As much as I adore Hellraiser (1987) for its resonant queer themes and exploration of female sex positivity and BDSM culture, Candyman is absolutely remarkable. Its grounding in the juxtaposition between the horrific actions of graduate student Helen (Virginia Madsen) – who seems very much sane – and its supernatural origins – really drives this home. There’s a depressing cyclicality in the film’s violence and fears, within not only the urban legend – mutating, transferring, translating – but also in the gentrified, ghettoised Chicago city architecture alluding to the city skyscrapers of 1970s New York in Koyaanisqatsi (1982) in architectural, geometric aerial shots thanks to Philip Glass’ haunting cries of a score – built over, redrawn, languishing in engineered poverty. The Candyman mythos emerges from the outside, just as slavery brought forward ships from colonies – and its own legends and stories with it. The weight of Candyman isn’t only the cycle of psychological harm, but the weight of history. There’s such a strong symbolic resonance that stretches back centuries – and millennia – from baby snatchers, the imagery of the hook and walking into the fire – and coming through scathed.
Candyman drives through racial conflict – white academia wanting to explore African American mythology from the outside, not only in ethnicity but in privilege, status, accessibility and wealth. Walking into spaces coded as unsafe and as gang culture. A male dominated establishment built on questionable relationships with professors, and women attempting to re-conceptualise the exploration of those ideas and stories. The film’s white characters refuse to believe the myth, but the African American characters known all too well to stay away and never touch it – defecated lavatories, the sting of bees, decay, ruin and graffiti. Even within the film’s penultimate scene, the mourning white gathering by the tombstones is confronted by a horror: the community of the ghetto walking in a funeral procession, with their own connections and stories.
Screening of Danny Boyle’s film Shallow Grave (1994) at Norwich Film Festivalheld on 6th November 2018 at OPEN Norwich, followed by a Q&A with actor Christopher Eccleston, moderated by The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw.
As tends to be my experience with Q&As, I had so many questions I wanted to ask.
“Am I allowed only one question?”
“In 2005, I was eight years old. I went against my non-existent sense of fashion and ended up with short hair, a t-shirt, a leather jacket, a sonic screwdriver and psychic paper. So I’d like to ask you some questions that aren’t about Doctor Who.”
“This was a screening of one of your earlier films. What lessons did you learn from your nineties roles, like Let Him Have It (1991), Shallow Grave, eXistenz (1999), and how have they informed your more recent roles?”
“You’ve portrayed many morally ambiguous characters. In Shallow Grave, your character (David Stevens) initially seems sane and sensible but becomes darker as the film goes on. In Let Him Have It, Derek Bentley is disabled but is also a criminal. The Doctor is a positive figure but is also dealing with trauma; in G.I. Joe (2009) and Thor: The Dark World (2013) you portray villains. How do you balance characters heroism, villainy and the grey areas in between?”
“How does your experience differ between working in independent film, broadcast television, major Hollywood movie studios and the theatre?”
“How does it feel to appear in an independent film like Shallow Grave, and then for the cast and crew to go onto franchises and multi-million pound budgets, like Ewan McGregor going onto Star Wars, and Danny Boyle directing the 2012 Olympics?”
“What’s it like to work with an actor portraying a corpse in Shallow Grave, especially considering ‘corpsing’ is a part of being an actor? How did it feel to be stabbed by Ewan McGregor?”
“Given how important Film4 is to both the UK film industry and the global industry, what is your experience like working with them?”
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to ask a question. So many other people raised their hands to ask their own brilliant questions, I never had a chance!
But here are some of the things I learned:
Growing Up
Eccleston’s parents were both creative people: his dad was very well read, and his mum enjoyed cooking, but they were limited by their working class backgrounds that favoured manual labour in factories.
Eccleston was very well supported by his parents to go into acting, which he compares to being unlike the hostility by the coal mining father towards pursuing ballet depicted in Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot (2000). Both academically and in jobs he felt useless, and was only able to go to drama school with a grant. He feels that with the industry today, working class actors like Albert Finney (an actor he greatly admired from boyhood onwards), Sean Bean and Maxine Peake would no longer be able to receive the training and careers they have: being well off is what counts.
Eccleston had a number of inspirations and influences, including Finney, James Cagney (across dramatic, gangster roles and musicals), and footballer George Best. He watched much more television than cinema: because films were a special treat, Eccleston instead took great interest in socially conscious television, admiring the era of series like Play for Today that conveyed a message to people. In drama school, he was trained towards theatre and never thought about working in television or film, appearing in an amateur production of Shakespeare’s Richard III. As a young actor, Eccleston carried a “Bob Dylan” approach, wanting to only appear in roles that could affect social change and address socially conscious matters. (He admits he no longer keeps to the same standard.)
Shallow Grave (1994), dir. Danny Boyle
Shallow Grave was developed by Danny Boyle and his partner, casting director Gail Stevens. Eccleston recalls being sent a script that was very appealing for many young actor, at a period in his life when he was living in a bedsit with a male friend and only just getting by. Both Bradshaw and Eccleston question whether the same film could be made today.
Eccleston was meant to lead the poster for the film, with a photoshoot capturing his character, David, as the lead character. However, Eccleston trusted in Boyle’s personal relationship with the project to instead depict the three main characters, even though the other strategy could have helped get his face known. Bradshaw discussed how much of 90s cinema such as Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) and series like Friends (1994-2004) were able to depict a group of equal characters which isn’t so much the case anymore.
Eccleston believes many aspects of the film are still relevant, especially elements such as auditioning flatmates considering the housing crisis – he notes that it’s now impossible to find a place in London. Bradshaw linked the questions the film raises of who you can trust and who your friends really are with social media. Bradshaw and Eccleston discussed how the 90s were different to today, with a feeling of hope of a transition from Thatcherism and John Major into Tony Blair and New Labour – a period Eccleston feels dissolved with 9/11.
Cracker(1993-95), Hillsborough and Our Friends in the North (1996)
Eccleston appreciates writers, praising the writer’s room of modern American television series like The Sopranos (1999-2007) and Breaking Bad (2008-13). He prefers writers rather than directors, and will always try to follow the script well. He believes there was a golden age, prior to the 1990s when money became more of an issue, where a writer could propose a particular project idea and it would then be produced: Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and others were supported by the BBC.
Eccleston notes that many of these projects, like Cracker (1993-95) and Our Friends in the North (1996), were proposed to Danny Boyle, but Boyle is very selective in what he chooses, despite the amount of offers he gets.
Eccleston remembers where he was in 1989 when the Hillsborough disaster occurred, with Bradshaw raising that the negative press coverage around the disaster conveyed football fans as bringing the disaster on themselves – a ‘natural’ disaster. Eccleston feels the families of the 96 victims have only begun to receive some sense of justice through court proceedings in the past year. Bradshaw proposes that the docudrama Hillsborough helped shift some of that perception. Eccleston and Jimmy McGovern met with and interviewed many of the victim’s families, getting to know them as people. Eccleston’s character, Trevor Hicks, was a part of the Establishment – a conservative who lost his daughters – with Eccleston arguing that this shows the disaster affected everybody, not just the working class. Many of McGovern’s series could get very high ratings, which simply isn’t possible in an era of multiple channels.
He felt he was too old for other television roles such as playing John Lennon in the biopic Lennon Naked (2010), but was cast anyway.
The Second Coming (2003) and Doctor Who (2005)
Eccleston never grew up with Doctor Who, unlike Bradshaw who raved about Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, and other actors like David Tennant and Peter Capaldi who approached the series as existing fans. Eccleston was more interested in playing football when the series was broadcast.
Eccleston had appeared in Russell T. Davies’ The Second Coming (2003), portraying the Messiah figure of Steve Baxter before Doctor Who. Davies hadn’t considered him for the role of the Doctor, instead interested in a well known star (Hugh Grant). Eccleston emailed Davies asking for an audition; Davies was shocked at the idea. The thought came to Eccleston while out running, wanting to bring some greater depth and sadness to the part – what a Time Lord actually is. The way the series handled female characters such as Rose (Billie Piper) helped pave the wave for the casting of Jodie Whittaker today, but executives would never have considered and have been dead against casting a female lead at the time – there would have been outrage. Eccleston had a massive, irreconcilable falling out with Davies and states he would never work with him again.
However, Eccleston feels very positive about the fans who have grown up from 8 and 10 year olds into their 20s who end up stopping him in the street to talk about their childhoods. Eccleston remembers his own childhood, with working class films he loved like Ken Loach’s Kes (1969). Eccleston recalls some fans who have spoken to him about hating his interpretation of the character – that he wasn’t portrayed as alien enough, but are glad he brought the series back. He was hurt by this at the time, but feels better about it now. However, one of the questions at the Q&A praised him for the grounded nature of his performance – unlike other Doctors.
He hasn’t seen Jodie Whittaker’s performance in the series, but had worked with Whittaker on the stage several years ago, believing this is quite “timey wimey” and could destroy the universe – the Ninth and the (it takes several hints from the audience for Eccleston to know her incarnation) Thirteenth Doctor together before she was the Doctor. Eccleston jokes about how one of his children doesn’t know about the series, asking him about how he is a doctor – does he help people get better? Eccleston is waiting for after his time at the RSC finishes so he can show his two sons, aged five and seven, Whittaker’s time on the series and experience it together.
Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Eccleston remembers one time he was drunk and a man approached him, praising him for his role as Raymond Calitri in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) – he was exaggerated and terrible to the point where he was “so bad it’s good” and a part of a cult film. He felt pretty bad and hurt by this comment until he came around to it.
Eccleston feels very negative about abandoning his previous instincts about selling out, and “whored” himself out to Hollywood, with his respect for writers not crossing over the pond. However, with acting, he feels putting food on the table and paying off his mortgage is very, very important; acting is just another job. However Bradshaw is more positive about the formulaic nature of these films: they’re exciting and do their job. Often, agents would talk him into parts with a big paycheque – agents wanting a cut of the cheque themselves. By comparison, on films like Shallow Grave, Eccleston worked for equity minimum.
The Leftovers (2014-17)
Eccleston is very proud of his work on HBO’s The Leftovers (2014-17), but only “one person and their dog” watched it, despite the second and third seasons being well reviewed. Although Eccleston is an atheist, the series allowed him to look within himself and ask spiritual questions. Acting functions to Eccleston as a kind of religion – a replacement for it.
The A Word (2016-present)
Eccleston confirms a third series is being worked on. Eccleston forms a connection between his earlier socially conscious roles and his role as grandfather and father Maurice Scott, spreading wider visibility and awareness around autism. Although Scott as written was neither autistic nor neurotypical, Eccleston performed Scott with autistic traits, seeing him as ‘on the spectrum’ but coming from an older generation where people weren’t diagnosed.
Macbeth (2018-19)
Eccleston is frustrated by many of the negative critics around his performance as the monarch Macbethin the RSC’s recent staging of Shakespeare’s play. From his vantage point now, he wishes he had pursued theatrical roles rather than television, having performed little Shakespeare except in drama school and without enough grounding in it. He’s at his happiest working on stage alongside interesting characters like Lady Macbeth. However, he is especially happy about school parties who introduced to the play for the first time as he had with other plays when he was in school. He appreciates the RSC hiring people from diverse backgrounds and is making more of a push towards doing so: twenty years ago, he doesn’t think he’d have ever had a chance of being cast in the role of Macbeth.
musings on films 
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