CANNES DISPATCH
Photographs GREG WILLIAMS
As told to JANE CROWTHER
As his latest film, Ink, debuts in Venice to rave reviews the British actor talks to Hollywood Authentic about awards chatter and how acting expands his heart.
Having worked with Danny Boyle on both 28 Years Later films, Jack O’Connell considered the offer of playing ‘’60s editor of The Sun newspaper, Larry Lamb, in Ink for the director a ‘no-brainer’. ‘But it was quite early on in terms of the journey of the film being made, because Danny didn’t have the money yet,’ O’Connell tells us as the film opens the 83rd Venice Film Festival. ‘So then it became a case of: ‘Right, OK. We need to convince some financiers that this is worth parting with their cash’. He brought me and Guy Pearce in and we did some stuff on camera so that Danny could go and try and raise the funds. It took two-thirds of a year just to get the green light.’
That scrappy, entrepreneurial spirit is a match for the film itself; the story of Rupert Murdoch (Pearce) inviting Lamb (O’Connell) to reinvent a newspaper and tear up all the Fleet Street rules. ‘Yeah, a lot of parallels,’ O’Connell laughs. ‘But also I really value the importance of a free press, and its role within any proper democracy. I have a respect for it and I do like to read newspapers.’ For O’Connell, his perception of the hugely popular newspaper was negatively coloured by a ‘post-Hillsborough perspective’ [when the newspaper falsely reported Liverpool football fans behaviour at the fatal 1989 overcrowding disaster at Hillsborough] so his approach to the role and Lamb’s enthusiasm for it required a research deep dive. ‘I had to undo all of that pre-existing knowledge, and just consider this in its infancy, and who Larry Lamb is, who’s been appointed to grow it. I took myself off to the British Library. I went into their archives. I pulled out some microfiche of editions of The Sun when Larry first took over, and I looked at some prior to him being there. They’re unrecognisable. It was about honing in on that period and getting into Larry’s headspace. There’s a great line in Larry’s book where he said that he felt like he was cooking up the perfect newspaper in his head way before he met Rupert Murdoch. That was a real driver to me.’
West Yorkshire Lamb and Australian Murdoch were also working against a London-centric establishment and an ‘old boys network’, trying to get a foothold in an industry with a drawbridge mentality. ‘I do relate to it very personally, yes,’ O’Connell, who hails from Derby, admits. ‘Any class-based society is going to have that, you know? And we live in a class-based society. But Larry Lamb was given a knighthood, and he accepted it so I do think he was very seduced by that establishment. The same thing that he was tearing down to begin with, he leaps into bed with eventually. There was this underlying contradiction within him. And I love those roles. I think as an artist, you are fascinated with where people contradict themselves and inconsistencies.’
Lamb’s obsession with circulation numbers – always trying to best market leader, The Mirror – also had parallels with acting for O’Connell with film often being viewed through the lens of box office takings. ‘It’s figures, isn’t it? Ink feels like a real vehicle for exploring hyper-capitalism. All the journalists that we spoke to that worked there during that time were saying that these were times of plenty, and there was so much spare cash just floating around – which is impossible to imagine for us these days. But they were just rolling in it, and had all these resources. It was hyper capitalism, and they were obsessed with sales and the competition within that. I think that was a huge catalyst in perhaps where they allowed themselves to get carried away.’
O’Connell is currently experiencing a time of plenty himself, with a recent flurry of high-profile and critically acclaimed roles including award-winning Sinners, 28 Years Later parts 1 and 2, and his upcoming films Godzilla X Kong: Supernova, as well as A Quiet Place Part 3 which has just wrapped. For some audience members it might feel like O’Connell has finally arrived. For him, it’s part of a journey that’s been developing for years. ‘I got into this 20 years ago, and you grow. You get better with every job, and you get to learn by working with people you meet. And I love that about this job. You’re constantly developing, and you’re having your ideas challenged. You never stop evolving for every role. You’re expanding your heart. You’re exploring emotion. It’s such a joy and a pleasure to allow that to inform you.’
Part of the process has been the mentorship of other artists. ‘Look, to be able to collaborate in this job is the most wonderful thing – just meeting people from all over the world. Even being here promoting films, and getting to meet your heroes. When I was getting into it I was able to look up to these amazing figures. The people that I worked with on my first job – they were generous enough to share what they were good at. And I think there’s a slight responsibility there for me to do the same with people coming into the industry now.’
His busy upcoming slate is as a result of hard graft but there’s no masterplan, he says. ‘You’re trying to pull rabbits out of hats, you know?’ he laughs. ‘In order to excite yourself, and in order to excite others, it’s best to just keep challenging yourself. I like range. My last jobs, they’re all quite distinct. Moving forward, that’s the ethos, that’s exciting to me.’
Ink’s debut at Venice has kicked off the awards conversation. Is this an important part of the process too? ‘Of course, man. More so from an industry perspective – where it takes you, and the places you get to go, and the people you get to meet. But when you’re working it’s not what you’re thinking about. You know, you end up on set at five in the morning in a fucking disused quarry, up to your ears in shite – it’s a long way away from a gondola in Venice, you know? They’re worlds apart. They’re very, very separate experiences. But it’s a joy. It’s amazing that we get to do it.’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Ink premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
Read our review here
