UK: Michael Fassbender, Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan and Iain Canning on the "Shame" red carpet at the 55th BFI London Film Festival.
Record ID:
219457
UK: Michael Fassbender, Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan and Iain Canning on the "Shame" red carpet at the 55th BFI London Film Festival.
- Title: UK: Michael Fassbender, Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan and Iain Canning on the "Shame" red carpet at the 55th BFI London Film Festival.
- Date: 17th October 2011
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 14, 2011) (REUTERS) VUE CINEMA, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON WRITER-DIRECTOR STEVE MCQUEEN (LEFT) AND ACTOR MICHAEL FASSBENDER TALKING TO JOURNALISTS MCQUEEN (SOUNDBITE) (English) STEVE MCQUEEN, WRITER-DIRECTOR, SAYING (IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION WAS FASSBENDER ALWAYS YOUR FIRST CHOICE?): "Yes, Michael from day one. I asked him even before we had a script because there's a journey that has to be taken with such a thing like this, and with an addiction, it's kind of all incumbersome (all-encompassing). It's a situation where someone has to go through a journey, and when I think of an actor and you think of an actor, there's not many actors who can actually do that, and you always come back to Michael Fassbender." FASSBENDER (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHAEL FASSBENDER, ACTOR, SAYING (IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION WHY DOES HIS CHARACTER BRANDON FEAR LOSS OF CONTROL?): "Responsibility in a relationship, you know, giving himself up emotionally, and that for him is a loss of control. You know, if he opens himself up he's liable to get hurt or all the obvious things, and so his whole environment is a very controlled one. It's that idea of intimacy being something that's too scary." FASSBENDER SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST MCQUEEN (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHAEL FASSBENDER, ACTOR, SAYING (IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION ABOUT WORKING WITH MCQUEEN THE SECOND TIME AROUND): "And it was just sort of like picking up from where we left off in 'Hunger'. It was amazing, and then of course, you know, Sean Bobbitt behind the camera again, and Joe Walker editing. You know, there's a team there that's in place, you know, like minded people from different backgrounds, you know, getting together and trying to sort of -- I don't know -- jam or play music together. You know, it's fun." IAIN CANNING, PRODUCER TALKING TO JOURNALISTS CANNING (SOUNDBITE) (English) IAIN CANNING, PRODUCER, SAYING (IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION ABOUT MCQUEEN AND FASSBENDER'S PREVIOUS WORKING RELATIONSHIP'S EFFECT ON THIS PRODUCTION) "I think to see that combination grow and evolve, I think it would have been interesting whether the first script of "Shame" had come to Michael before 'Hunger', whether he would have accepted a part before reading a script even, which he did. But I think we definitely got the benefit of the fact that their relationship had started on 'Hunger'." ABI MORGAN, SCREENWRITER, TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABI MORGAN, SCREENWRITER, SAYING (IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION ABOUT WHERE THE INITIAL IDEA FOR "SHAME" CAME FROM, AND HER AND MCQUEEN'S EXPERIENCES MEETING SEX ADDICTS): "I think Steve and I knew that we wanted to write quite an intense love story in some form, and in many ways I feel it's a love story between two siblings. Actually when we came to meet the number of people we met (addicts), that you know, we met a lot of obviously people who self, you know, who have experienced this compulsive behaviour, but also practitioners. I think, you know, just carry the atmosphere of that, and carry the kind of despair and the pain of it, and I think Steve and I spent a lot of time just brewing really. So you'd have these kind of meetings with these men and we'd be quite quiet with each other initially afterwards, and then conversation would start again. I really, really feel the work's come out of that experience, you know, more intently than any research piece I've done before really, so." FASSBENDER CANNING TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) IAIN CANNING, PRODUCER, SAYING (IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION ABOUT WHETHER IT IS TOO SOON TO TALK ABOUT THE OSCARS WITH THIS FILM): "I hope that enough people go to see it so that talk of awards continues, but I think, primarily, we're just obsessed about getting people to see the film." FASSBENDER TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) STEVE MCQUEEN, WRITER-DIRECTOR, SAYING (IN RESPONSE TO SHOWING HIS FILM AT THE 55TH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL): "London Film Festival, some place, a place were I used to go to, come to, try to get tickets to, so now I'm back home I feel it's great, isn't it, to always come back home."
- Embargoed: 1st November 2011 12:00
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- Story Text: After Cannes, Venice, Toronto and New York Film Festivals, star Michael Fassbender, writer-director Steve McQueen, screenwriter Abi Morgan and producer Iain Canning finally bring their film, "Shame", home to be shown at the 55th BFI London Film Festival, taking to the red carpet on Friday evening (October 14).
The story follows Brandon (Fassbender) who is in his thirties, living and working in New York. Born in Ireland but raised in New Jersey from the age of ten, he now has his own flat and a job in a glossy corporate office.
He is single, smart, and attractive. He also has a compulsive sexual need that sees him caught up in a repetitive cycle of pick-ups, prostitutes and online encounters. Whether he is managing his sex life or it is managing him is open to question, but his world seems self-contained and ordered, free of any messy emotional ties.
However, when his wayward younger sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) arrives at his apartment begging to stay, Brandon's control starts to slip...
McQueen's second film after the acclaimed "Hunger", also starring Fassbender in the lead as Irish Republican Bobby Sands, is a confident and complex second feature about the nature of need and desire. McQueen said there was only one actor in mind for the part in Brandon.
"Michael from day one. I asked him even before we had a script because there's a journey that has to be taken with such a thing like this, and with an addiction, it's kind of all incumbersome, (all-encompassing)," he said.
"It's a situation where someone has to go through a journey, and when I think of an actor and you think of an actor, there's not many actors who can actually do that, and you always come back to Michael Fassbender," adds McQueen.
Fassbender's character who has intimacy issues, built up from an implied bad past, is terrified of loosing control.
"Responsibility in a relationship, you know, giving himself up emotionally, and that for him is a loss of control," explains Fassbender. "You know, if he opens himself up he's liable to get hurt or all the obvious things, and so his whole environment is a very controlled one. It's that idea of intimacy being something that's too scary."
Fassbender is reunited with McQueen who he believes helped mould his career after the success of the Sands biographical account in 2008. Asked whether the working relationship felt familiar but still challenging, Fassbender said he always needs to be challenged, but working with McQueen and team felt exciting once more.
"And it was just sort of like picking up from where we left off in 'Hunger'. It was amazing, and then of course, you know, Sean Bobbitt behind the camera again, and Joe Walker editing," Fassbender said. "You know, there's a team there that's in place, you know, like minded people from different backgrounds, you know, getting together and trying to sort of -- I don't know -- jam or play music together. You know, it's fun."
Producer Canning who was still working on "The King's Speech" at the time of production of "Shame" recognised that the film greatly benefited from a McQueen-Fassbender "bromance".
"I think to see that combination grow and evolve, I think it would have been interesting whether the first script of "Shame" had come to Michael before 'Hunger', whether he would have accepted a part before reading a script even, which he did. But I think we definitely got the benefit of the fact that their relationship had started on 'Hunger'," said Canning.
Although primarily about one man's sex addiction and his attempts to stop it, Morgan told Reuters this is within the framework of an intense love story, essentially between a brother and a sister. It was only after meeting addicts in New York -- both McQueen and Morgan admit that no one in London would talk about such an addiction, as though it was taboo, hence filming moved to the Big Apple -- that the writing team began to feel the gravity of the situation and the effects on them.
"I think Steve and I spent a lot of time just brewing really. So you'd have these kind of meetings with these men and we'd be quite quiet with each other initially afterwards, and then conversation would start again. I really, really feel the work's come out of that experience, you know, more intently than any research piece I've done before really," she said.
With awards success for "Shame" enjoyed at the Venice Film Festival, with McQueen winning the CinemAvvenire Award and FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film, and Fassbender the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, 2011 Academy Award winner for "The King's Speech" Canning was asked whether it was too soon to be talking about Oscars next time around.
"I hope that enough people go to see it so that talk of awards continues, but I think, primarily, we're just obsessed about getting people to see the film," he said.
Like his colleagues and star, McQueen was pleased to be finally showing "Shame" to the British general public at the 55th Festival, especially with family and friends very keen to see it.
"London Film Festival, some place, a place were I used to go to, come to, try to get tickets to, so now I'm back home I feel it's great, isn't it, to always come back home," McQueen said.
As part of the Festival's Film on the Square Gala, "Shame" has enjoyed sell-out success, with the screening on Saturday 15 October now fully booked.
"Shame" will go on general release in the UK in January 2012, and earlier in December this year in the United States. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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