Over the last couple of year Noel Clarke as established himself as, what is known in America, a triple threat as an actor, writer and filmmaker.
His last movie Adulthood brought him critical acclaim and a Bafta but this week he is back with new movie 4.3.2.1.
I caught up with him to talk a bout his new project, working with Emma Roberts and what lies ahead.
- We last spoke when you launched the Doritos King of Ads competition since then there have been 3000 entries so what were you looking for in the three finalists?
Innovation, originality, being able to do things in the time frame that showed your potential as a future filmmaker. There were loads of things in the brief but it was just about getting new people a chance to break through into the industry as well as making a cool ad that will appear during the World Cup and potentially win then £200,000.
- You have whittled 3000 entries down to just three so how difficult a process was it?
It was very difficult because you are judging a lot of people and I’m still the kind of person to say ‘who am I to judge?’. I kind of got lucky to be in the industry in the first place and have taken every opportunity that has come my way but I still find it hard to judge other people’s work, I looked at some of the work that came through and I was like ‘this is better than my stuff’ (laughs).
But that is kind of the point because we are there to discover and push out new talent.
- You are back on the big screen this week with 4.3.2.1. So can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
4.3.2.1, four girls, three days, two cities and once chance. There are four girls who get involved in a diamond heist and have three days to try and navigate their way out of it.
It’s just something that we wanted to do that was different I think a lot of the films that come out of the country are similar or arty and I just wanted to make something that wasn’t any of that and to just produce something that’s commercial, go and enjoy it and leave the cinema knowing that you have been entertained.
- You have touched on my next question really the film is very female orientated which is quite different for you what made you move in this direction?
I think again, I do like a lady; in a respectful way, I wanted to show that it worked and that ladies didn’t have to be the damsel in distress but they could be the heroes.
But at the same time, not like another film which is just four old handbags where al they are doing is talking about shoes and various other things, but it was four modern girls who really take the bull by the horns and saving the day.
- You have said that movies like Pulp Fiction and Amores Perros were influences so what aspects of these movies influenced your script?
The main aspect is that it is out of sequence, you watch 4.3.2.1. And it’s not told in sequence, and not many films have done that in this country, perhaps just Sliding Doors but that was only two sequences and this is actually four.
So it works in a way that is unusual for a British movie an that’s kind of the point I wanted to do something different, even something different from what I had done before, I didn’t want to become the guy that does those films.
- The script is quite complex different time zones, different cities while everything interlinks and you wrote it in a month, that’s regarded as swift stuff?
No it’s not that swift. A month is about thirty days so if you are not doing anything else, I’m an actor so I have a lot of free time, you sit down ten hours a day for thirty days surely that’s enough time to pen a script.
- Well when you put it like that.
There you go. So it’s not quick at all.
- Emma Roberts is a great piece of casting and I read that she was very keen on the project from the start?
She was like the third person a board the project and she was very keen from the beginning.
She read the script ten months before we shot it and she was the person who was a big advocate for it and she could see that I was trying to change what I did, she had obviously done her homework, but at the same time she was trying to change what she did because she was known for Disney stuff and she wanted to do something a little edgier and this movie provided her with that.
- You have said recently that you think that she could have a more successful career that her aunt Julia so what is it that you see in her?
She has absolute star quality I haven’t met many people who can turn it on the way that she does. She is still young and that youngness brings a sort of naivety to her talent but I think that when she really focuses 100% on what she has she could go all the way.
- How did you get Kevin Smith to cameo? Is he a filmmaker that you admire?
Yeah Kevin Smith is a filmmaker that I admire, some people don’t always agree with me, I’m a fan of his film but, more importantly, I’m a fan of the way that he got into the industry.
He went about making his film Clerks himself because no one would give him that chance after he left film school, and that was the movie that broke him into the industry. I think it takes someone who is willing to take risks that will eventually reap the rewards, and that’s what he did.
- So how did you get him into the film?
We just asked him. He was doing a book tour in London at the time, I think he is aware of me he has known for a while there is a fan that is working in the industry over here, and when it came up we got hold of his people and he agreed.
- Mark Davis directs the film with you so how do you find sharing the director’s chair?
Sharing the director’s chair is fine mark Davis is a good friend of mine and I have known him a long time and when I was originally setting this film up I wasn’t going to do it I was just going to let mark do it, but certain people wouldn’t allow that so I came on board and decided that I would do it with him.
But as much as much as I don’t need him he doesn’t need me he is a director in his own right and he will be making films to and I will go back to doming stuff on my own as well.
- In the last two years you have enjoyed huge critical success with Adulthood, which led to a Bafta, so how has this impacted on your career?
I think the Bafta has been very helpful at the end of the day it’s a British Academy Award, I suppose it’s like asking an American or someone on the world stage what it’s like winning an Oscar, it has helped me immensely.
Arguably some of the movies that I have been in since, Centurion, Heartless, Huge I wouldn’t have got if I didn’t have the Bafta so I’m very grateful to the industry that nominated me and the public that voted for me and hopefully I will continue to make good films and not let any of those people down.
- Everyone has been watching for your next project since Adulthood so how do you deal with that pressure, if you feel the pressure at all?
I don’t feel pressure at all I can only do what I do, all I can be is myself and all I can do is what I do and hopefully I can provide entertainment that people are actually entertained by and continue watching.
- You have touched upon your acting career you were in Centurion earlier this year so how is it going into a project knowing that that’s all you have to worry about?
Oh it’s great (laughs) it means I can watch other directors stress about getting all their shots and watch other people worry about that stuff while I literally do my acting, so my lines and just rest.
- Do you watch other directors when you are on set and look at the choices that they make and think ‘oh I wouldn’t have done it like that’ or ‘I didn’t think of that?
I would never comment on people’s work I have worked with some great directors such as Neil Marshall and you watch and you learn.
The best thing that I can do is to go onto those sets and watch how they work and learn and take the elements that suit me and keep my elements that suit me as well.
- You have mentioned Neil Marshall so how did you find working with him he’s a great British director?
He is and it was great because he is innovative and he is one of the people who started making different films when he made Dog Soldiers and The Descent, they weren’t just the typical movie that came out in this country they were original.
And Centurion was another original movie that he has done we were Roman soldiers roaming through the Highlands of Scotland and it was a good film to be in and he was a great director to work with.
- I read that it was a brutal shoot - did you get frostbite?
I did I got mild frostbite on my toes and a couple of people got hypothermia. But that was because that eighty per cent of the stunts that we were doing we were running through the cold water and we were doing them, it was just a great experience.
- You have made a string of British movies now so what are your filmmaking, and indeed your acting, aspirations? What about Hollywood for example?
I just want to continue doing good work I’m not chasing any dream or anything like that, my whole thing was to one day be in this industry and now I’m doing that. I have goals and I have ambitions and things that I want to accomplish but the best thing that I can do is set about accomplishing them and not talk about them really.
- Finally what’s next for you?
I can’t tell you that, top secret.
- Not even a bit?
No not even a bit. There are a few things happening that are bubbling there are a few thing that I have written and a few thing that I’m planning to direct and not planning to direct but they are all top secret.
4.3.2.1. Is out now.
Over the last couple of year Noel Clarke as established himself as, what is known in America, a triple threat as an actor, writer and filmmaker.
His last movie Adulthood brought him critical acclaim and a Bafta but this week he is back with new movie 4.3.2.1.
I caught up with him to talk a bout his new project, working with Emma Roberts and what lies ahead.
- We last spoke when you launched the Doritos King of Ads competition since then there have been 3000 entries so what were you looking for in the three finalists?
Innovation, originality, being able to do things in the time frame that showed your potential as a future filmmaker. There were loads of things in the brief but it was just about getting new people a chance to break through into the industry as well as making a cool ad that will appear during the World Cup and potentially win then £200,000.
- You have whittled 3000 entries down to just three so how difficult a process was it?
It was very difficult because you are judging a lot of people and I’m still the kind of person to say ‘who am I to judge?’. I kind of got lucky to be in the industry in the first place and have taken every opportunity that has come my way but I still find it hard to judge other people’s work, I looked at some of the work that came through and I was like ‘this is better than my stuff’ (laughs).
But that is kind of the point because we are there to discover and push out new talent.
- You are back on the big screen this week with 4.3.2.1. So can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
4.3.2.1, four girls, three days, two cities and once chance. There are four girls who get involved in a diamond heist and have three days to try and navigate their way out of it.
It’s just something that we wanted to do that was different I think a lot of the films that come out of the country are similar or arty and I just wanted to make something that wasn’t any of that and to just produce something that’s commercial, go and enjoy it and leave the cinema knowing that you have been entertained.
- You have touched on my next question really the film is very female orientated which is quite different for you what made you move in this direction?
I think again, I do like a lady; in a respectful way, I wanted to show that it worked and that ladies didn’t have to be the damsel in distress but they could be the heroes.
But at the same time, not like another film which is just four old handbags where al they are doing is talking about shoes and various other things, but it was four modern girls who really take the bull by the horns and saving the day.
- You have said that movies like Pulp Fiction and Amores Perros were influences so what aspects of these movies influenced your script?
The main aspect is that it is out of sequence, you watch 4.3.2.1. And it’s not told in sequence, and not many films have done that in this country, perhaps just Sliding Doors but that was only two sequences and this is actually four.
So it works in a way that is unusual for a British movie an that’s kind of the point I wanted to do something different, even something different from what I had done before, I didn’t want to become the guy that does those films.
- The script is quite complex different time zones, different cities while everything interlinks and you wrote it in a month, that’s regarded as swift stuff?
No it’s not that swift. A month is about thirty days so if you are not doing anything else, I’m an actor so I have a lot of free time, you sit down ten hours a day for thirty days surely that’s enough time to pen a script.
- Well when you put it like that.
There you go. So it’s not quick at all.
- Emma Roberts is a great piece of casting and I read that she was very keen on the project from the start?
She was like the third person a board the project and she was very keen from the beginning.
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