What would you do if you were stuck in a spaceship for twenty-odd years?
Have you seen there’s a Twitter account? It’s hilarious; I don’t know who’s running it but whoever is doing it is very funny. They’ve tapped into my mentality here; it’s very good. I think Romilly really invests in his education, his career and I got the sense, when I read it, that he didn’t really give a thought to the family connections. We never see any messages for him from his family and I think the time on the ship changes him; not only ages him but changes him. I think that change comes about from seeing the different messages. Like they say in the film, love is as tangible as time, I think there’s a lot of learning; I’m not sure if it’s 23 years worth but there’s a lot of self-analysis.
Did you work on that with Christopher Nolan? Did you discuss what he would have done?
I wanted to. I had a drink with Anne Hathaway and she said: ‘he casts you, me Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and all of these people because he knows that you’re going to go away and do the work. He puts you through your paces in the audition process; but we don’t have that conversation. The secrets are for us to have and go away and use in whatever way we can, knowing full well that he’s going to capture all of it.
You always that impression from his films; there’s something psychological going on in the characters’ heads which audiences can figure out as well.
But then as a fan watching his films and thinking: ‘Oh yeah, I know how I’m going to work with him; we’re going to have lots of conversations about this, this and this’ but, in reality, it’s more: ‘yeah go and do that work and bring it to set 100%.’ He’s like that with every department; you go and bring it.
In terms of you being an up-and-coming actor, what does it mean to you to be part of a film like this which is pushing the technological boundaries of cinema?
It’s education for all sorts of reasons; even learning about IMAX and IMAX technology. Learning about how we shoot and portray intimacy on such a beautiful level and juxtapose that with the expanse of the universe. The fact that I’m still doing interviews almost a month after the film has come out, that’s a very different experience for me. And managing that with the various other projects that I have going on now and the interest of being involved in a piece like this; it’s a steep but exciting part of my learning curve.
You were in Cloud Atlas; how would you compare Christopher Nolan with The Wachowskis; in terms of people who really want to challenge conceptions of cinema?
They are people that want to challenge perceptions, and they’re pioneers, it’s similar; there’s a kind of uncompromising, fierce, steadfast approach to gaining what they want. If I’m not filming I’d often just wonder round and watch because it’s quite inspiring to watch these people passionately achieving their goals. I’ve just shot a film called Panic which is an independent film set in London and it’s not quite like Interstellar – but our director, Sean Spector, had the same passion and vigour; he was a writer-director as well. It’s nice to be in an environment where people can dreams reality. But then it’s interesting because I’ve done low budget things or theatre and sometimes the restrictions that you have there’s a creativity that comes out that you wouldn’t get elsewhere. I was involved in the stage version of War Horse and then they made the film – I had never seen War Horse before I was in it – and so when I saw the film I must have had the same experience that theatre visitors would have. But there’s a quality that comes with the film. They had a lot more money but there is also a quality that comes from the theatre piece. Then I was involved in a BBC production called The Whale, which was turned into a movie that is coming out soon and looks amazing and I can’t wait to see it. We didn’t have enough money so we had to stay in this cold green room together which gives you a comradely, so there are benefits to be had from all genres and budgets.
After you’ve made films like Cloud Atlas and Interstellar – which are so epic and expensive – how easy is it for you to go back and work on smaller projects?
It’s quite easy because what you’re looking for is tenacious, passionate filmmakers and you can find a lot of those all over. A lot of the time though the quality of the story has to be something that captivates you. I’ve had a production company for a year and half now so we’ve been developing scripts and there’s a lot of stuff that isn’t for us but others that we’re really passionate about so it’s important because you work on a job you like, especially if you’re still going to be talking about it a month after it’s come out. It would be really difficult if I wasn’t so in love with the piece. I think that’s what I look for; what’s the story like; how passionate are the people in it; what’s my level of responsibility and is it enough to engage me for that long a time?
In terms of Interstellar, especially the script, there’s so much physics and science going on; did you guys all understand everything? Or did Nolan have to explain?
Yeah, there’s a couple of times where people had to come on and say ‘actually, David, what you’re describing is this’ and I would be like ‘oh, a black hole!’. But when you have to learn your lines and make them seem real you do research and find out what you can about the words that are on there. To be honest the tweaking was minimal but because of the nature of who we were playing we also did a lot of reading on the subject. I remember walking past Matthew McConaughey’s trailer and he had his script just laid out on the floor, figuring it out. It was wonderful to be around.
How important it is to see the film in IMAX to get the full effect?
There are two experiences whilst we shot this that I like to think about. The poster you see of Matthew McConaughey on the ice planet, was shot on the biggest glacier in the world in Iceland and you look at it and it doesn’t do it justice. We shot those scenes on the first day of filming and I remember there was McConaughey, Hathaway, Wes Bentley, Bill Irwin and myself, in a van driving up to shoot and we were just making small talk. When we saw it though, we just fell silent because of the awe that we were faced with was so overwhelming. The second time we filmed like that, was when we were shooting the space scenes. Chris Nolan had arranged these panoramic screens, which were 180 degrees and twice the size of this huge room, and maybe a three times the height. It surrounded us so when you’re inside the ship everything that you looked at outside the was just space. It does control how you speak, how you move and, as a fan, I’m very keen for people to get that experience when they come and watch it at the IMAX. We shot a lot of it on the IMAX cameras and, a lot, was shot in 35mm but with the IMAX you’re talking about 65mm contrast so you get a sharper image. Hopefully when people watch it in IMAX it does take your breath away. I just feel like this film is a bit of an event and if you’re going out go all out, you need to do it at the IMAX.
