Lorna Allen meets the screenwriter behind The King, the new film from director James Marsh, starring Gael García Bernal.
Oscar-nominated screenwriter and producer Milo Addica has penned some of the most controversial and brooding character dramas of recent years. He co-wrote the compelling and emotionally draining death row drama Monster’s Ball which earned actress Halle Berry an Oscar for her performance as Leticia Musgrove, the death row widow who falls for Billy Bob Thornton’s gruff redneck warden, Hank Grotowski. The movie was initially envisaged as a vehicle for Addica and his writing partner Will Rokos’ acting careers, but the eight months spent holed up in a tiny Santa Monica apartment slaving over the script began to pay dividends when the project started to attract the attention of a lot of big players including Robert De Niro, Sean Penn and Oliver Stone. The script, completed in 1995, underwent a long and winding journey and a series of re-writes before it actually got made in 2001. Addica followed the success of Monster’s Ball with Birth, which starred Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman as Anna, a woman who becomes convinced that a ten year old boy is the reincarnation of her late husband. The film caused quite a stir at its premiere in Venice because of ‘provocative’ scenes in which Kidman’s character shares a bath with her young co-star.
Now Addica is back on the promotion trail paving the way for his third film – The King, a potentially controversial film about incest and revenge, directed by British documentary filmmaker James Marsh (Wisconsin Death Trip). The film stars Mexican heartthrob Gael García Bernal as Elvis (named after a film Marsh had made called Burger And The King about cooks that cooked for Elvis Presley), a 21 year old Latino male who, after being honourably discharged from the US navy, heads to Chula Vista Texas to acquaint himself with the father and extended family he never knew. Initially spurned and shunned by his Baptist preacher birth father (William Hurt), now sitting pretty as a respectable family man and member of the community, Elvis discovers the easiest way to infiltrate the family circle is through his blossoming, and wholly inappropriate (unless you are a Jerry Springer guest), relationship with half sister Malerie (Pell James).
I met up with Milo early one uncharacteristically sunny and balmy October morning when he was in London to promote The King ahead of its UK premiere at the London Film Festival. Settling down into a heavily cushioned chair in the lounge of the Sofitel, St James, I prepared to subtly interrogate the writer about a film which delved into the rather unsanitary themes of incest, redemption and revenge.
The film includes a subplot which explores the very current battle in US schools surrounding the controversial demands by some groups to introduce Creationism into the curriculum. Creationism, or Intelligent Design as it is commonly known, is presented as an alternative to natural explanations for evolution and is contrasted with Darwinian Theory. Many proponents of ID claim it to be scientific theory that stands on equal footing with current scientific theories regarding the origin of life. Few films have touched on this growing trend/movement as yet – was Creationism a cornerstone in the film from it’s inception?
‘’It came in as we were writing – as we were doing research about what was happening in society. Now it is very rampant because Bush is in office and he is a born-again Christian and he is very much for bringing Church and State back together again – which personally I am against, but that’s not what I am trying to do in the film. It just so happened at the same time it was very topical,’’ explained the 44 year old writer. ‘’Their convictions are as strong as others’ convictions about science. There is no middle ground and this is a real battle happening in the United States – as well as in European countries. School teachers are having to face everything they truly believe in science as not necessarily fact. We simply wanted to raise this question. ’Yeah, ok, what do you believe?’ I mean, that’s all we are saying, you know? That’s it. I’m not trying to say we believe this as opposed to that.’’
David’s son in the movie is a leading figure in the high school crusade to promote Intelligent Design and have it taught in his school. He and his friends don T-shirts emblazoned with the logo ‘Give Us the Facts’. Would you say the film is mocking their convictions?
‘’I think we treated the character of Paul, played by Paul Dano, with a lot of love and care. I really love this character. He is of his father’s design, you know. He is the image of his father; he is going to Bible school. They are not out to hurt anyone. They just believe in what they believe but there are people who take it to an extreme and one of them is in office right now and he wants to impose his beliefs on the world and I think that this is a major thing – but this is not what the story is about.’’
George W Bush’s spectre-like influence can be clearly identified in the film which is set in his old stamping grounds. Paul, Malerie and their peers attend Christian rock concert events which shriek of comparisons to the US Federal Government Funded ‘Silver Ring Thing’ initiative, aimed at convincing young adults to remain celibate until marriage. By 2004, the ‘virginity training’ scheme had received $700,000 as part of his campaign to replace sex education with good solid Victorian values.
The subject matter - which some may see as overt criticism of religion - the violence, and not least the incest plot, are often quite shocking and likely to be labelled as controversial. So, does Milo think that the film will be well received or is he concerned that it has the potential to offend or upset people?
‘’It might,’’ he calmly concedes. ‘’I mean, when we were shooting this film, we were filming in a church and they read the script and they saw a lot of redemption and forgiveness in it and they liked it. I think the social climate is changing in America a little bit now with everything that is going on. We’re not going to have the War of the Worlds audience, we’re not going to have the Batman Returns audience but…’’
…it might possibly zone in on The Passion of the Christ target audience?
‘’Funny you should say that. The Passion of the Christ was one of mine and James’ arguments when we were trying to raise money. You know – look at The Passion of the Christ – and they were like…’’ He adopts an affected deep serious tone: “‘Oh, come on! That’s different – Mel Gibson…’ and this and that. But Passion was a gospel – the one you see on the stained glass plates. They made a story based literally on the Bible. I went to see that movie eventually and I thought it was poorly made – I like The Last Temptation of Christ by Scorsese much more. This was a movie that should have been on television, you know, during Xmas or something.’’
The King is a complex and ambiguous film which has divided audiences at festival screenings. Addica is defensive of his film and, if an awkward open Q&A following an initial public screening at the LFF is anything to go by, more than a touch prickly about any criticism waged at his work. Some critics have complained that his latest film is too dark and nihilistic.
The writer maintains that he sees beauty in some of the most shocking scenes. Even when Elvis murders his pregnant girlfriend (stroke half-sister), he sees ‘’…something of beauty…laying her down like Cinderella and putting her on a pillow. But everybody sees it differently and I think that that’s ok.’’
As an actor himself, Addica has displayed a skilful ability to write scripts which draw out powerful performances from his actors. The emotional impact of his writing seems to come from the little actions and silences more than from long chunks of dialogue and self-examination. Whether it’s the scene in Monster’s Ball where Halle Berry breaks down and begs for some physical contact so she can momentarily forget the agony of losing her son, or the stilted interaction between the Grotowski men, limited dialogue and strong emotive performances are a sign of Addica’s authorial touch.
‘’I like to create an environment where actors can behave as opposed to speak speak speak – dialogue is secondary to action and so we were very fortunate to have Gael involved. He stayed with us for two years – he really wanted to do it.’’
In The King, we can see similar moments when boylike Elvis first nervously and silently reaches for Malory’s hand. The camera catches Bernal’s timid, furtive glances and holds the shot, lingering on the couple’s apprehension and vulnerability. The character of Elvis evolved from an initial idea based on an old picture from 1901 of a young man called Joseph Sandow who was arrested for petty larceny. The issue of Elvis being the product of a mixed race liaison had not been central to the original idea, but the impression Bernal made on both the writer and director pushed the script in a new direction.
“When we met Gael, he certainly redefined the whole idea physically of what we were creating…so we rewrote the script when he committed to incorporating some of the Hispanic quality that he brought to the subject.’’
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