Q: Well, reactions? You're winning almost every award on the
planet right now and deservedly so. So what was your reaction
to winning a British Academy Award?
FW:This is really special because I've worked here quite
a bit, you know, one of my first movies that was really important,
The Crying Game, was done here. So this movie is really another
movie that has been very important to my career and everyone
who created the film are from here really so it was special
to be acknowledged. Because I come from a little place, I
come from LA, but the suburbs and it's quite different than
here.
Q: It must have felt to you that everything you had poured
into this film was worthwhile because you learned the language,
you met with members of the family of Idi Amin, you observed
the culture of Uganda, so a lot of your life was devoted
to the making of this film so now you can think: I must have
done good.
FW:I just gave myself over to it 24/7 when I was working
on it and it's good, I'm glad I did because it seems to be
working out really well.
Q: There has been a lot of talk about how you became Idi
Amin on set, how difficult was it to relinquish the role
when you stopped filming?
FW: I was lucky because I tried to get rid of the character
and then I had another role to go to so I had to fill myself
up with another character, so that helped me get rid of it
so I could not do it that way, I played a professor in a
wheelchair and it helped me move.
Q: It is an interesting mix of menace and charm, I was wondering
was there anybody in your past you used to inspire you to
try to play that character?
FW: Not really, I think I was really more inspired by the
Barry Schroder documentary and I was inspired what people
said to me about how they had been as presidents and knowing
whether to laugh or whether to be upset, so it was that that
made me understand more about him.
Q: Was there a physical process you had to go through to
turn yourself into Idi Amin, whether there was weight gain
involved, what is it because you're much, much slimmer obviously
than in the film. I just wondered what you had to go through
to become him?
FW: When I started to work on the part I was a little bigger
than I am now but I still had to gain 50lbs to play the part,
but it is easy to gain weight, it's harder to lose it. I
started lowering my voice, figuring out how to walk, he talks
much lower so I started pushing my voice down, and how to
move and gesture and stuff. Those were the physical things,
otherwise I didn't really do any prosthetics, the only thing
was they put make-up on me to make me a few shades darker.
Q: How are you going to prepare for the Oscars, the next
big one, in a couple of weeks' time?
FW: I don't know, I mean, what's going to happen is I'm
going to leave here -- the movie is opening in Europe so
up until about the 21st, I'll be here, going over to Uganda
- I'll just be doing press from one country to the next.
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