It’s rare that you get to interview both the lead and director of a film separately and in depth during a festival. I was lucky enough to sit down with Robert Sheehan and then David Blair, director of The Messenger a film with a complex narratives of love, loss with a supernatural edge. We sat and chatted like old friends about film genres, great working relationships and intense shooting schedules.
How did the project come about?
One of the producers, Mike Knowles, I’d worked with. We’d done a film a couple of years ago and we did a little sky thing about John Lennon. During that time he showed me this idea and I kind of liked the notion that it could potentially be about the dead contacting the living as opposed to the other way round which is usually done. It is a strange one and wasn’t headhunted or through an agent,[just] having a chat and reading a script. It was originally sent to me as an example of the guy’s work. I’d already worked with Robert [Sheehan] and I sent it to Robert and asked him if it was something that would interest him.
He already said to me this afternoon – that he had already worked with you and that was one of the reasons why he wanted to come and do this project.
We might be working at the end of the year
You two will be the new Fassbender / Mcqueen duo.
Yeah it’w weird sometimes you get that. At the end of the day and because budgets are tight and time’s tight now having the short hand of working with somebody who knows you and you know them. You know [like] you can actually just with a look express a shift or a change that you don’t need to go through a huge demonstration of what needs to be done.
How long did it take to shoot this film?
It would be 24 days I think
So Pretty quick?
The one I’ve just done was 24 days but this [The Messenger] was 4 six day weeks so pretty intense. 24 days is a challenge.
It’s an intense subject matter when you take away the: I see dead people part and are left with the main narrative and subplot.
It’s difficult but you’re trying to not genrefy the film to too great an extent. It’s quite interesting and a lot of people in film actively want genre and I never quite get a handle on that. I understand that but there’s a lot of people saying it’s [The Messenger] a horror but I don’t think it’s a horror. It’s all about psychology and about relationships and if you wanted to add mystery into that mix then that’s fine. There’s a great danger, not that you under sell it but, that you miss sell it so you don’t reach your audience because of your own wrongdoing.
How do you pitch this film or how was the film pitched to you? Someone asked me to describe it and I said you could say it was a mash up between ghost and the sixth sense but actually it’s more than that.
Robert [said to me] I might have a little tick etc. I said don’t have any of that because I’ve done a lot of stuff that’s involved mental health and the overriding question [is]: by whose definition are we mad. So therefore what [I said to Robert] you should do is play it dead straight let the circumstances by all means dictate the peaks and troughs of the performance but leave the audience with the opportunity to explore what the ultimate mental state is. I’ve met loads of mental patients over the years and 90% are like us. I didn’t want to heighten and stylise it and try and make it become a) something it couldn’t be. It was important and why Robert is so great in the film because he’s fundamentally grounded without eccentricity.
Robert was saying this afternoon he wanted to have the character with broken teeth and that kind of stuff and that was viteoed so what were the other clichés you tried to avoid?
I remember the discussion about the teeth and certain body language and limps and all that. We did have [a] debate. I think you’re looking for something you’ll think that nobody believe I’m mad unless I do dot dot dot. Well sometimes that’s the worst type of thing and you don’t need the audience to do anything because in fact you’ve told them it all. I think let the audience explore the type of person you are and where you come from.
I found myself lauging at inappropriate times during the film.
That’s good I think
In the screening I was in people were a bit upset I was laughing but I have a dark sense of humour. Why do you think humour goes in hand in hand with hard times.
Because I think you need something to lift you out of the hard times and what’s better than laughing or joking. The places in Britain renowed for their humour are the hardest places – Glasgow, Liverpool do you know what I mean so maybe of course its’ origin. That also was not an intention but was not something to avoid [either].
Peoples’ perceptions of Robert’s character feature heavily in the film. How do want the film to be perceived
It would be good if there was no attempt to generalise or try to create some kind of perception for it. I would hope it [was] with the slight supernatural elements and done in an unpretentious way. There’s no desire to preach [or] tell somebody else what to think. It wasn’t flippantly put together. But I suppose engage and have some measure fulfilment having [seen it].
The Messenger is out in cinemas on 18 September
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