‘‘The whole concept of working with a director who has actually written the piece I think in any project is always an attractive prospect for an actor because I suppose it is his baby. You are getting a direct link to the creation. For me the idea is an amazing thing to do because you don’t get that direct hit usually. You might go to a director in a normal process with a question which, on another job, might come across as an actor being too precious and holding the process up where as in this instance your getting instant feedback from the man who has actually written the thing.
Conor has actually written this in terms of the characters and story but he has also written what he visualised in his head was what it was going to look like and I find that very helpful and in a strange way it simplifies the process because you get straight to shoot the scene that is going to be visually within boundaries and then your let free to make it believable within that. Conor has been great, he direction is very concise and simply because he already clearly knows exactly what he wants.
I think with a piece like this everyone is working on it because of the love of the piece and you get a theme ethic and it cuts out any egos, that is why I wanted to do it. The script was good and then I met Conor and I got a sense of real passion about it from this guy and it’s his thing, and the way he spoke to me about what his vision was, what he wanted the character to be, I could really genuinely get excited about it. I liked the idea of filming up a mountain in Wicklow, you get immersed in it filming for four weeks, it’s a really focused way of making a film and in a weird way you might not have that with a bigger budget.
It is a very experienced cast because it is a performance driven piece and on the other side of the camera there is not so much experience which is interesting because the Catalyst scheme is to get creative people started so in my view there can never be anything wrong with that living in a world where it is harder to make films for financial reasons and creative people are bottom of the rug when you’re coming out of school so I think it is a really admirable and honorable scheme.‘’
The Script –
‘‘I read the script and thought this is fascinating on an individual character level. I think as much as anything I found everything to do with the story very exciting because I find it very relevant. In some ways it’s like a western; these people cut off in the middle of no where but I think these kind of catastrophic situations are something that people are starting to realize are more and more possible even though we’re living in our advanced scientific technology world we are now being faced with the reality that the things we’ve taken for granted may not be kept in place. For me it is universal, it’s not a story just for a Irish audience, it is a story you could watch in any modern western culture where there are things that can break down and I think it would be apt for any audience which is attractive. We are living at a time where the world is falling apart credit wise, you have increasing energy problems and scenarios and I just find the whole thing very realistic.
The Beginning –
The story I think is that you could watch this and every individual audience member can make their decision about what has happened and it won’t affect the story. Because of what is going on now for me to make a reality of it I have taken current events and taken them to there hopefully unrealistic but possible end conclusions. Lets just say because a hundred and fifty city boys sold a load of hedge funds in a dodgy scenario coupled with rising energy costs and diplomatic breakdown with Russia etc, I have taken world events and accelerated them to the worst conclusion and made that what has happened. So for me it is a combination of things that are happening in our modern world. The film is about how people deal with each other and themselves and starvation and everything that goes on when something like this happens so for me it is more about that. ’’
about playing Jonathon:
‘‘Playing Jonathon in ‘One Hundred Mornings’ has been a fascinating study of, for me, putting yourself into that suitation. You do your character work on who this guy is, the background with the wife and the relationships, but we had a very clear brief with Conor. To me the thing is to be as naturalistic and realistic as possible, to put Ciaran as much as you can into that situation which to me is the core of nine out of ten jobs that you do. So I have gone at it very simply in the style of imagining as much as you can what it would be like to be in that senario. It has just been a case of getting in, getting dirty and really trying to let your imagination go to the depths which this guy has been forced to which is a fascinating journey for a character. Jonathon has an amazing arc and I think at the start of the story it was clear that he was the most realistic, he has a very sardonic and sarcastic way. Probably for other people he is very irritating in his reality, he is quite clear in his mind that things aren’t going to go back to normal. When you balance that with Mark who is brave and irritatingly upbeat about how things are going to sort itself out which is his way of dealing with it, I think Jonathon sort of goes down hill and plateaus very quickly into the reality of the situation, hence he starts behaving in a way that any normal society that is functional would see as unacceptable. Some of the behaviour to us is quite hard to fathom and excuse but I think he sort of goes back to animal instincts and very clearly is living in the moment, he’s not dealing with or excepting any of the consequences of his actions. For me it was about playing each scene individually, I mean if your going to have an affair with you best friend’s wife in the same house that your wife is in your clearly dealing in the self gratification of the moment, you’re not really looking as to what might happen tomorrow. In the scenes where all this starts to unravel he starts getting caught on the hop, I think his reactions are very interesting. We have ended up with a great cast in this, and it is an ensemble, each of the four stories of the four characters are as important to the overall story. I think Jonathon’s story strands it together...it is a very interesting arc of a story for me to have played because he does come full circle. It is a guy who is not dealing with his circumstances but eventually the consequences and what is happening overtakes him and he is put in a situation where he has no choice. The scene where Jonathon kills Tim is a watershed moment for that character and the story and I suppose in that moment Jonathon represents civilisation...there is nothing worse, he goes next door kills the guy to keep himself [and his wife] alive and it was an appauling scene to film and it was great to act it. Bob O’Mahony who plays Tim is such a gent of a man and it was quite heartbreaking and it was all very realistic . I think everything builds up to that moment and after that there is no going back and you have blood on your hands and soul and everything completely changes after that.
The Approach – One of the basic ways of approaching this for us actors is to imagine you don’t have your day to day stuff and on a very small level we have been stuck up a mountain in Wicklow with no internet or mobile phone connection, I’ve been here for four and a half weeks gladly not having phone or internet access but a tiny element like that helps you imagine what it would be like if you had nothing. I work best when I’m relaxed and having a bit of craic and you’re going to get that on any film set, you know, a group of people thrust together up a mountain in Wicklow and you form relationships that is a good thing. Someone said to me there is acting and then there is being so immersed in it that you’ve actually gone to madness.’’
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