Hugo, from Paramount Pictures, opens today, November 23, 2011 in theaters and 3D. Sir Ben Kingsley gives an award worthy performance as Papa Georges, whose secret is unlocked by Hugo, played by Asa Butterfield. Below in my interview with Kinglsey, he talks about the wonder of cinema, 3D technologies' unforgiving nature and versatility in acting.
Dan Hevia: Your character undergoes a large transformation in the film, from Papa Georges to the iconic Georges Meiles. Did you find it difficult to essentially rewind the character emotionally?
Sir Ben Kingsley: We did shoot in more of a chronological order than it would imply. Although the reveal of him as king of his kingdom comes late in the film, we were able to explore those sequences a little more thoroughly during the shooting of Georges in his toy shop. What I feel essential to my journey is I want to know what he lost. Because he is in a state of loss, grief and mourning in the toy shop and also does not want to be reminded of how beautiful life was. Yet if you put yourself in that position, life will intervene. Life will jolly well remind you even if you say ‘I don’t want to think about her or it or that place where I used to live, don’t remind me.’ But you will be reminded, hopefully for the good reasons. So that treat of being Georges in that crystal glass palace with the directing like Marty saying “Action” and adjusting props and painting scenery and everything, that entirely gave me the man in the toy shop. Without appreciating that loss the part is really two dimensional, for me it would be difficult and less rewarding so it was marvelous to appreciate just how much he had in order to appreciate how much he’d lost.
DH: How was it to play that character that was trying to escape that past while being foiled by the persistence of a child?
SBK: It’s pure in its mythology. Because I think one of the oldest myths we have, that we’ve inherited is the myth of the man in the wilderness guided back to light by the hands of a child. It’s a very ancient myth and it appears in many different guises. Silas Marner by George Elliot is one of those disguises so the state of a man in exile is something that profoundly appeals to me as a storyteller. Because Marty is so pure and so purely motivated as a filmmaker, I was able to enjoy living inside that ancient mythology in a supremely modern film. Even though it’s a period film it’s a supremely modern film with 3D technology and sound and light and an amazing set. That relationship between exile and child is core to it and therefore in order for the child to have to be shown as heroic I have to say, “Go away” very, very firmly and Marty allowed that. When the camera was on Asa, I said to Asa “I’m going to push you really hard, ok chap?” and he said, “Yes, ok (whispering)” and the ‘Go Aways’ were really nasty. (He's saying) ‘Do not remind me, I’m here to forget’, saying it in so many ways. That moment where the child hovers at the doorway of the railway station, which he’s never left in his entire life. He sees Georges receding away from the railway station and thinks ‘you know what, I’m going to have to leave.’ He’s going to have to leave his own exile and go out into the world in order to get this guy to rejoin life. They have very parallel journeys really.
DH: Besides the differences in material, what differences did you see in Martin Scorsese between Hugo and Shutter Island?
SBK: Primarily, you enjoyed Marty embarking on a new journey, working with something utterly and entirely new, 3D. Given that, he was his same convivial, collaborative, passionate, loving self. Where we noticed a difference is that the 3D camera, all the time, is more scrutinizing that the most searching Panavision close up that you could imagine. It is x-ray, it x-rays you. The bonus is that I worked mostly with Asa and because he works from the heart it demands that my performance comes from the heart. That’s the only way you can work with that boy. He’s wonderful. But also the 3D camera is saying ‘If you show me any acting, you’ve had it. The game is up.’ You’ve got to be so into Georges, and his pain, however uncomfortable, because if you try and cover it, if you try to avoid it, the 3D camera will say ‘you know what? I’m not convinced.’
DH: How does it feel to introduce a whole new generation to Melies? Do you think his vision of dreams and magic can resonate?
SBK:I think what will resonate is the miracle of the evolution of cinema. In this film you get a glimpse of every film that was ever made, between Georges Melies and Martin Scorsese. You see the miracle of cinema, which is so important in our lives. I think it is our key art form, our key recreational form, and our culture in terms of story telling. It’s our mythology as well. To see that evolve before your eyes is thrilling, moving and what is extraordinary is that it’s not extraterrestrial. An audience can sit there and think ‘we made that. Human beings made that. We made cinema. We own cinema and we love cinema’ I think that arc of the story is going to be delightful to audiences.
DH: Your long career has been filled with many varied roles. From Mahatma Gandhi to Itzhak Stern to Dr. Cawley to Georges Melies. How do you stay so versatile?
SBK: I think I’m blessed in living inside of Shakespeare’s mythology for the first ten to twelve years of my career. Before I embarked on Gandhi I had been in so many of Shakespeare’s plays and in those plays you do appreciate that pure mythology that I was referring to earlier. So if I am fortunate enough to choose a role that I can link into that pure mythology, then it releases so much energy in me, because I understand what I’m doing. For example, Dr. Cawley was the bringer of unconditional love and I could place that so cleanly that it released a huge amount of creative energy in me. Don Logan in Sexy Beast was the bringer of chaos and I could appreciate that in a deeply Shakespearian sense. As with the man in the wilderness guided back to light by the hand of a child I mentioned earlier, that’s all I need and it unlocks, like punching a key pad. You hit the right numbers and it will open.
DH: It’s been almost 30 years since Gandhi.
SBK: Wow! (laughing)
DH: That was such an iconic role and could be considered to the role of a lifetime. How hard did you find it to move on from that?
SBK: I think I moved on because it’s shown every year to huge effect on TV, all over India, all around the world. The latest DVD came out for the 25th anniversary and it’s such a fresh experience in so many millions of peoples’ minds that fortunately, it’s not viewed as an old movie. It still has a great presence. I think that it’s that measured against my other performances that have helped producers think ‘you know what, he’s really quite versatile’. Inhabiting so many of Shakespeare’s characters in the first ten years of my career gave me a love of versatility. If an actor doesn’t have a love of versatility I don’t think he’ll attract it. I genuinely do. Some actors don’t, fine, they make brilliant careers out of being the same guy over and over again. I love versatility. For me I think there is so much to explore. Don’t stop there, there’s so much to explore.
You can catch Hugo in theaters and in 3D today. For showtimes and tickets, click here.
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