INTERVIEW
(Above) Stephen Frears directing Helen Mirren in The Queen; (right) Frears’ adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel High Fidelity; and (below) 2010’s Tamara Drewe, starring Gemma Arterton
years,’” Frears recalls of the advice the distin- guished but under-fulfilled UK director gave him. Frears himself has a relentless work ethic. He
remains fastidious about the projects he takes on but is also open-minded enough to embrace an exciting new piece of writing, from wherever it comes. One of the paradoxes of Frears’ career is that he
says he thrived in the 1970s, which was precisely the period when he wasn’t making movies for the big screen at all. “It was a wonderful time,” he says of an era
when all the best work by UK film-makers, whether by Frears, Ken Loach or Alan Clarke was done for the small screen. He likens the BBC of the period to “a nursery”. While there, he made at least a film a year. “And that’s how you learned.”
MAKING A BREAKTHROUGH My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985 was a pivotal moment in Frears’ career. Scripted by Hanif Kure- ishi (“it was an extraordinary piece of writing”), the film, financed by broadcaster Channel 4 but released theatrically, became an international success. Frears’ cult thriller The Hit the previous year
(which he is now planning to remake) had under- lined that here was a film-maker capable of mak- ing movies beyond the confines of UK television. Gradually, the opportunities for working on a big- ger canvas appeared.
56 n European Film Awards 2011 Even so, Frears has always felt himself to be an
outsider. He puts this down partially to his Jewish identity, which he only discovered in his late 20s. Frears teaches at the UK’s National Film and
Television School and is said to spend as much time as possible there when he is not on set. He is not big on theory, preferring a more practical approach. “You do really only learn by doing it,” Frears
says — more than once. The director himself is nothing if not prag-
matic. Win the right to the final cut, he points out, and you’re probably only guaranteed more interference. “Final cut isn’t quite what you’d imagine it to be,” he suggests. “It doesn’t mean you can make the film upside down or anything like that.” Instead he says, he prefers to choose his battles
wisely and “protect” the film. Now, Frears is striving to finish Lay The
Favorite in time for Christmas. “It feels to me as if it is the first film [by me]
about America,” he says, suggesting his earlier US-set films such as his Jim Thompson adapta- tion The Grifters and the Nick Hornby adapta- tion High Fidelity (both for Working Title) were strongly influenced by European traditions. Frears doesn’t even seem convinced that his western The Hi-Lo Country, also for Working Title, was really American in tone. “I used to say, ‘Well, I don’t know anything
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