spotlight the man who invented christmas
I think that’s the most effective way to create change, because people don’t feel like they’re being preached at. What Dickens was saying was let’s
just change the clocks, second by second and turn this whole thing around.”
Dickens is amazing, in a 70-page novella and
this is why he is loved so much, he sets up a world and you can see in your mind’s eye, the picture he wants you to see. You’re in Dickens’ world when he writes. I don’t know exactly how he does it, but it’s almost as if you can see which way the light is coming through the windows. Because of that, I wanted everything you saw in his world referenced inThe Man Who Invented Christmas: The tiles in the fireplace in Dicken’s writing room are the tiles from Scrooge’s place. There are lots and lots of hidden Easter eggs throughout this Christmas film and if you know your Dickens, many fun things to look for. As a filmmaker, that is an extraordinary reference
to have, because it kind of does all of the heavy lift- ing for you. I know exactly what his writing room should look like, how the street should look, or how the bedroom should appear, because we had all the references to it in the book. The frightening thing is, because it is such a well-loved book, you really don’t want to screw it up. (Laughs) You’ve got to hit it just right, because people have such ownership of the story and understand it in a very personal way, having had their own unique experiences through it. The Man Who Invented Christmas is a unique story as far as biopics go. To take such a specific part of Dickens life and focus so tightly in on it must have been a challenge. Again, Susan’s script was remarkable. The genius
of focusing in on those six weeks and revisiting Dickens’ backstory, through the story he’s writing and then combining those two elements, gives it a really lovely time frame. I love contained films, movies that happen over very specific times and then there’s a character change. Something very
38 RAGE monthly | | DECEMBER 2017 DECEMBER 2017
comforting about that for me—I’m not sure what it is, maybe the ticking clock element— I’m just not sure but I love it. So much of it too is about the performances, you live and die by that. Dan Stevens sucks you in and Christopher Plummer keeps you there. They are the people who travel through the film and take you with them. It’s funny, now that I’ve seen Christopher Plum- mer as Scrooge, I can’t un-see him or imagine anyone else in the role. It was a brilliant choice. I think he is the Scrooge of all Scrooge’s. (Laughs) There is something that he brought to it that blew us all away. He turned 87 on set and he was the first guy there every day, knew his lines, was incredibly generous with all the other actors, a true professional. He also has this wonderful, naughty little boy hidden in there, that little glint in his eye, which is why he is always still so fresh on the screen. That’s his Scrooge as well. He’s terrifying and cynical, all those things, but because of that naughty boy at the back of it, he’s funny, too. It rounds him off beautifully. How much source material did you have for build- ing the characters? I read that you had access to his daughter’s journals, is that something you actually pulled from? We did all sorts of research, we went to the British Library, got on the white gloves on and touched the first editions ofA Christmas Carol. I’m not sure we really needed to do that, but it certainly imbued us with an “Oh my goodness, we’d better get this right,” moment. We looked at the diaries of the daughter, too. It was those diaries that sort of set off Susan’s story track. There’s a moment in one when she says that she would walk passed his room and would hear voices emanating from inside. He
would be gathering all of these characters, kind of extrapolating things from that. So, in the film he visualizes the characters and they sort of goad him as he discovers them for the manuscript…Basically putting him through a kind of psychotherapy as he is writing. (Laughs) One of the things that most don’t realize, is that Dickens was sort of a social activist. He brought awareness to issues like poverty, homelessness, income inequality and child labor. A Christmas Carol changed the way people
felt about the poor. There was a whole movement around charitable giving after it came out. It was a hint to the world that you can be wealthy and give back, it doesn’t have to be just one way. It helped to change the laws around child labor and other things, it was all that sort of drip, drip, drip that he kept bringing in to his books. I think that’s the most effective way to create change, because people don’t feel like they’re being preached at. What Dickens was saying was let’s just change the clocks, second by second and turn this whole thing around. It doesn’t have to be done in one go. There is a great quote which we use in the film,
“No person is useless in this world, who lightens the burdens of another,” which is an amazing thing to say. It’s not like he’s asking you to change the world, he’s asking us to lighten the load of another and it’s the tiniest things that can do that. I think that is his genius and that’s why he resonates and he continues to be someone that we look to and get inspired by.
Words to live by...
The Man Who Invented Christmas is in theaters now. Check your local listings for locations and showtimes.
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