Ronald Pickup
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has been one of the best feel good movies of 2012 so far as a fantastic British cast was assembled.
I caught up with Ronald Pickup to talk about the movie, working with director John Madden and the all star cast as well as shooting in India.
- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is set to be released on DVD later this summer so for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet can you tell me a little bit about it?
Well it's essentially it's about seven elderly people, none of whom know each other, and back in England they decide that their lives have to change for whatever reason.
So they end up coincidentally in this crumbling hotel in the middle of India and you take it from there.
Many of wonderful things happened to them - it's not melodrama particularly but they just go through a nice journey and, at times, an upsetting journey and discover a little bit about themselves. They end up slightly changed for the better.
- You take on the role or Norman in the movie so what was it about this character and that script that initially drew you to the project?
Well for a start it was John Madden who rang my agent and said I would like through a script with Ronnie on camera and then he went in to bat for me with Fox, who were wonderful about it. I owe everything to John.
Having said that what appealed to me about the character anyway was the fact that he is not good at what he would like to be good at and that is being this lounge lizard and successful with the women. He tries these awful chat up lines and things that he thinks are in some way attractive to women but he is just really bad at it.
And he tries too hard and that gives him a vulnerability that I found very appealing and there is something kind of desperate about him. The desperation about his attempt I found very endearing and he comes out a little bit more calm and mature as the film develops in the last half hour or so.
It was very lovely to play and it was very rewarding to play with John keeping an eye on it all the time.
- How familiar were you with the book? How useful was the book when you were developing the character?
No I didn't. She is a wonderful writer and I did a radio adaptation of another of her books many years ago.
But as soon as I got to the character of Norman in the book I thought 'no, this is different' and I knew that it was going to be misleading for me because physically and in lots of ways he was different. So I just used what was in this wonderful script by Ol Parker and John.
- You have mentioned John Madden already and he is in the director's chair for the movie so how did you find working with him?
He is fantastic and he is one of the most wonderful directors that you could wish to work with because he is meticulous and forensic in his approach to every aspect of the film.
And with actors he is equally forensic about every little moment and in film that is what you want because there's always something, even if it is the tiny scene where you come in and sit down on a bed and it's cut, he always wants something a little bit extra which however much you think you have already got that you haven't.
He just refreshes you all the time however many takes that you go to. He is a life-force and he is full of energy for about twenty hours of the day and it's the sort of upbeat, generous and spirited energy that she shows to everybody not just us when we are in front of the camera doing a scene.
He is just somebody that people want to follow and he is a great leader which is one of the things about being a director, particularly when you are out in a country where a lot of things are different and you need to be more vigilant and more upbeat sometimes.
He is absolutely terrific, without being gushy or silly about it, there is nothing you can fault him on and I am sure that everyone says that.
- You shot the movie out in India so did you enjoy your time out there?
I loved it, I think we all did but it was demanding. You do get use to being in an environment that is so different as you get in the film and I think that that is what is wonderful about the film - my brother has said that it has made him want to go to India now and he have never thought of doing so.
I think what is terrific about it is all of the time... maybe that is one of the reasons why the film works, apart from a marvellous cast and marvellous cast, is what you experience every day is what those characters are experiencing.
Something about your life is changing and there's an incredible uplift and also at times very alarming, riding in those tuk-tuks or riding on the bus - the hour and a half journey to the location every day in the different cars was often quite exciting (laughs).
You just get use to the fact that life is on the edge, we weren't on the edge because we were so well looked after, but the sheer hurley, burley and bustle of it and yet at times the tranquillity of it, especially when we went out to places by the water.
It is constantly wrong-footing you as you just get use to one rhythm and then there is another. It is so varied and multi-coloured all of the time that you can't not be effected by it as you leave with an indelible impression. It was joyous to work there.
- You star alongside the likes of Judi Dench and Tom Wilkinson so was it a fun movie to shoot?
Absolutely, oh yes. It is great when you know people already and we all of us did to a greater or lesser extent knew one another.
So there was an awful lot of shared humour and we had all done, amongst other things, a lot of theatre. The only one I didn't know was Dev (Patel) and he is another joyous fun person to have met.
- You have enjoyed a career that has spanned nearly fifty years so what keeps you acting?
The need to work (laughs). No I do love it but I need to keep working. On a film like this there is something about out work where we are very very lucky because there is always the possibility of something around the corner that's exciting and different.
Even if you are doing a TV programme in your own country there is always something different in ever new character because you are taking on something new every time. Richard Burton said, and I am hardly Richard Burton, 'it's a reason to get up every morning'.
- In that time you have worked in theatre as well as on TV and film so how do you the mediums compare?
They are different and yet they are... it is perhaps something I wouldn't have said years ago but in the end it is the same and you look for the truth.
In film, particularly if you have got a good director, is simply pear it down more than what you would do in the theatre and that is the only distinction I would make.
But they are both hugely rewarding, the only think about the theatre is you get an immediate response either negative or positive.
In film you do rely an awful lot on the director in the end because the way that it is joined up and the way that you respond to a director in the tiny scene that may be in the middle of the film and it's absolutely then up to the director how well or not he uses that.
You are less in control in one way but it is just as exciting hunting for the truth of it, even in a second.
One of the real joys in film is that in a very tiny moment or sequence where you just walk on and sit on the bed and look depressed or happy or whatever something is said by a director that just tweaks you into something that is fresh - and John is somebody who always manages to achieve that with you.
I personally find it hideous watching myself, I don’t think most people really enjoy watching themselves but I am pathological about it.
But I did watch this I went and watched it in a little viewing theatre on my own and I think it is a wonderful film, I really do.
- And the film has been met so well both here and in the States so what do you think it is about the film that has really won people over?
I think it’s a good script and that is point one. I am not including myself necessarily but it is a wonderful cast and there was a very good chemical mix with us that lifts that script into what John was wanting.
It is a mix of being innocent fun but it has edge as well but it’s not sentimental. It is quite in your face about, in the case of these characters, getting older and how you can change hopefully for the better. I think what it does is it lifts people up and I know quite a lot of people who have spoken to me since it came out and they want to see it again and that is marvellous for the DVD.
As my wife put it they are a bunch of people that you enjoy being in the company of, you can’t say it’s a story where this and this and this happen and there’s lots of big events; of course things do happen but basically not an event type movie it’s about getting to know a bunch of people who are almost in their ordinary way they are worth getting to know. It lifts people up I think.
For the young there is Dev and his lovely girlfriend and then there is the rest of us so it covers the whole spectrum of youth and age and how exciting life can be after you have reached a point where you feel there may not be much left to be excited about.
Chemistry is often a very difficult to define and the chemistry of people on screen and the chemistry of a story is something that you can never quite predict and I think with this people are kept laughing and they also cry a bit and go with the flow.
You just want to see them do it all again and I think that is why people are going to be seeing it more than once.
- Finally what's next for you?
Next for me is a play at Chichester, I am just about to start rehearsals, Heartbreak House by Shaw and I am doing that again with an old friend Derek Jacobi and we are doing it at the Chichester Festival Theatre for about two months.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is out on DVD & Blu-Ray now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw