October3
Bucks Free Press – Monday 3rd, October 2005
By Lindi Bilgorri
http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/
LEFT: At ease….Richard E Grant has written about his experiences in Swaziland, but wouldn’t be anywhere else but England now.
Richard E Grant has finally seen a long held dream fulfilled by bringing the tale of his early life to the big screen.
It’s a very personal examination of family life and here he tells Lindi Bilgorri of his fascination with the public show people perform to hide their private lives .
Richard E Grant wears two watches. One is his own watch, which is on GM time, and the other is his father’s, which on Swaziland time. It was his father’s last gift to him.
“My father gave it to when he was dying,” says Grant in his distinctive English voice. “It is both sentimental and practical.”
It’s practical because Grant still has strong ties towards the country where he was born and lived until he was 25. And although he left the country more than 20 years ago, he still speaks to people there every other day and has great friendship and connection with the place.
It’s sentimental because he has fond memories of his life growing up and going to school in Swaziland.
Those memories are so strong that he was drawn to write about them, and he has now made a film, Wah-Wah, starring Miranda Richardson, Celia Imerie, Julie Walters and Nicholas Hoult as the young Grant, which has just received rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Toronto Film Festival, and goes on general release in the new year.
Wah-Wah is about the break up of his parents’ marriage when he was 11, which caused a great deal of scandal in Swaziland, as his father was the Swazi minister of education.
“It’s about my family as it disintergrated in parallel with the last empire. Swaziland became a country and became independent.
“It’s a coming of age at the end of an age. It is the last empire. It’s essentially about a group of people where history overtakes them, and it’s a sort of comedy as well as a tragedy. I have always wanted to do it. I have finally got down to it.”
Writing about the break up of his parents’ marriage and the change in the country he loved was emotional for the 48-year-old actor.
“In writing it, I suppose it was a way of trying to examine and understand what had happened to me. Where, why and how people do what they do. It has been very rewarding and cathartic on some levels.
“I am very interested in the public show of the private face of people’s lives. It just doesn’t apply to actors alone. We all do it. Who we show to the world and who we are privately, and then even within that there are variations.
“It is with compassion. To try and understand why people do what they do.”
Grant was determined to capture the essence of his father in the film.
“It is my impression of somebody. Then Gabriel Byrne, who plays him but had never met my father or saw photographs of him, and didn’t really want to because he wasn’t out to do a quasi impression of him. He brought everything of his own life to the part, so then it becomes something else all over again.”
Although the writing of Wah-Wah was an emotional upheaval, the making of the film, which took place in Swaziland, was a lot of fun.
“The filming was exhilarating. To go back in time and recreate events and places where things actually happened and see other people’s reaction to a country where I grew up and fell in love with. That was a big bonus,” he says.
For the last two years, Grant has been so caught up in his own project that he has hardly been in this country, but life has settled down now and he has returned to the stage for the first time in many years in Simon Gray’s satirical play Otherwise Engaged at the Oxford Playhouse.
This is the first time the play has been staged in 30 years. In 1975 Alan Bates took on the leading role of Simon Hench, and now Grant plays the part.
“He’s someone who seemingly has everything.”
Being on stage has evoked another emotion in Richard.
“Terror,” he laughs. “Which is an important ingredient in life. It wakes you up.”
Grant made his name in Withnail and I, a comedy about a drunk, which is ironic considering he is allergic to alcohol and cannot drink.
“That film has been my calling card,” he says.
He has since starred in a number of films most notably Bright Jack and Sarah, Gosford Park and Pret a Porter. And more recently he has worked with Tim Burton on the animation of Corpse Bride and John Malkovich in Colour Me Kubrick.
Grant shares his home in London with his wife Joan Washington, a voice coach and their 16-year-old daughter Olivia.
“I met Joan when I went to learn a northern Irish accent for a job.”
Shortly after they met, he landed his role in Withnail and I. But that time was also tinged with sadness for the couple. Their first child was born prematurely, during the first few days of filming, and only survived for a few hours. Tiffany is buried not far from their house. Grant, who has been living in England for 25 years, considers his adopted country his home.
“I wouldn’t want to live any where else. England has the best sense of humour. I am an anglo file.”
Otherwise Engaged, Oxford Playhouse, October 3 to 8. Tickets: 01865 305305
The REG Temple is the official website for actor, author and director Richard E. Grant.
Richard E Grant’s phone is signed, and sports a self-penned portrait of the actor on the speaker phone. Who could resist his charm?
