VENICE DISPATCH
Photographs GREG WILLIAMS
As told to JANE CROWTHER

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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.’

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Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Ink premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
Read our review here

VENICE DISPATCH
Photographs GREG WILLIAMS
As told to JANE CROWTHER

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The Australian actor takes on Rupert Murdoch in Danny Boyle’s tabloid tale Ink, opening the Venice Film Festival. He tells Hollywood Authentic about reigning in the profanities and experiencing tabloid hounding with Jason and Kylie…

When Danny Boyle came to Guy Pearce to ask him to play media baron Rupert Murdoch in his adaptation of James Graham’s award winning play, the actor felt that he could understand some of the mentality of the notorious newspaper and studio magnate. ‘Obviously, look, I’m Australian,’ he tells Hollywood Authentic as he prepares to walk the red carpet for the film’s premiere in the Lido. ‘I’ve been brought up in a world that’s been aware of Rupert Murdoch for many, many years. He’s a fascinating character for me. I’ve never met him, and prior to doing the film I couldn’t really tell you that I understood who he is. I still probably couldn’t really say that I understand completely who he is. But him trying to crack the UK market… that, I get to a degree. As an Aussie actor, and having known lots of Aussie actors who all go to England and try to break there, it’s something I can relate to.’

Pearce could also relate to the product Murdoch created in 1969 in collaboration with editor Larry Lamb (Jack O’Connell); The Sun newspaper and the tabloid culture and circulation wars that followed. Having broken out in the ’80s while on Australian soap Neighbours he had witnessed first-hand some of the press hounding that came with fame. ‘I remember back in the ‘80s in London with Jason [Donovan] and Kylie [Minogue], and the journalists chasing us down the street. But I was really low down on the food chain, you know? I was one of a gang of 20 Neighbours cast where the Terry Wogans of the world would have us on their show, and go, ‘What is it about you Australians that make you think you can act?’ – where you really felt a bit reviled. But I was never a personal target. I never really felt the full force of a tabloid paper at my door, and after me.’

What Pearce felt was more relevant to building the characterisation of Murdoch was talking to former journalists and printers who had worked on Fleet Street during its evolution from failing broadsheet to bombastic ‘red top’. ‘Danny brought people in to talk to us during rehearsals, lots of journalists, ex-editors and ex-printers who would sit with us for two hours and go, ‘Wow, let me tell you about the floor in 1969: the drinking, the smoking, the shagging and the late nights and oh my God….’ Though he didn’t meet Murdoch as he prepped to play him, Pearce did chat to his daughter, Elizabeth, to suss out whether his instincts about the man were correct. ‘I felt that there was probably too much swearing from Rupert [in the script]. It’s a fairly common thing to just make Australian characters swear all the time. But when you look at interviews of Rupert from the era he’s a shy, fairly humble, slightly awkward character who has an irreverence about him, and is quite sharp and brilliant. But he’s not a typical Aussie yobbo who’s out there swearing, drinking. throwing things and rooting and fighting. I said to James, ‘I feel like I could play this character without relying on swearing’. And the beauty was that I got to talk to Rupert’s daughter and ask about her dad’s swearing. She said, ‘I don’t think I heard him swear once’. So I took out all the ‘fucks’ and added a ‘fair dinkum’.’

Director Boyle inspired Pearce to really explore the building of a surprising character instead of playing a trope we all think we know. ‘Danny’s a wonderfully buoyant, honest, creative and inspirational guy. It’s that energy that he brought to Trainspotting in making us look at a world that was seemingly gross and disgusting, and yet we all just leant forward and went, ‘I want more of this’. You can have a great script, and another director doesn’t quite give it the life that it felt on the page. And vice-versa; you can read a fairly dull script, and a director can bring it to life. But with this, when I watched the film I was jumping out of my chair by the end, going, ‘Wow! Yes! Oh my God! Wow!’ Danny’s energy will take you into that world, and make it exciting.’ And Pearce admits that having Bertie Carvel in the cast – who originated the role of Murdoch in the West End and Broadway – also kept him on his creative toes. ‘He’s such an exquisite actor. Of course, every day when he was there, and I’m playing Murdoch, I’m thinking, ‘Don’t watch what I’m doing. Don’t look. Oh, God’,’ he laughs.

As an actor who has taken on numerous roles that began life as books or plays, Pearce is clear that comparison of versions is futile as an artist. ‘Every time I thought about the play, or talked to one of the actors who was in the play, it felt a little bit like a distraction to me. When you do a film, and it’s based on source material it can be an absolute minefield to delve into that material. It can be wonderful, because you get all sorts of other nuances about a character that you might not fully get in a script, like with LA Confidential, for example. But I find the purity of a screenplay – and what it is I’m responding to in the first instance – is really vital to me.’

That vitality is what he thinks has made Ink such a barnstorming opener. ‘The kudos and attitude – it feels historic and full of integrity and credibility,’ he says of the festival. And the relevant themes of the piece exploring public appetite for scandal and the increasing tabloid-ification of politics are what will keep audiences talking about it. ‘The sense of responsibility… we’re seeing things being torn down left, right, and centre. But you look back at The Sun, and it seems almost small fry and quaint now. Social media, AI, governments involved with surveillance…  you can see the connection. You could also ask the question: well, was it inevitable anyway? And it’s just that Rupert came along at a time? It’s such a big question, isn’t it, about where we are in the world today?’

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Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Guy wears Brunello Cucinelli
Ink premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. Read our review here