by Gill Pringle
Are you now doing movies which are about something? Things that are relevant?
You know, that has just happened, I don’t attempt to put a link between any of the film choices that I make, I just make them each like they’re in a vacuum. This one just intrigued me for many reasons. I was stunned, and a little embarrassed that I’d never heard anything about the Armenian genocide. One and a half million people slaughtered, and I didn’t know about it, and found that most people didn’t know about it either. I am hoping that in some way this film can help to right that wrong. And you can see it’s starting to happen, people became aware with the 100th anniversary, and then you have world leaders who start to acknowledge and recognise, the Pope has done that. As of yet, no sitting US President has done that, and largely that’s because of Turkey’s strategic value, but it’s an absolute pivotal moment in history, and the lack of consequence has no doubt led to the Ukrainian genocide, and the Holocaust, and Cambodia, and Rwanda.
It also seems like, with this current US administration, not just relevant, but like we are going back. You are a parent, are you worried about the future of this country, of this world?
What’s tricky to understand is whether I am more afraid than any parent ever is at any time in life? Because you just are, in the time that you’re in, so you can’t compare. There is this struggle between globalisation and nation states – what is the way to go, which way forward? Isolationism, people who seem very prepared to use absolutely horrifying weapons, and hopefully we can find some compassion, and if you can’t find compassion for people who are in the most need of all – refugees trying to save their lives, children, who are being slaughtered – then I don’t think you’re going to find compassion for anything.
You have always been an advocate for the environment, and even in that aspect, can you be hopeful? Are you optimistic, are you pessimistic?
I think that, what you get from this is, the correlation between this, the Armenian genocide, and that, which is climate change, is that this is forced debate, that has been generated by people who deny, and they’ve created this impression that there’s a debate, one, about the Armenian genocide, whether or not it happened. It happened. There isn’t a debate about it. And with climate change, people have created a sense that there’s a debate, that climate change is still up for question. No, there’s no question about it, the science is in, the facts are in, it’s happening. But people are still pretending, and performing as though there’s this debate, which is just not true.
In each role that you play you physically transform, your voice is different, you look different, sometimes you’re unrecognisable. How did you approach this role? Did you do anything for this?
Exterior stuff, really just looking at the men of the time, that lots of them just liked really extravagant facial hair. And, I didn’t go with extraordinarily extravagant. Terry [George, director], rightly, didn’t want me to distract, but I did look at Lincoln Steffens, who was a very famous journalist, of that era, in America, he was one of the muck-rakers, along with Upton Sinclair. I liked his look, and then I looked at other men of facial hair, and that was sort of it, his growing of this huge moustache, and then you see him with some of the Turkish men, and it’s kind of like battle of the moustaches. On that, it wasn’t really necessary, you don’t need to make huge transformations if you don’t have to. This was a man who is making a more spiritual change, in that he is a rather cynical, very worldly, opinionated, arrogant, fiercely intelligent man, who is annoyingly correct about many, many things, who is quite dissolute in his approach to life, who suddenly finds himself in the midst of this genocide, with a woman who he loves, and having to make a choice – hold onto his journalistic ethics of remaining an observer and staying aloof, or breaking those ethics and becoming a participant – and he chooses the latter.
But you have been extreme in your career, from The Machinist to Batman, and then The Fighter to American Hustle, so you really change. Do you worry about your health and not want to do it anymore? Is that why you haven’t done it recently?
Unfortunately, I would like to find a way to do so, but yes, my body started rebelling against me with that. I just have to be aware that I’ve always treated my body like a tool for my craft, if you want to call it that, and that perhaps there are limits to how often you can do that.
What do you think about this whole nonstop, never-ending superhero bandwagon now? It’s growing more so in Hollywood.
I know, there’s so many more stories than I thought could be told! Well, I haven’t seen any of them, I’ve only seen the films that Chris (Nolan) made. I dunno, in my naïve way, I wonder, look, if they can help fund some other films that I do want to go see, then great. If they’re just the action movie, though, taking away theatres from that, then boo.
Do you ever think about going back there, just a small role, for your son, or something? Maybe in the future?
No, I think that Chris always said to me, ‘look if we’re lucky enough to make three, then let’s leave it at then.’ We could’ve gone on, but I think it was the perfect time to step away.
Almost all actors say that they want to have as many different parts as possible, a very diverse career, and you actually have done it. What do you think is the secret?
I’m a little bit myopic in my approach, I don’t look at body of work, I don’t look at that. So each project is absolutely isolated from every other one in my mind, and that seems to have resulted in a good variety. It’s kept me interested in keeping on acting.
Out of all of these, you’ve got an Oscar, a family, you’ve made a good career. What are you most proud of?
What I am most proud of is time with my children, because that’s the most precious thing isn’t it? Time with my children, my family, my wife, and being able to achieve that, because cliché as it is, you watch your children grow up so bloody fast, and one thing that happens to a lot of people who make films, is that they’re away travelling so much, and then they come back home and realise that their children are all grown up. So I fight against that all the time. And also, I have no problem in saying no to work. I work when I really have no other reasons to say no to something, and I sort of go a little bit kicking and screaming. I love it when I get there, but the anticipation of it is always something I dread, and I usually am very happy to think that I don’t have to work for a very long time.
So you’re very picky?
You know what, I can be a little bit moody about that. Sometimes I’ll sit and dwell on something forever, and sometimes I’ll very impulsively go, ‘yeah, I’ll give that a shot’. Sometimes out of a sense of perversity, and other times out of a sense that this is very much the right thing to do, even if you can’t quite articulate why.
The Promise is in cinemas from June 15, 2017
