- 3 months ago
James McAvoy talks about directing his first film 'California Schemin'' while chatting alongside the rest of the cast Séamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley, Lucy Halliday and Rebekah Murrell at THR's TIFF suite at the 1 Hotel in Toronto. Plus, the cast reveal they had never seen the original documentary on the two fake Scottish rappers, Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, prior to filming this movie.
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00:00I have a very American question to start off and that is whether the term lad how
00:06specific is that like lad versus broke the does it is it a catch-all for any
00:10guy I would say I would say maybe until recently lads has felt more English
00:16rather than even Scottish but recently I feel like it's getting incorporated in
00:20any Scottish can yeah yeah you're spot on ask a Yorkshireman here you can answer
00:25I'd say a lot like you go from like boyhood to like lad hood meant of like
00:29manhood but you say a lot between a lot because you guys are to you are two lads
00:33in this yeah two lads yes that's what we're catching boys okay players okay
00:38perfect you did just say that it is just recorded on camera please great
00:46he's a player considering I've never directed anything before I just went
00:55head quite like to be the director no I was in a lucky position where I got offered
01:00stuff to do didn't want to do much of the stuff that was sent my way this is the
01:03very first thing that I get sent that I thought wow I could I could do the kind
01:08of things that that I want to do for my first film I wanted to be about Scottish
01:12people I wanted it to be about people who come from lower income backgrounds
01:16with limited or near horizons and I wanted to entertain and have fun while
01:21doing it and have like the weight of what the real boys is story gives us as
01:27well which is as much as it's a really fun adventure and it's really funny they
01:31both pay that kind of pretty high price so it just it ticked all the boxes and I
01:35was like yep I'm doing that one did I'm not gonna name any names but the stuff you
01:40got sent that you said no to have you has it been made have you seen any of
01:44that yeah I don't know if you've seen a film called The Brutalist
01:46everything's really bad I don't think anybody's seen it no I never get said The Brutalist I'm joking
01:52because then like that'll be interesting if you see it and you're like oh that
01:56was a person did a great job but that's happened that's happened more with
01:59acting yeah you say no and you're like damn it yeah once or twice in my career yeah
02:06that's a pretty good that's a pretty good yeah so this is based on
02:08obviously a real-life story of two guys yeah American rappers did you you knew
02:15about them I knew but a little bit I wasn't like massively up on it but documentary
02:20came out in like 2013 my sister actually knew them because she was in a she was in
02:24a like a Scottish hip-hop group called Streetside back at the time that the
02:28boys were just starting to come up in Scotland but yeah yeah no I know we enjoy
02:34but um who's also joys in the film as well um so yeah I wasn't that aware but
02:39you guys
02:40about the story yeah yeah not until we got sent a documentary link for the BBC I've
02:47not heard of it until until getting the project I don't know how because it's
02:50like a Scottish legend story yeah yeah that's how I describe the film
02:52yeah literally no I think like yeah yeah yeah I've got a friend from Dundee I'd
03:01never heard the story but I've got one mate from Dundee and I told him about it
03:03and he was like oh yeah obviously yeah the boys the rappers yeah yeah yeah I hadn't
03:08heard about it either but it's one of those ones that one I then watched the
03:10documentary I was almost like gutted I was like this is like passed me by and I
03:14know I know I think that you really can like rally behind and be like oh I'm dead
03:18proud of them yeah I knew nothing about it you know the weird thing is in
03:21Scotland as well like nobody cares about the fact that they got caught or that
03:26they didn't make it yeah everybody sees them as like latter-day Robin Hood
03:29figures absolutely yeah who like tried to stick it to the man and gain the system
03:33and we're I think we've got there's a kind of there's a bit of national pride in
03:36them for the people that do know about them in Scotland yeah and also I think
03:39there's a culture in Scotland of um what do we call it like like we have
03:44experienced a lot of glorious failure and so there's a we are good at taking
03:50the glory even when we don't make it mm-hmm yeah when you think back about your
03:55directing style now that you've done it do you I'm sure there's when I think about
03:59my directing style yeah like wake up in the morning I'm like what gets me up in
04:05the morning reflecting back on it who I'm sure there's a lot of like the
04:12specific James secret sauce but do you think you pulled anything specific from
04:16directors you've worked with like do you see any influences whether that be
04:20something as small as like a little thing you do throughout the day or like a
04:24style or anything I don't know I think and I've got a kind of mild love for
04:33profiles and a French over and I don't know I think I might have got that from
04:36Joe right and then French over is like back there and then I don't know the only
04:41thing I pulled properly and I didn't steal it because I was on the receiving
04:45end of it so much was that it affected me and I thought that is right so
04:50therefore I'm not just like copying it's also something that I've sort of
04:53ingested and sort of taken on was Jamie Lloyd is actually a theatre director who
04:58I've worked with social many times was always questing for forget the
05:02character character comes second I just want you and that was like I remember
05:06being in a cast full of people and from the person with no lines to the person
05:10with all the lines we all felt like we were everything the show needed we as
05:16people not just as performers or whatever and and that I thought going
05:20forward that's that's exactly what I want for my cast so whether you guys
05:25thought that was moving and stuff like it is slightly ripped off when I told you
05:29guys that but uh you can thank Jamie Lloyd but it is thank you these guys
05:34delivered themselves in the film and and so I need to thank them for that and I
05:38need to thank Jamie Lloyd for teaching me that how would you guys describe his
05:41style of directing what's he like first off I think first off I think he's got
05:49such a natural affinity for it that it slightly like blew my mind he'd never
05:54done it before but I think his style is so correct me if I'm wrong but this is my
05:58interpretation it's so performance orientated it's like if if you think you
06:04have an idea about the character or what where the characters going he will
06:08like sit with you and like take you on that journey and when you're like in the
06:13middle of the scene he'll be sitting like continuing that journey with you
06:17like in the middle of it like giving you notes like live yeah and I've never
06:21experienced someone so invested in the performance as I did with James and he's
06:26so aware of like every single thing you're doing and like so incredibly like
06:32intelligent and articulate but I think that just becomes because obviously he's
06:36such a great performer but that really shines around his direct to a real
06:39approach thanks love that's my style I don't think I got a style yeah I've only
06:48done one film so I don't know but but I appreciate what you said thank you
06:51that's all you're getting so I'm getting apparently it's a big deal that American
06:55productions have craft services and the other don't like you just had you know
06:59you've got Canadian on Testaments like what do we need to know I didn't realize
07:02that you've got you must have craft we have craft yeah it's brilliant pancakes
07:07yeah one o'clock and bacon and maple syrup it's not bad yeah it wasn't like that on
07:13the film usually on a British film or yeah I don't really get like a film crafty
07:17but I've got to tell you a couple days it's not bad for me because like when I've
07:21been on American jobs and I've worked in Canada a lot and and you're like you have
07:25to walk past that table all the time you're like oh I think I'll have a yeah
07:29four jelly babies and a pancake and a packet of crisps and a biscotti do you know what I mean
07:35and then do your pump before going on you've seen me do my prep of course even for directing
07:40just when I look at pictures of myself yeah I do agree with James in that the the craft
07:47approach on a British or Scottish production is it's like humbling you make your choice at the
07:52start of the day of what snack you're picking yeah because that's the one snack you're getting
07:56because the rest are going to be gone and you appreciate that snack I think more I think
08:00when you have when you have a craft truck it's quite frankly I became blasey about it okay you're like
08:06flinging sandwiches about you're taking snacks you don't need whereas in a British slash Scottish
08:12slash you know across the pond productions you you appreciate it more can I just ask what a
08:19craft day because I've what I've never experienced breaking news like you know you get like breakfast
08:24lunch dinner yeah it's another department separate from catering usually that just keeps you fed with
08:29delight and I'm glad we said it but some of the snacks are like baguettes or like loaded like
08:38and like not a snack it's like dinner yeah you can have it whenever you want yeah we were nipping out
08:46though for fresh suppers during filming though weren't we because the food wasn't I get it like
08:50what I get I put on my weight for when I'm doing it because I've got free meals a day exactly when
08:55you said you wanted to direct for the first time did a lot of people think that you should also be
08:59in like your first directorial debut like acting it as well or where did that was that a conversation
09:04my producer said like do you want to be in it you could play this part and I was like I don't know
09:08we can see and they were like cool whatever and then we started to get financed together and it was
09:11like you need to be in it and so I was like yeah so like we got some money and it was contingent upon
09:17me being in the film so I had to be in it but my least favorite days were the days where I had to
09:21do proper acting it was like the longest scene in the film is like six and a half minutes and we're
09:25all in it um and that was that was pretty hellish actually the rest of the scenes I mean it was fine
09:31because I'm only in and out but that big long I mean the first thing monologue the first cut of that
09:35film is like nine ten minutes and um it was nuts because it was just so hard to be like watching
09:41these guys and actually appraising your performance because I'm actually trying to be there for you
09:46give you something so that you then get to give like even a marginally better thing back
09:51were you going to the monitor to like watch your cover I don't remember this were you going to the
09:54monitor like watch your coverage back yeah that's so strange yeah but you're watching it just
09:58going like yeah all right I guess it's all right yeah all right I didn't mess it up because like
10:03one the day on the days that James was like acting it felt like a different part like I remember being
10:09like oh that's James like McAvoy the actor I'm like forgetting it's the same guy that's been here
10:15for the past few weeks but I was like oh no way oh when you're opposite a scene with James McAvoy
10:21you know oh thanks mate cheers seriously it's to do with the body odour scary you know no it's scary
10:27it's there's a scene with me and James having I was just like you can't take your eyes off him
10:31because he's not alive it's character yeah you're not alive the contract he's actually not alive
10:37now you have this to to show so like if you want to direct again the financing probably wouldn't be
10:41contingent on you acting in it right because I don't know we'll see depends if I want to make
10:45something obscure a bit like I know pornos about fucking sea otters or something like that like I'm
10:50pretty sure I'll need I'll need to be in it to get that financial there's a market for it yeah
10:54yeah yeah on the top of your head any like super extreme places that you filmed like what's the
11:00most extreme on this job that you've in on anything that you've oh well to be fair I think Hiltown
11:07in Dundee was pretty extreme Hiltown was great Hiltown was awesome Hiltown was class they were
11:12amazing but did you make it up to Hiltown's match you never made it up to Hiltown we did make it up to
11:15Hiltown yeah we were filming in Dundee for like three days that was pretty wild probably throw all the
11:19Barlands in there can't we oh yeah that was an extreme experience that was very very I found it
11:25weird in the train station oh yeah first off in in Queen Street train station because that's the
11:30train station that I've been to so many times so it was really weird being in a place that I was like
11:34I'm normally getting and then also it was kind of yeah there was so much going on and then I didn't
11:39realize that the prop train wasn't a prop train it was a real train I got on I got on I forgot you
11:45had this so like Lucy had a whole thing of like this is a real train station and we're doing this
11:50big emotional scene between the two of them we're like they nearly break up she's calling him out
11:54and potential infidelity and all that and she's like but this is a real train station I'm like
11:58yep what's the problem would you like a fake train station
12:03I can see what we can do I mean see because I'm so familiar with that train station in particular
12:11other train stations I'm fine we're working in but that one it felt like almost a flash mob I was
12:16like because we were just like people started walking past everyone was it was like people like
12:21about like an arm away from me and we're like the camera's there there's people an arm away being
12:26like is this our train I'm blocking the door I'm on the train Lucy you getting on I remember I think
12:33one of the most intense days for you weirdly was we had a nightclub so you remember we were all
12:36downstairs oh yeah and then all the guys are dancing and stuff and I needed some footage of him just
12:41dancing having a great time like he's out of his mind having a great time and he was like not really
12:46going for it and I'm like I've seen how to have sex you can dance but you were like this and I was
12:52like what's going on he's like I just I feel a bit embarrassed do you mind if we ask all the
12:56supporting artists the extras to turn their backs and I was like no you didn't no because
13:01it will look like they're all turning their backs on you in the fucking film because I'm like doing
13:04this like I'm like supposed to be like yeah he's doing it now and like grinding on people and they're
13:09all grinding on me and that but like the whole room's like looking at me I'm like I can't do this man
13:15but it was like it was so strange to me as an actor of 30 years I was like yeah everybody's
13:19looking at you that's the gig man that's the gig
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