Michael Apted Q&A

The director talks about his new film 'Amazing Grace', about the abolition of slavery in the UK.

Mar 20 2007

'Amazing Grace' is a new film about the life of William Wilberforce, who did more than anyone else to abolish slavery in Britain in the 18th century. Chris Tilly visited the set and spoke to Michael Apted about the difficulties involved in bringing this remarkable man's story to the screen.

Can you tell me a little bit about the genesis of the project?

I was sent the script a long time ago, a straightforward biopic of Wilberforce which culminated in the Slave Trade Act, and it didn't seem very interesting at all. I think a lot of people got sent it and didn't want to do it. But they were very anxious to make it so they could get it in the cinemas for 2007 [the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery], and I think they quite like the idea of me doing it because I was English, I was living in America, I'd done a lot of documentary films and they wanted that kind of realism. So I said 'I really think you should re-conceive it', and I spun them this idea of how it wasn't a film about Wilberforce's life, it was a film about the passing of the slave trade act and whatever bits of Wilberforce's life you wanted to deal with, you could deal with in flashbacks against the centrepiece of the actual passing of the act. Then I was lucky enough to get Steven Knight, who had done 'Dirty Pretty Things', to write it and then it was all up and running and it all happened very quickly. I had that meeting in February and we were rehearsing by the end of September. And Steven pretty much wrote it from scratch.

Why do you think the story hasn't been told before?
 
I don't know, it's a good story. For me what's good about it, other than that it's a genuine piece of heroism in British history, is that it's about how stirring and lifting politics can be, and since politics these days is so disregarded and in disrepute and since political action is at the centre of our lives, it seemed good to make a positive film about politics. That's hard to do in contemporary terms because the modern audience has a pretty low opinion of modern politicians. But I think you could tell it in historical terms but in a modern way, with a modern structure and modern style. You could really concentrate on the way politics was done in the period and how everybody kind of rolled their sleeves up and got on with it – formed alliances and compromises and put this great thing together.

The other thing that appeals to me is that although Wilberforce was very Christian, he didn't take the high moral ground. That was his strength. Too often in politics now people just take positions and retreat to them and shout about them. Wilberforce was able to take his principals out into the world and not patronise or moralise with anybody. He used them not only as a base for the work he did, but to live in the world of men and to work with men who thought other things. Pitt, with whom he had a close relationship with, wasn't remotely interested in Wilberforce's religious beliefs at all, but they had a common political purpose and bonded by that.

Do you think it will be relevant today?

Well it should be. If we do it correctly people should be able to make comparisons with how politics is run today.

How did your cast come together?

People always liked the script, once Steven had written it, people wanted to do it. I met with a lot of actors and we really wanted someone to play Wilberforce who had some name value, and value in the business who's British. So I met with Ioan [Gruffudd] and that worked out for us. One of the big things that happened was I sent it to Albert Finney to play John Newton, which is only two scenes, but he said he wanted to do it, and once you can get that kind of weight behind you, then the whole thing seems to get a life of its own and you really can begin to put together a terrific cast which gives the film huge credibility.

What does Ioan bring to the role of Wilberforce?

I think he brings tremendous intelligence and interior strength. He is clearly someone who's not slick – Pitt is much slicker, much more an opportunist. I think Ioan brings some inner power to Wilberforce – a calm power to the man.

Where have you been shooting?

Everywhere. We're doing one day in the studio and that's just some dream sequences, we did that in Elstree. Otherwise we're all over the place. We started in Gloucester, we did a lot of stuff based around Salisbury looking for country houses and things like that. We're building the old houses of Parliament in a de-sanctified church in Chatham. We've done a little bit of filming on the streets of London, but not a lot because there isn't much stuff for us to film there and also because we haven't got a huge budget. But the other reason is because I wanted to make a film which is very intimate and personal and about corridors of power rather than a big, epic spectacular. I wanted to get away from that way of doing period films and to make it a bit grey and rainy and monochromatic in that sense. Not chocolate boxy and colourful.

So it's not a traditional biopic?

It's not a traditional biopic because we don't really do a biopic. It's not a linear plot as it doesn't take you from childhood to death – it just stops when he was in his early forties. But just the look of it, I want it to look sombre. Not that the film doesn't have humour and a lot of life, but in order to get away from the sunshine and all of that, so it helped me when we shot the picture through the winter. We had some very good bad weather, a lot of rain and cloud and all of that. So it's been hard for us but it's paid off because it looks beautiful in the film, but not in that sunshiny way.

'Amazing Grace' is released on Friday.

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