty and funny, but hes also very straight.
Rons this outrageous character, so hes fun to write.
I didnt have to invent it it was how they were.
I dont know who else could have pulled it off, really.
I started out by saying, Im going to cast Reggie.
When I write, I dont think of an actor, I just think of the characters.
I knew I had to get Reggie first, regardless.
When we met, all he would talk about was Ron.
Then theres all the work of how we pull all that off.
But nobodys really seen this movie star Tom Hardy.
The really pure, great-looking, groomed he can stand there like James Bond a lot of the time.
Because theyve seen him play Ron [before], in a way, you know?
Yes, its really interesting to see both sides of his ability in one movie.
So obviously, youre shooting the performances separately and compositing those sequences.
Yeah, because the split screen you might put together on set, even.
Then everyones like, Ah, its the same guy!
[Laughs]
Because thats how different they were.
Wed forget ourselves, sometimes.
And Tom had to do it from hour to hour.
Wed start with Reggie in the morning and then wed do Ron in the afternoon.
So he had to just [clicks fingers] flick a switch, really.
Its a great performance.
Going back to the start of your career, where you started in horror.
You wroteNightmare On Elm Street 4, 976-Evil.Back then, did you think youd get into directing?
Did you write thinking that would be your way in?
To me, I never thought of it as anything other than making movies.
I always just thought it was all part of making movies.
Theyre very cinematic its almost the most cinematic story, horror.
Anyways, it was fun to start that way.
I was working with Dick [Richard] Donner, I did a couple of things with him.
Yeah, you didAssassins.
And we were onConspiracy Theory.And he knew I wasnt happy with how he was doing things.
Based on how I live my life and what I think a movie should be.
If you want it to be how you want it to be, you have to direct.
Id thought about it, it wasnt an alien thought, but thats what got me into directing.
That was the very first thing I did.
Which in his own kind of graciousness, was, Youre unhappy with what Im doing?
Well go and learn how to do it [yourself], then youll see.
Is it true you met him by complete coincidence?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I was crossing a parking lot at Warner Bros.
I had a writers deal there, an old-fashioned writers deal.
On the drive in, every time Id say, What are you lookin at?
Hed say, I see gold!
Because hed just watched Treasure Island.
He turned around and so my son he didnt see me, he just saw my son.
He goes, What are you lookin at?
And my son literally looked up and said, I see gold!
And Dick says, Youre goddamn right you do!
[Laughs]
Then he looked at me and said, So what do you do?
What are you doing here at Warner Bros?
And I said, Im a screenwriter.
I have an office here.
Three days later, I was rewriting a script for him, which turned out to be Assassins.
People always want to know, how do you go about finding your way in Hollywood.
Well, I say, just give your kid a pair of binoculars and start walking through parking lots!
[Laughs] See what happens, you know?
So thats how I met him!
What do you think about the state of filmmaking now?
That genre seems to be falling away a little bit.
Its just, hes good and hes fighting evil.
The financial rewards from a movie like that, they assume are going to be limited.
Making movies like this, its always hard to make a good movie, but its really hard now.
And I dont want to do this on television.
I dont want to do the 10-part series about the Krays I want a proper film.
When people say, Isnt that a great avenue, I say no.
Why do I want to do a 10-hour TV thing that people are gonna watch on their iPad?
So you think that cinema should sit apart from TV?
But this is that same thing its no different.
Thats what you go to the movies for.
What do you think about the way Londons changed?
Its become this gentrified place.
There are very different kinds of crime here now, really.
Yeah, in the city itself, its hard to find those locations.
Id imagine in another 10 years itll be almost impossible.
But yeah, crime [these days] is always scams and money laundering.
Things that happen on a banking level, that arent considered crimes, but really are.
So what are you working on next?
We just finished [Legend].
Im telling it as a modern story.
But I dont know if Im going to do that next or not.
With that, our time is sadly up.
Brian Helgeland, thank you very much.
Legendis out in UK cinemas on the 9th September.
