VARIOUS: ACTOR RICHARD E GRANT ORGANISES CHARITY SCREENING OF CULT FILM "WITHNAIL AND I " FOR HIS OLD SCHOOL IN SWAZILAND

Record ID: 388869

  • Title: VARIOUS: ACTOR RICHARD E GRANT ORGANISES CHARITY SCREENING OF CULT FILM "WITHNAIL AND I " FOR HIS OLD SCHOOL IN SWAZILAND
  • Date: 2nd February 2000
  • Summary: LONDON, UK (FEBRUARY 2, 2000) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (English) RICHARD E. GRANT ANSWERING QUESTION - WERE YOU SURPRISED THE FILM BECAME SUCH A CULT? SAYING" Absolutely astonished, they said at the time it would never be released, the title would have to be changed, there were no women, there was no story, there was no Crocodile Dundee which was the big hit at the time, so it
  • Embargoed: 17th February 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UK , MBABANE, SWAZILAND AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • City:
  • Country: Swaziland United Kingdom
  • Topics: Education,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2AEMQSMZ4EGFO9YMPL8ZCIVIC
  • Story Text: "Withnail And I" - the booze and drug fueled tale of two out of work actors at the tail-end of the sixties - became a cult classic when it was released in 1987.It's still as popular as ever and one of the films stars, Richard E.
    Grant is taking advantage of this to raise bursary funds for his old school in Swaziland.
    Next Monday (February 7) will see the Odeon West End cinema in London's Leicester Square filled to bursting with celebrities all ready to quote along with one of the most enduring films in British cinema - and it's all for a good cause."Withnail and I" was the film that first brought Richard E.Grant to public attention and Grant has organised a charity screening to raise funds for the Waterford School Trust, a cause close to his heart as he attended the school in the seventies.Grant realised there was a great way to help more students attend "...we needed a platform to raise bursary funds and the advantage of the exchange rate being ten pounds of our money translates into a hundred of theirs, is that whatever we could raise here would be really advantageous to them.Because the school was set up in the sixties, this film "Withnail and I" is set at the end of the sixties, I'm in it, I have a lot of contacts with a lot of people, it seemed a very short circuit route to set up something within five weeks which has all happened.And we've raised I think sixty thousand pounds, which is half a million in their currency"
    The school was groundbreaking when it was established in the sixties and has gone from strength to strength.With no school uniforms and students on first name terms with the teachers, the school aims to instill in its pupils a sense of personal responsibility and encourages them to be individuals, as Grant explained "What that school did was, no matter what your interests were, I was the only one who wanted to be an actor which in the early seventies in Swaziland was tantamount to saying you want to be an astronaught, it just was ridiculous, there was no professional theatre or television, so it was an insane thing to want to do, but the school encouraged and supported individualism, was very strong on community service, and whatever you got out of the school you put back, and that ethos seems to have left a stamp on everybody, it's like an invisible vaccination, that if I meet an ex-Waterford..., I don't know what it is, but something has marked them which is a unique and wonderful thing that you can say about a school."
    The charity screening will raise funds for bursaries which will enable more young people to attend and study for the International Baccalaureate which qualifies students to attend any university in the world.Grant hopes they will then return to Africa and use their qualifications and experiences for the benefit of their home countries.
    A star studded line up is expected to turn out for the screening, including several Spice Girls and the entire cast of the original film - for the first time "...even at the premiere twelve years ago, people weren't all there, I was in America already, so it's the first and only time.
    It's like the post-modernist retro launch premiere of the film that it never had, and I would imagine that most of the audience will know the lines of by heart judging by the feedback that I've had, so it's a combination of the two things, the charity and the film."
    And although "Withnail and I" may have been an unlikely hit, it certainly struck a chord with everyone from students to aspiring actors, from hard-core hippies to the occasionally inebriated and on Monday night a fun night will be guaranteed.
    The screening will be followed by a celebrity auction and a party at London's swanky new nightspot, Home and Grant is looking forward to the reunion " it will be very nostalgic, and a great opportunity to say thankyou to the people that have supported this film and this charity down the years, so I think it will be an absolute Camberwell Carrot bonanza of an evening.
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