Then he went to Hollywood, directing the likes ofL.A.
Story,The BodyguardandVolcano.
Hes been away from cinema for a while, courtesy of some intriguing television projects.
A number of movies I did for television.
Theyve not made it to the big screen, yet nonetheless have been well received.
The last one I did wasTemple Grandinwith Claire Danes for HBO.
Ive done a number of movies for HBO.
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I dont really make a distinction between big screen and small screen.
You do your best, and where it ends up is something different.
Were you consciously hunting for a different medium for the stories you wanted to tell?
I wanted to keep working, and to keep exercising my skills in whatever medium wanted them.
And to work with good material.
Its rare that you get good notes from a studio.
Im going to take that.
That TV, for instance, would need something punchy and attention-grabbing up front.
That it has to be fast, else you channel surf.
Was patience pivotal to you here?
I think some find the film very slow, and others find it very fast.
I think its to do with how much youre willing to take in information and let things settle.
If you take as the model,Mr Smith Goes To WashingtonorErin Brockovich.
Everybody leaves thinking that was good, that was catharsis, wasnt it?
Then you reduce her to silence, and thats quite the opposite of the normal routine.
You have to make that silence into something positive.
In this movie we had the idea of making her silence a brave act, an act of self-denial.
She is forced into a position where she has to deny herself over everything she wants to do.
Like stand up and confront Irving in the court room.
All to confront the truth.
In that is a reconciliation between her and her passion.
And in that moment of reconciliation there is a kind of emotional catharsis, but its very small.
Tom Wilkinson, Im a huge fan of.
The gravitas of him.
Was that one of the hearts of the story you wanted to tell?
I felt very personally involved in this story.
There was a miasma of climate change denial, science in all its forms all around.
Even back then Trump was demanding to see Obamas birth certificate.
This is astonishing, that someone from the White House could use the phrase alternative facts!
[Laughs] We knew it was going to be relevant, we just didnt know in which area!
Obviously the main topic of the film is denial of the Holocaust.
Its a descendant of the phrase that Adolf Hitler used inMein Kampf: the big lie.
Nobody would dare to make that up.
The lie gets bigger and bigger.
Really all the things that define them as personalities are so similar.
We see it as a metaphor as well as a factual story.
I have to mention the Auschwitz sequence in the film: its, rightly, utterly chilling.
I admire how still you are there, too.
Theres a lovely Howard Shore score underpinning the movie that you quieten down, for instance.
It surprised me in the process.
I conceived of a film that was a bit more directorial, a bit more cinematic.
And increasingly, in the editing and the post-production, we refined it down.
The material seemed to be sending a message saying be more simple.
Cut it down, cut away all the frills, its about truth.
Truth is not an on/off film.
Its not shades of truth, a fact is either true or it isnt.
That dictated the simplicity and restraint.
George Orwells work is having a revival right now, I read…
Alternative facts sounds George Orwell, doesnt it?!
Your directorial career is fascinating.
Was there a career plan?
The only planning is that I get bored easily.
I try and challenge myself to do something completely different from what I just did.
I think unless you challenge yourself each time, youre not going to do your best work.
Youll fall into a pattern.Chattahoochee, my first film, was quite dark.
Storywas a comedy, a comedy of manners.The Bodyguard.
Then to a series of films with much more of a social content.
Just centering onThe Bodyguardfor a minute.
Was that the point where you had the greatest opportunity to say this is what I want to do?
Difficult question to answer, without going in to certain things.
I did a Dana Carvey comedy calledClean Slate, which unfortunately fell between administrations at MGM.
So its quite an interesting, surreal comedy of amnesia.
I believe Christopher NolansMementowas inspired by it.
I do love thatDenialhas been nominated for a Movies For Grown Ups award by the way.
Ive no idea what they are, but Im determined to find out!
[Laughs] I didnt know what it was, but if you find out, let me know!
Where doesDenialleave you now, and the projects you want to tackle?
Are there still lots of stories you want to tell?
Something like what Arthur Miller was able to do withThe Crucible.
Essentially a commentary on McCarthyism, without being about McCarthyism.
Are you tempted to write a memoir?
Im not old enough!
Mick Jackson, thank you very much!
