DenOfGeek.us – 16th December, 2010

Richard Bracewell, the writer and director of Cuckoo, describes his experiences of working with the legendary Withnail & I actor, Richard E Grant…

Few living actors are accorded the epithet “legend”. Even fewer deserve it. Richard E. Grant does both.

Spike Milligan joked that his tombstone epitaph would read, “Wrote Goon Show. Died”. Grant might once have feared the same, “Played Withnail. Died”.

But Grant didn’t let Withnail bury him. He rolled away the stone. With cut-glass accent and razor-sharp timing he’s carved a granite CV with the names of Coppola, Altman, Campion, Bracewell…

Hang on! Bracewell?

My second feature film, Cuckoo. I was directing Richard E. Grant from my own script. The weight of the granite CV suddenly felt very heavy around my neck. Whatever else happens – I reminded myself as he arrived for his first day on set – don’t ask for an autograph.

Bruce Robinson prepared Grant for the role of Withnail by getting him blind drunk on vodka. (Grant is a teetotaler.) Robinson believed the experience of actually being drunk would give his actor the sense memory to play at being drunk.

In Cuckoo, Richard’s character is Julius Greengrass, a cardiology professor who knows everything there is to know about the human heart, except how to form normal relationships. His character was cold, dark, and lonely.

Taking Bruce Robinson’s lead, I took Richard to somewhere cold, dark, and lonely. Local people know it as Great Yarmouth.

We built a laboratory where Richard’s character worked. The set was cold, dark, and lonely. I think Richard probably hated it, but he was kind enough not to tell me to my face; instead choosing local TV evening news as the best place to express his discomfort. Had he gone filming in Great Yarmouth by mistake?

Any lingering insecurity was dispelled the moment Richard walked on set to start work. It was electrifying. It was like Great Yarmouth illuminations coming on. He galvanised the other actors, he galvanised the crew. It wasn’t like having Richard E. Grant on set – it was having a great actor to work with. And, since I knew how to work with an actor, then on we got.

Withnail & I is endlessly quoted – it’s the language that pins you. No one else can quite reproduce the lazy-desperate cadances of “Finest wines available to humanity” or “Are you the farmer?”. Grant told me he took the role of Julius in Cuckoo because he wanted to speak the character’s florid dialogue. And the moment he started speaking, the character came to life.

It wasn’t Withnail on set, and only once in the film is there a flash of him, one fleeting look to conjour up all the accusation and despair Grant poured into the sozzled, eponymous anti-hero. For the rest of Cuckoo, he was Julius – a living, breathing, anti-Withnail, and about as dark as Grant has ever played.

I worked with a legend and didn’t want my money back. I’ll keep quoting Withnail, still rating it as the funniest and saddest film ever made. And meanwhile I’ll be trying to write more words for Richard E. Grant to speak.