Charles Dance - Signing Autographs at 'The Initiation Game' screening in NYC
jeudi 20 novembre 2014
mercredi 19 novembre 2014
Interview in The Time
TIME: How does filming a period piece change the climate on the set?
Charles Dance: To be honest, it doesn’t differ that much. How one does it is quite simple — I just pretend. It’s as simple as that. We’ve got a very good script to work with, and it’s been written with a careful eye as to the idiosyncracies of period speech. There are no contemporary slang terms in it. So all that work is done for you—and we just put on the right costume and tell the audience we’re in 1930-whatever, and they believe it.
Was it difficult to build a relationship with Cumberbatch in which you were menacing him?
We all have our own way of working. I don’t stay in character: The minute I walk off the set, the character is left behind. I’ve worked with Benedict before, and we live near each other in London. I have the greatest admiration for him as an actor. Both he and I have a similar attitude as we don’t carry the character around with us. As a character, I treat him with contempt, but as a person, I don’t.
Did his presence in the cast induce you to sign?
Yes and no. The first inducement is the quality of the script, as ever, who the director is, and I thought we’d get on. At that time, I don’t think I knew it was Benedict Cumberbatch, but I do think he is the nearest to perfection one can get with casting. The end result is a phenomenal performance. If he doesn’t get at least a nomination, there is no justice.
How does your time at the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the start of your career, inform your performances today?
I guess it does have a bearing on it. I’ve done maybe twelve of Shakespeare’s plays. I was with the Royal Shakespeare Company for years. Whatever influence that has never leaves you. If you learn to drive a car, and you learn the right way if there is ever a right way. You learn the good aspects, you learn to drive properly. And that never leaves you. If you have a foundation of working with the greatest writer ever, I suppose that must have a bearing on whatever you do after that. To be honest, I’m not aware of it consciously, but I’ve been doing this for about 40 years.
Are you relieved you’re able to focus on a broader set of projects now that your time on Game of Thrones is over?
It was an ignominious end, but long overdue, with the way I treated people — or the way Tywin did. I had four and a bit years on it, and it was great being part of a global phenomenon, which no one knew it’d become. Now I can do more things. In this business you never know what’s around the corner — I’m hopeful there are a few good things around the corner for me.
You’ve been on sets including Alien 3 and Last Action Hero, what have you taken away from big-budget extravaganzas?
On big-budget franchise things, invariably the catering is better, the trailers are bigger, and there’s craft services. And you get more money. But you’re working with a lot of people and they’re all doing the same job wherever it is you go. You get less fringe benefits, simple as that.
So does that make working on a project like The Imitation Game a sacrifice?
No. Absolutely not. Unless I’ve got no money and monumental debts that are going to drive me to suicide, my first consideration is the quality of the script and who the director is, if the script is really, really good, and I think we’re all going to get on. The fringe benefits are things I don’t consider until later on. One doesn’t think that way. Each board game has its own rules and you know them when you go in.
Why do you think it is that you keep ending up cast as villainous or menacing figures?
I’ve got a range as an actor! There was a time I played dramatic leading men. Now I get offered these characters, who are as you describe them. We’re dealing with a medium that’s visual, based on how you look, how your face looks on film. My face lends itself to austere characters, and unless they’re two-dimensional, I will do them. Any actor will tell you that an interesting villain is much more interesting to play.
If you get a bad script, then you start expending energy trying to make a silk purse of a sow’s ear. When the script’s as good as those on Game of Thrones, say, I don’t think there was a single occasion where any of us thought there was a bad scene.
How’d you feel about the way you went out on Game of Thrones? It was a bit demeaning.
I had never read any of George R. R. Martin’s books, as we weren’t filming books—we were filming their adaptations. It was not until someone told me on the street, “You got this great death scene.” And I said, “Oh really, what is the manner of my death?” He replied, “You die on the s—-er.” And i said, “Oh…?”
I went into a bookshop and got hold of the relevant book and said, “Oh, that’s quite a good death scene.” It was fine, and it was a well written scene!
http://time.com/3592712/charles-dance-benedict-cumberbatch-tywin-lannister/
About this lunch....
Allen Leech, Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Charles Dance, Matthew Beard, Mark Strong and Matthew Goode at a lunch for ‘The Imitation Game.’
http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-imitation-game-cast-takes-the-city-1416341174
his guest at the premiere
"Lannisters always pay their debts AND shoot with @foxlightmichael (sorry for the eyes closed shot) #warstories #foxbusinessnetwork #foxnewschannel #got #charlesdance"
"Final interview with #CharlesDance from #TheImitationGame #WarStories on #FOXBusinessNETWORK #GameOfThrones #HBO #FOX #ThanksgivingWeekend"
mardi 18 novembre 2014
An interview in Dailybeast
Seasoned British actor Charles Dance opens up about Tywin’s death, working with David Fincher on his first film, and the Oscar bait drama The Imitation Game.
“When you look at this face, it’s quite patrician the way it’s put together, and I have a demeanor that’s rather austere,” Charles Dance says in his crisp British accent whilst balancing a cup of coffee. “So, interesting villain characters have come along and any actor will tell you that a villainous character is much more fun to play than a good guy.”
It’s an early November morning and I’m seated across from the veteran actor at a restaurant in Lower Manhattan. Though he’s best known for playing bureaucratic villains—namely, the icy, scheming patriarch Tywin Lannister on HBO’s Game of Thrones—Dance is in town to promote a good-guy role.
According to Dance, his character will return for Season 5 of the show—albeit briefly
“Well, only my body!” Dance says of his fifth-season cameo. “I don’t wake up in the shower having had a dream about it all.”
He also let slip some very interesting news for Thrones fans: that the show’s producers have been actively discussing a future Game of Thrones movie.
“There’s talk of eventually trying to do a feature film, but I don’t know which of the storylines,” says Dance. “There’s so much to cram into a film.”
“There’s talk of eventually trying to do a feature film, but I don’t know which of the storylines,” says Dance. “There’s so much to cram into a film.”
Despite his sadistic treatment at the hands of the government, Turing wasn’t pardoned for his “crime” until Dec. 24, 2013.
“There is an irony in that. Pardoned for what? Cracking the Enigma Code?” says Dance. “The government should be asking the relatives of Alan Turing to pardon them for treating him so appallingly!”
He adds of Turing’s treatment, “It’s medieval, and disgusting. There are a few mad people around today who think you can ‘cure’ people of their sexuality, too.”
Dance feels The Imitation Game is relevant not only for the way it tackles archaic attitudes toward sexuality and women in the workplace , but also as a precursor of sorts to modern-day hacking. He brandishes his iPhone and shakes it in the air.
“GCHQ can access all of our information whenever they want to do it,” he says. “Anybody can read my emails, listen to my phone calls, anything.”
“There is an irony in that. Pardoned for what? Cracking the Enigma Code?” says Dance. “The government should be asking the relatives of Alan Turing to pardon them for treating him so appallingly!”
He adds of Turing’s treatment, “It’s medieval, and disgusting. There are a few mad people around today who think you can ‘cure’ people of their sexuality, too.”
Dance feels The Imitation Game is relevant not only for the way it tackles archaic attitudes toward sexuality and women in the workplace , but also as a precursor of sorts to modern-day hacking. He brandishes his iPhone and shakes it in the air.
“GCHQ can access all of our information whenever they want to do it,” he says. “Anybody can read my emails, listen to my phone calls, anything.”
During the Leveson Inquiry, Dance claims to have received a call from the local police. They told him that one of the tabloid reporters involved in the hacking scandal had been arrested, and turned over all his information. His number was on the list. “I had a call from the police who said, ‘Did you know that your number came up?’ and it made sense, because certain things would appear in papers and I’d think, ‘How the fuck did they know that?’”
... But one of his early roles that introduced him to American audiences was as Clemens, the prison doctor in David Fincher’s first feature, Alien 3. The film was critically panned upon its release, but has since gained a cult following. “I think Alien 3 was a better film than Aliens, to be frank,” says Dance.
According to the actor, Vincent Ward’s initial script for the film was “really spooky” and centered on a religious cult in a penal colony, but since the character of Ripley was relatively minor, “changes were made to the script.”
And the problems didn’t stop there. “Fincher had the studio on his back the whole time phoning him at all hours of the day and night—not taking into account the time change,” says Dance. “But I remember walking on this huge set at Pinewood Studios and Fincher comes up and fires off his shot list for the day. Here’s this guy young enough to be my son who knew all the crew’s jobs, all the shots he wanted, and where he was going to make the cuts in the film, and I thought, ‘My God, this guy is going to go far.’”
According to the actor, Vincent Ward’s initial script for the film was “really spooky” and centered on a religious cult in a penal colony, but since the character of Ripley was relatively minor, “changes were made to the script.”
And the problems didn’t stop there. “Fincher had the studio on his back the whole time phoning him at all hours of the day and night—not taking into account the time change,” says Dance. “But I remember walking on this huge set at Pinewood Studios and Fincher comes up and fires off his shot list for the day. Here’s this guy young enough to be my son who knew all the crew’s jobs, all the shots he wanted, and where he was going to make the cuts in the film, and I thought, ‘My God, this guy is going to go far.’”
Our talk eventually circles back to Game of Thrones. I mention the upcoming video game based on the series, and he’s caught completely by surprise—which says that either Tywin won’t be featured in the game, or the actors aren’t providing their own voices for the characters.
“Oh, really?” Dance says. “I know nothing about it. Who’s doing the voice? They haven’t asked me to do it… I want to know something about that!”
“Oh, really?” Dance says. “I know nothing about it. Who’s doing the voice? They haven’t asked me to do it… I want to know something about that!”
Dance describes how Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss visited the set of Your Highness at Titanic Studios in Northern Ireland while they were planning the pilot. He chatted with them, and they eventually sent him the first few scripts. He was immediately sold on the quality of the screenplays and the fascinating story. “I never read any of the books, because that’s not what we’re shooting,” says Dance. “We’re shooting scripts written by David and Dan.”
The craziest thing he ever did on Thrones, he says, came during the first season when the creators approached him and asked, “Are you a vegetarian, Charles?” He replied, “No, why do you ask?” and the duo proceeded to show him a scene of Tywin skinning a deer.
“So, this butcher arrived with a dead animal and they gave me a little room to work in, gave me a sharp knife, and showed me how to skin it and spill the guts into a bucket,” recalls Dance. “The next day, they gave me another dead animal, and we shot it. It was a bloody good time, but it took me two days to get the smell off my hands.”
One of his fondest memories from the show was his time sharing the screen with Peter Dinklage, who plays his embattled imp son, Tyrion.
“One of the biggest joys was working with Peter Dinklage,” says Dance. “He’s the sweetest man, and a phenomenal actor. He must be the envy of every dwarf actor in the world because those parts don’t come along too often. He’s also extremely handsome. If you look at his head, it’s like Michelangelo’s David.”
He pauses. “And he’s such a great guy, too. I spent a lot of time apologizing to Peter because we play scenes where I treat him like shit, calling him a ‘lecherous little stump’ and saying I wanted to ‘carry you out to sea and let the waves take you away.’”
“So, this butcher arrived with a dead animal and they gave me a little room to work in, gave me a sharp knife, and showed me how to skin it and spill the guts into a bucket,” recalls Dance. “The next day, they gave me another dead animal, and we shot it. It was a bloody good time, but it took me two days to get the smell off my hands.”
One of his fondest memories from the show was his time sharing the screen with Peter Dinklage, who plays his embattled imp son, Tyrion.
“One of the biggest joys was working with Peter Dinklage,” says Dance. “He’s the sweetest man, and a phenomenal actor. He must be the envy of every dwarf actor in the world because those parts don’t come along too often. He’s also extremely handsome. If you look at his head, it’s like Michelangelo’s David.”
He pauses. “And he’s such a great guy, too. I spent a lot of time apologizing to Peter because we play scenes where I treat him like shit, calling him a ‘lecherous little stump’ and saying I wanted to ‘carry you out to sea and let the waves take you away.’”
...Dance doesn’t view the elder Lannister as entirely evil.
“There is a little remnant of humanity in Tywin Lannister,” he says. “Even though it’s a fictional world, it’s based on medieval feudal society where people did whatever was necessary to maintain their place in that society. Life was pretty cheap. And we never knew much about my wife, Joanna,” says Dance, assuming the role of his character.
“I have two children,” he continues, still in character. “One doesn’t count because she’s a girl, and the other, the handsome apple of my eye, Jaime, is fucking his sister for God’s sakes! Then, I have this other little thing that came along who, unfortunately, is brighter than the other two put together. I would have certainly liked to drown him in a bucket or suffocate the little bugger, because he’s just a walking imperfection. But as time goes by, you realize he’s a smart little fucker, so something I can never reveal is my admiration for him. And whenever I get to close to revealing that, I want to slap myself and get it out of the way.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/18/charles-dance-on-tywin-lannister-s-s5-return-a-game-of-thrones-movie-and-sexy-peter-dinklage.html
“There is a little remnant of humanity in Tywin Lannister,” he says. “Even though it’s a fictional world, it’s based on medieval feudal society where people did whatever was necessary to maintain their place in that society. Life was pretty cheap. And we never knew much about my wife, Joanna,” says Dance, assuming the role of his character.
“I have two children,” he continues, still in character. “One doesn’t count because she’s a girl, and the other, the handsome apple of my eye, Jaime, is fucking his sister for God’s sakes! Then, I have this other little thing that came along who, unfortunately, is brighter than the other two put together. I would have certainly liked to drown him in a bucket or suffocate the little bugger, because he’s just a walking imperfection. But as time goes by, you realize he’s a smart little fucker, so something I can never reveal is my admiration for him. And whenever I get to close to revealing that, I want to slap myself and get it out of the way.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/18/charles-dance-on-tywin-lannister-s-s5-return-a-game-of-thrones-movie-and-sexy-peter-dinklage.html
Imitation Games New-York premiere...2 vid' interview on Wall Street Journal site....and Retrospective
Charles at 01:48 mn
Charles was at The New-York premiere of Imitation Game, at Ziegfeld Theatre
Charles Dance on 'Game of Thrones'
from : https://twitter.com/LastShipMusical
Q: Tell us about your character?
Charles Dance: I play this character called Jonathan Hoyle, who’s a war photographer – or somebody who used to be a war photographer and something happened, whereby he had a kind of crisis of faith rather like a priest. And like a lot of people in his profession- Don McCullin is a prime example- after a while it kind of gets into their system. They start off with the best motives in the world. Their photographs are going to change everything and change people opinions and put an end to war and so on but of course they don’t. He realises that they’re just photographs. In the story of the film, he’s confronted with the father of one of the subjects of one of his photographs. This photograph becomes a symbol of conflict all over the world, and he is confronted by the father of the subject, who actually intends to shoot him but eventually doesn’t because he realises that Jonathan is well aware of the power of his photography- or the lack of the power of his photography – and the damage that it does to the people that perhaps know the subject of his photographs.
Q: So tell me, what was it about the script that attracted you to the project?
CD: It’s very well-written and it’s concise. It’s not a short film pretending to be a long film. It has a beginning, middle and an end. It’s a concise story and it comes to a very acceptable resolution, and it’s a little gem.
Q: What is it like to work with the director Garrick Hamm?
CD: Garrick is a very proficient, very skilled director who’s been around for some time and there’s a lot of creative juice flowing through him.
Q: There are some interesting locations in the film, can you tell us about them?
CD: We filmed in an unbelievably cold location in Paddington, in the crypt of a rather extraordinary church and it works very, very well for the particular scene in the story. We also filmed in a defunct paint factory with toxic fumes. I think we should all go and have blood tests and chest x-rays after spending time there!
Q: What do you hope people that watch this film are going to take away from it?
CD: Well I hope that people will appreciate the value of short films. They are rather like short stories you know. If I’m sat in a location for long periods of time, rather than trying to get stuck into a novel or something, I like having a book of short stories with me you know. Sometimes they’re five pages, sometimes ten pages, sometimes two pages. You know they’re little gems and well-made short films are in that category.
http://www.filmandtvnow.com/charles-dance-interview-discussing-short-film-retrospective/
lundi 17 novembre 2014
3 pics
Charles is in New-York...
"Did you know that I'm a Lannister? Yep, that's my Dad. #GOT #CharlesDance #theimitationgame"
from : http://instagram.com/p/vgmCJ0ilCG/
from : http://instagram.com/p/vgmCJ0ilCG/
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