Reece Ritchie
Reece Ritchie has appeared in the likes of The Lovely Bones and The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time but this week sees him tackle the British movie for the very first time.
The actor stars in All In Good Time sees the actor team up with filmmaker Nigel Cole and Amara Karan and Meera Syal.
I caught up with the actor to talk about the movie, tacking a more intimate project and working with Nigel Cole.
- You are about to star in All In Good Time so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
Well it’s a fusion between comedy and tragedy and Nigel Cole (director) has really balanced it perfectly.
It’s about this newly wedded couple, they live in Bolton, and basically they are trying to consummate their marriage and doing everything in their power to make sure that their marriage gets off to a gentle and joyous start… but everything is against them.
Vina moves into Atul’s house and it’s a very small home with everyone living on top of one another and it’s very claustrophobic and interfering.
- You take on the role Atul so what was it about the characters and the script that drew you to the project?
Well initially before I had even read the script I had heard that Nigel Cole was on board to direct and I love his work. Ayub Khan-Din who wrote East Is East had written this so it already had quite an impressive pedigree attached to it.
The of course when I read the script what jumped out at me was how multifaceted these characters are in that they are not just 2D characters and they are written so beautifully.
You really get the impression that you get to know these people and you really do get an insight into their world and their home.
I had done big studio pictures before but I had never been in a British film and the fact that it was a British film about real people, these characters do feel very real, was very attractive to me.
- You have slightly touched on my next question really you have done big budget pictures in the past so I wondered how you found moving on to a much smaller and intimate picture?
It’s funny because people often talk about the size of films in the term of the budget from an actors perspective you can have a lot more responsibility and dramatic challenges on a lower budget movie - so there is really no correlation.
I think the transition that I felt is it’s been nice to stretch my legs a bit and really be in the driving seat of an entire arc of a character.
Obviously those big movies are wonderful but you do only get a window to get across in so, in a way, the pressure is greater because your tools and you time on screen is more limited.
So it has been nice to relax into a part and really ease back into knowing that I have the whole movie to tell the story.
- The movie is based on a play so how familiar were you with the original?
I wasn’t familiar with the play at all, I was cast way after the play had finished, so I was coming to this with a fresh and inhibited perspective.
For that was nice because if I wanted to ask the actors who had been in the play something then I could and if I didn’t want to then I could remain uninfluenced by what someone had done with the part before, I had the best of both worlds really I felt.
- So how great is it to go into a project like this having not seen a performance so you don’t follow in the same path as a previous performer?
The danger is if watch someone play a part well that you are going to play then you start asking the questions ‘what did they do to play it well?’ and you fall into this never ending cycle of mimicry, which is not what acting is about.
I think with any part you have to approach it with the intention of playing the truth of the character that exists on the page and that should be your primary and only concern.
I think that there is always the danger if you have seen someone play a part and, whether you like it or not, it is always in your mind but I didn’t have that problem with this. I was able to approach this and me and how I first interpreted the character and I found that that really helped.
- You have mentioned Nigel Cole already so how did you find working with him?
I really enjoyed working with Nigel as he is a real gentle presence, you do get these directors who stomp around on set and really bark orders and there is always a nervy feeling on sets like that.
However Nigel is very gentle and very softly spoken and very approachable, it has to be noted that he is also very collaborative.
It would have been very easy for him to have seen the play, liked the play and then imposed on us on set what he had seen work on stage and inevitably the medium of film is so different to stage that if you try to replicate things it just won’t work in the same way.
So he just let it breathe and he let it fracture and than reform into its filmic carnation and that was great.
- I was wondering how collaborative a filmmaker Nigel was and how much you enjoy that collaborative process?
Yes it’s important to be able to collaborate on anything because inevitably people have their own ideas about things, and there’s a problem if they haven’t, so it was n ever going to be a set where we walked on and said ‘right, tell me what to do’.
It’s important on any project to collaborate because otherwise what is the point? We might as well be robots or they might as well just CGI us. So I think it’s essential, especially on such a human and intimate story as this is.
- Meera Syal and Harish Patel are just two of the other actors on the cast list so how did you find working with them? And was it a fun set to be on?
Harish had me belly laughing on and off screen and when it turn for a close up you really have to concentrate and keep your nerve because he really does make you laugh, and he knows that he is doing it. But at the same time he can deliver such powerful drama as well.
Meera as well is a wonderful comedienne who is very well established. It was actually a gift to be able to have the pair of them on set with me.
All In Good Time is released 11th May
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Meera Syal