A British ex-PM is indicted for war crimes by the The Hague. Safe in his American vacation home, he avoids extradition, since the U.S. is one of the few countries that doesn’t recognize the international criminal court.
It’s the plot of The Ghost Writer, directed by longtime fugitive Roman Polanski. And don’t think that irony went unnoticed by the cast.
Although none would speak directly to the decades-old statutory rape conviction, for which Polanski was arrested in Switzerland late last year, they admit they were all reminded of his fugitive status.
“You can’t help but go to the isolation of my character, living in exile, the reference to Napoleon and Elba,” says Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan plays the Tony Blair-ish prime minister Adam Lang, who hires a too-inquisitive ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) for his autobiography.
“Then,” he added at a recent round table interview in New York, “you look at Polanski and the life that he’s led, looking over his shoulder, constantly in motion, from the ghetto of Warsaw to the films that he makes. They kind of all have the theme of isolation and claustrophobia and certainly a kind of all-encompassing forboding.
“I think he uses his life and persona in his drama. It defines the material which he can chew the bone on.”
McGregor, who plays the title character, recalls “the scene where there’s some discussion of the countries he and can’t go to. That seemed relevant to Roman’s situation at the time.
“Y’know, he lives in France, we were shooting in Berlin and, for instance, he wasn’t allowed to travel to Great Britain or America obviously. So there were some moments there that felt like they were relevant to his life. However, they were written in the (Robert Harris) book, and the book was written three or four years ago before Robert had any idea Roman might direct the film.
“Although we all felt onset that it felt quite poignant to Roman’s life, it wasn’t discussed (with him).”
That last is not quite true. Olivia Williams, who plays the scheming Cherie Blair-esque wife of Lang, brought the parallels up with Polanski early on, when she was reading the novel.
“I’m ready for you, because I kind of interviewed him on your behalf about the conscious parallels,” she told me. “I said ‘What did you think when you read that section of the novel?’ He said (she adopts a Polish accent), ‘I found that vaguely amusing.’
“So there you are. Verbatim.”
“That’s how Roman is. He’s just amazingly not preoccupied with his own predicament.”
Williams said she’s spoken with Polanski on the phone during his house-arrest in Switzerland as he awaits extradition proceedings. Asked about his state of mind, she says, “I think I just answered your question.”
All the cast described working for Polanski as being one of the most intense experiences of their careers.
“He has a terrible habit of putting his head in his hands and saying ‘No, no, no!’ at the end of a scene,” Williams recalls.
“I said at one point ‘As an actress I’ve done my best for you, and you’ve got your head in your hands. What’s wrong? Can I help?’
“He said that what he’s trying to see when his eyes are closed and his head is in his hands is the original model. He’s trying to see in his head what he saw in the script - ‘Before all this stuff,’ he says, waving his hand at me and the set and the 400 people standing around, ‘Before this came around and got in the way!’
“I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. His frustration could be equally directed at a lampshade or a glass of water or a piece of furniture that was sitting in the wrong way. It was belittling and aggrandizing at the same time. You are no more or no less important than a glass.”
Says Brosnan: “(Polanski) is a very intense fellow, passionate, very erudite. I had the greatest time working with him. He’s a taskmaster. You want to do the best for the guy. We all felt a sense of electricity every day on the set becuse he’s so specific and demanding. The lens is always close to his hand. He has a viewfinder that was burnished by time, all the numbers worn off it.
“There’s sometimes a franticness to his energy and his passion. He’s trying to capture the spontaneity of the performance, so you have to be on your toes.
“But when the curtain comes down at the end of the day, there’s a very charming man there. We’d sit and have
drinks or a bite to eat, talk of family, talk of love.”
More Artists
