IR Interview: Neil Marshall (Director) For "Duchess" [Saban] - Part II - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Writer/Director Neil Marshall talks to The Inside Reel about genre, humor and texture with his new movie, the action thriller “Duchess” from Saban Films.

Transcript

00:00♪♪

00:10♪♪

00:14Nicely done, Duchess.

00:16Duchess?

00:19She handled that with grace.

00:20♪♪

00:23Real power...

00:25can never be given.

00:27It has to be taken.

00:28♪♪

00:31You've got some balls on you, Princess.

00:33It's Duchess.

00:34♪♪

00:39Was the inherent challenge for this one

00:41just trying to do it within, sort of,

00:43the bubble it was in?

00:45Or has this genre been of interest?

00:47Because obviously, the reckoning and the lair

00:49are very different in terms of what you've done with Charlotte.

00:51But beyond that, it's very different

00:53than anything you've done.

00:54Was it just sort of like,

00:55this seems like a good thing,

00:57this is something I'd like to do at this point?

00:59Where did the sort of challenge and inspiration

01:02come for you, too?

01:04Yeah, it was certainly exploring a new genre,

01:08a fresh genre for me.

01:10But films that I've loved all my life,

01:12I've always loved gangster movies.

01:14So it was a case of, like,

01:16I've been lucky enough through both the films and TV

01:19to jump around various genres.

01:21I didn't really...

01:22I never wanted to be pigeonholed.

01:24I think if there's one thread that goes through all my work,

01:26it's the action more than anything else,

01:28which I like to put action into whatever I do.

01:31And this was the same thing.

01:33I wanted to make an action movie.

01:35So, yeah, I mean, it's...

01:38You talk about the tiger and stuff before.

01:40It's funny because it wasn't written as a tiger.

01:43It was written as hyenas

01:45because the original concept was to shoot it in South Africa,

01:49but we weren't able to do that.

01:51So we ended up in Tenerife.

01:53We managed to get one hyena,

01:55which turned out to be incredibly subdued

01:58and wasn't aggressive at all

02:00and didn't look particularly scary.

02:02And we did what we could with it.

02:04But then in post, we were like,

02:06this isn't working at all.

02:08And we found a place in the UK that has tigers,

02:11that has various animals as tigers, lions,

02:14all the kind of stuff that they use for movies.

02:16And we went into the tiger enclosure

02:19and we rebuilt a little section of the set

02:22to match what we already had.

02:24And we got the tiger to do that intercut.

02:28I kind of knew what shots I needed,

02:30so we just went in and got those shots, basically, of the tiger

02:33and added that into the film, which lent it a certain...

02:36Yeah, it kind of goes back to Scarface.

02:38It goes back to... I don't know.

02:40There's something more glitzy and glamorous

02:42about a tiger than a hyena.

02:44But that's the whole thing,

02:46is even the diamond trade is somewhat...

02:48It's more glitzy and glamorous, weirdly.

02:50It's still corrupt and horrendous in reality,

02:53but diamonds are way more glitzy and glamorous than cocaine.

02:57So, you know, just...

02:59People still like diamonds to have them on their jewellery,

03:02so it was just kind of bringing bling to the gangster movie.

03:07Hey!

03:14Do you like to play rough?

03:16You little...

03:19Sorry. Can't do that.

03:21Muriel, get behind me.

03:25What? You think I came here for her?

03:49No!

03:59My last question... Thank you, Neil.

04:01It's interesting, you were mentioning that,

04:03and the thing that came to my mind,

04:05even in Scarface or certain things,

04:07the essence of romance, however, you know,

04:10sort of antithetical it is in the moment,

04:13is always in there, but also the humour.

04:16Like, the thing with Lost in Space is, like, there's that humour,

04:19but there's that romance between, you know, the two leads.

04:22Timeless, same thing.

04:24I mean, even Game of Thrones in certain ways.

04:26I mean, but can you talk about the aspect of humour,

04:30bringing humour in, but in that context of relationships

04:34in sort of an extreme circumstance?

04:36Because that's why this also works,

04:38is because when Phil looks at Charlotte a certain way,

04:42you get that sort of humour,

04:44but also you get sort of the underlying heart of what's happening.

04:47Could you talk about that, and humour and romance,

04:50especially blending in this movie?

04:53I think that's just part of life.

04:55I think it's certainly what couples try to do,

04:57make each other laugh all the time.

04:59It's like, you know, that's what we want, it's a great joke,

05:01so we want to laugh.

05:03And I think it's very much a part of life,

05:05and it comes out in the weirdest circumstances.

05:07I've always been interested in exploring that kind of gallows humour,

05:10or trench humour, as they call it,

05:12that people find humour in the weirdest of circumstances

05:15as a defence mechanism.

05:17And I suppose when you're in life-threatening situations,

05:19or these larger-than-life characters,

05:21I think it's something that's very prevalent

05:23in things like Goodfellas as well,

05:25there's a really strong sense of humour amongst these characters

05:28who, if they're not killing people, they're making each other laugh

05:31and having a good laugh about it.

05:33So I love that essence of humour.

05:35I think it's essential.

05:36It's also, like, if you're wanting to get points across,

05:38better to do it with a laugh

05:40rather than try and preach to anybody about anything.

05:42If there's a way of telling stories and bringing humour into it,

05:46I just feel it's more realistic that way,

05:48it's more grounded,

05:50and it's way more entertaining to watch as a movie.

05:52In this kind of film, it's not like an Airplane or a Top Secret

05:56or one of those kind of movies

05:58where the humour's just being thrown at the screen,

06:01and anything can be used as a joke

06:03and becomes a parody, becomes that kind of film.

06:06This isn't like that.

06:08It's all coming from the characters themselves

06:10and how they observe the world and interact with each other.

06:13And that's natural humour.

06:15That's what we do.

06:16So that's the feeling.

06:18Guess what?

06:19I like that you mentioned Top Secret.

06:21Great film, underrated.

06:22Most people, young people...

06:23It's a classic.

06:24Yes, it is.

06:25It's a classic.

06:26I'm going to kill all the men that betrayed me.

06:29They will eat you alive.

06:33Do your worst.

06:36It's not enough to be as good as a man.

06:40You have to be twice as ruthless

06:44and ten times a bitch.

06:46Oi!

IR Interview: Neil Marshall (Director) For "Duchess" [Saban] - Part II

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