Posts Tagged ‘The Special Relationship’

UK television magazine, The Radio Times, features an article about Michael Sheen as part of the publicity in the run up to Saturday’s TV premiere of The Special Relationship.

Scans of the article, plus the page for Saturday’s listings, have now been added to the Gallery. Please click on the thumbnail below.

Thanks to Ali for the scans

BBC Radio 4 aired a short interview with Michael Sheen on the Today show as part of the run up to the UK TV premiere on Saturday of The Special Relationship.

He talked about playing Tony Blair and how the role and his performance has changed since the first time in The Deal.  UK members can listen again to the whole show on BBC iPlayer. For non-uk members, I have a download available for you in the Downloads Section.

BFI Screening and Q&A for The Special Relationship
Wednesday, September 8th by Alice

On September 8th, I had the pleasure to attend the BFI screening for Michael’s upcoming film The Special Relationship, in which he reprises the role of British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the third time. It was followed by a Q&A with writer Peter Morgan, BBC Films Creative Director Christine Langan and Michael himself, at the end of which the public also got the opportunity to ask a few questions to the panel. It really was a lovely evening organised by BFI and I will start by saying that I loved the atmosphere from the audience, everybody was obviously there out of genuine interest for the movie but also the whole body of work of the creative team (Peter Morgan has worked with Michael on the “Tony Blair trilogy” but also The Damned United and Frost/Nixon) and as a results they asked well thought out (sometimes challenging) questions in the Q&A.

The Special Relationship
After the Queen, which I liked because of the reality of the story coupled with the dramatic atmosphere and royal scandal, I was a little bit worried about The Special Relationship, as it set out to be much more politically-centered, an area that I am not at all familiar with (or interested in, I confess). But I really enjoyed the film a lot. It effortlessly gets you into the story because you experience it “firsthand”, just like The Deal and The Queen. It was probably more of a discovery of this part of recent history for me than it will be for more knowing viewers familiar with the events shown in the story though. It will be interesting then to compare the exterior vision/memories of these times with the human perspective on the leaders proposed by the film.
The relationship between Blair and Clinton evolves from master and apprentice to more equality, but one can’t help but notice how slightlynaive newcomer Blair abides by the decisions of the American president (at first), reminding me of his European reputation of “America’s poodle”. Yet, he stands by his ideals and eventually is the one who stays when their working relationship is broken by the election of a new president. I don’t want to say too much about exactly what scenes are in the film as the interpretation of the facts from the inside is what makes the film. But let me tell you that the cast did an amazing job, both Michael and Dennis Quaid deliver strong performances as heads of state. Their wives (played by Helen McCrory and Hope Davis respectively) are also strong charaters, and I really enjoyed their scenes. They mark even further the contrast between the two men, with Hillary Clinton always in a practical work mode and Cherie Blair more of a comical outlet for the film (this was confirmed in the Q&A). The other supporting characters are familiar faces as the cast has been kept the same as in The Queen, including my personal favourite Alistair Darling (the funny one).
Michael has really settled into the part of Tony Blair, further helped he said, by meeting him in between the two latest Blair films. He perfectly portrays the paradox of the “honest” politician (can they ever be?), always trying to do the right thing and achieve his goals, disappointed at being lied to, despite doing it himself in other areas that he judges acceptable. And while he is the main character, the one the audience more readily identifies with, he is still shown in a somewhat objective way that allows you to despise him or laugh at him at times. In my opinion that is also a marker of the quality of the film.
I cannot wait to hear feedback from other viewers when the film is broadcast, especially since everybody has a different impression of that time, and a different opinion of the matters that are dealt with – I for one wasn’t too happy about all the Europe-bashing going on

The Q&A
After the film, a stage was quickly set up and the guests joined us for a Q&A led by Guardian interviewer Simon Hattenstone. Michael had recently arrived from America so he was a bit jet-lagged, which didn’t stop him from taking part in the conversation and being his usual open and funny self.
The first topic of conversation was of course Tony Blair himself, his reaction to the films and the process of writing and playing a real-life character. Michael was asked how he felt about him, if he sympathised, and immediately said that he loved him as a character, like all the roles he is playing. He explained that he had to love them in order to be true to them. This topic came up again later in the Q&A when someone in the audience asked Michael if he enjoyed moments of “acting freedom” in the movie despite being bound by the reality of the events and his character. His reply was very interesting as he said that there was never a moment in the film that he wasn’t playing himself, because he had to. As with every role he had to have gone through what the character was feeling and/or to understand it in order to show it. “I am always playing myself behind the mask of the character, he said, otherwise it would be a lie”. I found that very honest and amazing, because it makes perfect sense, but also because you have to wonder at how Michael is able to relate to Blair, Lucian, David Frost, Aro Volturi, Kenneth Williams and The White Rabbit!! Yet in all the interviews for his films he states this same thing and is always able to explain how he relates to his character on a human level.
While talking about Tony Blair, the subject of whether he had seen the films also eventually came up, and while the official answer is no, he has indeed seen them. Michael recalled his meeting the ex-Prime Minister and talking about the films with him. However he pointed out that it made sense for Blair not to admit to having seen them as this would open the door to personal questions about what parts of the movie were accurate or not, which is neither good for Blair nor for the film. There was also a bit of banter about a possible fourth film, but I am not sure how serious that was. Peter Morgan seemed to think there was still a story to tell. We’ll see how it unfolds.
As I said in my review of the movie they talked a bit about the prominent role of Cherie Blair and Hilary Clinton in the movie. Peter Morgan voiced the dilemma of having to write about a real-life character at a certain (past) time in their lives while they are currently making headlines for something totally different (H. Clinton was in the middle of the presidential election when this film was written). And they discussed Cherie Blair as a way to bring humour to the film even though Peter admitted he thought the movie was being too nice to her. Michael also commented on her comical potential saying “often you have a scene where you want to write Cherie Blair into it because you think, then I can put something funny”.
Speaking about funny, Michael got two questions that prompted quite a few laughs. The first one was asking him what questions he would ask Tony Blair if he were his ghost… ghost writer for his book of course but there was a moment of confusion in the room, that Michael turned into a laugh by replying “well then I’d probably be dead!” He thought about it during the rest of the Q&A though and his final answer was religion even if it is the thing Blair would not want to talk about, or maybe because of this. A few minutes later a viewer commented on the evolution of Michael’s portrayal of Blair, particularly his mannerisms and voice. That man pointed out a dicrease of the obvious Blair attitude especially in this latest film, and asked Michael whether it was a conscious choice because the public now associated Blair with him anyway or if he just “didn’t bother” which was quite funny. After jumping into the joke shrugging that he couldn’t be arsed, Michael talked about The Deal and how it was his very first performance as a real character. He said that he now cringes at the amount of mimicry of Blair’s mannerisms he initially put into the part, and that this was what pushed him to be less obvious in the subsequent films. He credited meeting Tony Blair and just seeing “the way he moves the air” as a major influence on the evolution of his impersonation but also all his work playing real-life characters in between. From his actor’s perspective he has simply become better at playing real people over the years of practise, and hopes that he is more subtle in rendering Blair’s persona than in his previous work.
By the way, his favourite of the films he and Peter Morgan worked on together is The Damned United. He didn’t say the convenient “the latest we’ve done”, and he didn’t hesitate for a second either. He did jokingly admit that he was “brilliant in all of them”.

After the Q&A I stayed behind in the auditorium as the guests weren’t being whisked away by an army of bodyguards just yet, and I got to say hi to Michael and talk with him for a few minutes… He was lovely, thanked me for coming and asked my opinion about the film. We talked briefly about Wales where he was going the next day, and other things that I don’t fully remember, what with being star-struck and all. It was amazing, I’m not gonna lie. I just can’t believe how accessible and nice he is, he’ll just chat easily like you’re the friend of a friend and not the 100’000th person to stare at him in awe of his talent and character, which you are

I keep my fingers crossed that I will be able to see him again at the play with you guys!

As reported previously, BBC2 is set to host the UK premiere of the drama featuring Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, the role for which he has just been nominated for an Emmy.

According to their schedules, this will air on Saturday 18 September, at 9.45-11.15pm BBC TWO and BBC HD.

For our European fans, if you are not able to receive BBC2, then don’t forget that it will be available on DVD & Blu-ray on September 27th. See the project pages for product links.

BFI Southbank are having a preview of The Special Relation plus Q&A with Michael Sheen.

Due to broadcast on BBC Two this September we are delighted to present Peter Morgan’s third film to examine the history of Tony Blair following on from The Deal and The Queen. This time focusing on the special relationship between Britain and America, the film examines the relationship between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton as they deal with the Lewinsky scandal and the war in Kosovo.

The event is taking place on Wednesday 8 September. Tickets are still available in very limited numbers. See HERE for details.

If you are in Canada, you will have an opportunity to watch The Special Relationship as HBO Canada is giving it a second airing on August 29th at 9:25AM ET / MT and 4:05PM ET / MT.

If you missed it back in May, be sure to catch it this time!