Casting Harry Brown

12 November 2009

Harry Brown

The concept for Harry Brown was brought to Kris Thykier by writer Gary Young (Shooters, The Tournament), and producer Keith Bell (Dog Soldiers, The Descent). Thykier recalls ‘I read the first draft of the script and it struck me as an interesting project.

“So I took it on board and we started on re-drafts of the script. By coincidence, I was meeting with Daniel Barber about another project, but when Daniel read the script he immediately wanted to work on Harry Brown. The beginnings of production were very smooth – within a few weeks we had a script and a director.’

Barber remembers his initial reaction: ‘I just really liked the script. I thought the story was interesting – it touches on so many problems that this country faces today. I was very keen to tell a story that was of the moment. As well as being a great story, Harry Brown is perhaps slightly political – it definitely touches on a multitude of social issues, and that was something I found very appealing.’

In the early weeks of the project coming together, Thykier recalls that it was soon evident that there was only one person who could play the title role. ‘The role of Harry Brown requires someone with resonance and power, yet at the same time must appear venerable, almost weak. We needed a screen icon. I think everyone involved in the project at that stage was aware that Michael Caine was our only choice to play Harry Brown.’

Having only one option in mind for the lead role can lead to a project being derailed before it has got started. However once Caine saw the script he was very quick to respond positively. Again, it was the strong script and the subject matter that tempted him.

According to Caine, some of the lines in the script felt uncanny. ‘I must say that when I read the script I thought the writer had been listening to a couple of my conversations! It’s that old thing: what’s gone wrong with the young? And the problem is now, the older guys like me, say, ‘Oh, the youngsters today what’s gone wrong?’ And they all turned out to be all right.

“But this next generation isn’t going to. They have armed themselves and there are too many drugs. We all used to go out and get pissed on alcohol but if you get pissed on alcohol you don’t go out and stab someone, you just fall over flat on your face.

“That said, Harry Brown is an ex-soldier. I’m an ex-soldier. He grew up in the same area as I grew up. I understood the character absolutely and completely.’

Thykier also recalls that Caine was already familiar with Barber’s previous work. ‘He had enjoyed The Tonto Woman. I think he respected Barber as a young, exciting film-maker.’

With Caine jumping at the chance of joining the production, Frampton was the next role to be cast.
Thykier comments ‘With Michael confirmed, we needed a strong actress to play opposite him in the role of Frampton.

The relationship between Frampton and Harry Brown, and how it develops during the course of the film is key, and so we needed someone who could take the role from a simple, procedural one and really breathe life into the character. Emily Mortimer was ideal for the role.’

Along with Caine’s involvement, Barber’s direction was another reason for Mortimer to take the role ‘Police dramas on television, especially in England, are very common. You can switch on the television any evening and there will be one on. When I saw The Tonto Woman it was clear to me that Daniel would elevate the story to a different level.’

Barber adds ‘Emily is a fabulous actress and a lovely person. She really brings something special to the role. As does Charlie Creed-Miles, who has done some really interesting work in the past.’

Charlie Creed-Miles plays young copper Hickock, yet he’s got more experience of the area than his boss, Frampton. ‘When we first meet Hickock, he’s investigating a shooting in a park which they decide is a random shooting and it turns out that it’s a gang initiation which has gone wrong.

“Then he meets Frampton and they slowly get drawn into the case of the gang related violence. I think Hickock’s worked himself up through the ranks and she [Frampton] has been fast tracked to her position, so there’s a little bit of angst at the start the relationship, but that slowly dissipates.’

It is Emily Mortimer’s DCI Frampton, however, who provides the main conduit into the story. ‘The middle class audience can look through her character’s eyes,’ says Thykier. ‘She is probably best known for playing those English rose type characters and so that made her perfect to be pitched into this raw world.’

The actress says that Frampton arrives from a different world. She’s a career copper used to the world of formal investigating. ‘She has decided to put herself on the front line,’ notes Mortimer. ‘There is somehow a purity to her that makes her stick out like a sore thumb in the universe of Harry Brown; the estate she’s assigned to her first day of work. Her first day of work sees her turn up at a murder scene where a young mother has been mindlessly shot.

‘As my character shows the audience, the reaction she has to this meaningless crime is one of horror; the lawlessness of it. It is not just a murder. It’s a completely meaningless murder. She wants the world to make more sense than that. She needs the world to make sense. In a weird way Harry Brown has the same feeling as her. They are two sides of the same coin. He can’t bear the senselessness of the violence in his world. It horrifies him and he has the same kind attitude to it as she does, which is why there is an understanding that they don’t realize.’

To help tell the story, the filmmakers looked for non-professional, local actors to play the youths in the film, in order to keep the film authentic. The casting directors looked at boxing clubs, local youth groups and they put the word out in the communities.

Thykier recalls that Barber spent a lot of time auditioning the kids. ‘It seemed like Daniel saw every single kid in the country. There were endless rounds of auditions. However I remember that Ben Drew, who plays Noel, really stood out very early on in the process. Certainly I think all the kids we cast were head and shoulders above everyone else.’

Daniel Barber agrees ‘When Ben Drew (Noel) and Jack O’Connell (Marky), auditioned I something in their performances and character that I really liked. It was my job to bring that out of them on screen. They are fine young actors who I think will do really well in the future.’

Casting the younger members of the cast in this way certainly had its benefits. Ben Drew comments ‘Perhaps at one point in my life I was a disaffected youth, and it was useful to draw on certain elements from that period for this role.

“’ Drew also appreciated the freedom that Daniel Barber gave them ‘Daniel was always open to suggestions for changing some of the words in the script, in order to make it more real to a younger generation. There are also a couple of scenes in the film that have some improve in there, which was great to do.’

Harry Brown is out now.

“That said, Harry Brown is an ex-soldier. I’m an ex-soldier. He grew up in the same area as I grew up. I understood the character absolutely and completely.’

Thykier also recalls that Caine was already familiar with Barber’s previous work. ‘He had enjoyed The Tonto Woman. I think he respected Barber as a young, exciting film-maker.’

Barber adds ‘Emily is a fabulous actress and a lovely person. She really brings something special to the role. As does Charlie Creed-Miles, who has done some really interesting work in the past.’