The director discusses his work on The Queen.
Britain’s Royal Family, by modern standards, is a bit hard to take seriously, especially for those living outside of England. On film, these lavish-living figureheads are generally spoofed or relentlessly mocked. These days, their lives have become more of a press-driven public spectacle than anything of serious political relevance.
After Princess Diana’s death in 1997, a massive outpouring of support in England forced the notoriously private Queen Elizabeth to respond to a public outraged by her lack of public response to Diana’s death. Recently elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, an image conscious man of the people, was forced to urge the Queen to reconsider her decision to handle the matter on a solely private level.
Director Stephen Frears (Dirty Pretty Things, Mrs. Henderson Presents, High Fidelity) felt the story would translate well to screen with the incomparable Dame Helen Mirren as the Queen. Peter Morgan (Last King of Scotland) went to work on the script, which would attempt to seriously portray the Royal Family during a controversy that was heavily covered by English press, but little known in the outside world. Co-stars include Michael Sheen as Tony Blair and James Cromwell as Prince Phillip.
ReelzChannel.com recently conducted an exclusive interview with director Stephen Frears, whose lengthy and impressive career began nearly forty years ago on British television. In the years since, he has become one of the most acclaimed directors. His lengthy resume includes such modern classics as Dangerous Liaisons and The Grifters.
Frears himself is the first to admit to the utter oddity of the Royal Family’s existence under modern circumstances. “The monarchy in Britain is sort of a ridiculous idea, isn’t it?” Frears told Reelz with a laugh. “These people dressed up in funny clothes. It is inherently ridiculous and the Queen, who famously sort of reduces men to jelly just by being the Queen. There’s a lot of comic potential in there.”
Although comedy was one element Frears hoped to achieve with The Queen, he did not want to take the easy road so many films have in the past when portraying the Royal Family. “Normally, the Royal Family are just treated as jokes and they are mocked morning, noon and night. The idea of a film taking them seriously, that just seems beyond people’s comprehension.”
“Nobody had expected that it was going to be a serious film. I don’t mean by that that it’s not very funny… People were thinking we were making one kind of film, and they have been quite astonished that we’ve made something quite different…”
It was the chance to tell a realistic version of this story that first appealed to the director. “It’s a good story… If you’re British, the Queen is part of your life. So the Queen getting into trouble, that’s good stuff.”
“The Royal Family is a notorious draw in England, so I guess people are sort of into it or amazed by it, amazed that the modern countries have this sort of old fashioned monarchy. It’s quite a novelty.”
Screenwriter Peter Morgan, who also wrote the recent highly acclaimed Last King of Scotland, has quickly become a hot ticket as we head towards the 2006 awards season.
“He writes in this extraordinary way. He’s a sort of journalist in that he writes about these living figures and then he’s very imaginative [so he] then humanizes [them]… It’s based on very, very thorough research, which leads him to some kind of understanding of what these people are like.”
The Queen has been praised for taking a very middle ground approach to these events, allowing audiences to draw their own conclusions. “If you’re partisan, it gave people a chance to reject the film. But the absolute partisanship turned out to be a strong card because it’s not what you’re used to playing.”
The Queen opened earlier this year in England, receiving wide praise on the whole. Mirren’s performance is outstanding, already a front-runner in the early Oscar race.
“She won the prize in Venice. She’s fantastic. It’s very, very hard to describe. It is such an audacious film. There’s never been a film about the Queen before… The very act of making it is such an act of real cheekiness, but in a sense you then have to leave the film to speak for itself.”
“We all know an enormous amount about the Queen, and we also know nothing about the Queen. So, because she’s an intelligent woman…as you’re going through and editing the text, that’s where the discussions really take place…”
“It’s about a woman who famously doesn’t express her feelings. So if she started to discuss her feelings, that was inherently wrong. You’re making a film about somebody very reticent.”