Read an interview with Stephen Dillane, who plays Anthony Hurndall.
Did you meet with Anthony Hurndall?
I didn't. I don't know anything about the real man at all. So it's just what I'm getting from the script, and from talking with Rowan (Joffe) about what we think the script is trying to do.
Why did you choose not to meet?
I felt it was important that my performance didn't become an attempt to imitate him. There's also a part of me that doesn't want to intrude. I think it would be inhibiting to me and possibly to him too. I've played living people before and I've always found myself delving quite deeply into the real person. But I have found it can be a diversion, in the end, from performing the character as it exists in the drama, so I just made a decision on this one that I wasn't going to do it. I was just going to go with whatever the script said and see what turned up. Maybe at the end of the process we will meet.
What do you think kept Anthony going?
He manages the situation by focusing his energy on what can be done. I also sensed a loneliness.
And how do you assess the relationship between him and Jocelyn?
It must be very difficult to be divorced for a period of time and then come together over the terrible injury or death of a child. I'm not quite sure how you'd manage that – it just seems a very complicated thing. I think Rowan was quite keen for there to be a sense that Anthony is looking - either consciously or unconsciously - to reconnect with Jocelyn. It'd be surprising if there weren't moments when the intensity of their emotions didn't bring them together in some way.
Did you have any misgivings about taking a role in a film that, because of the subject matter, is likely to be controversial?
As far as I'm concerned it all hangs on the quality of what you produce. If it's a good piece of work then you take whatever flack is coming. If it's not then there's very little justification for doing it, so in the end it's just a matter of trusting that we're producing something that transcends the situation really. There's a lot more to this than just the immediate politics.
You mean the human drama?
Yes. How does a white, middle-class, apparently reasonably modern family deal with death, especially in a strange country? The image of these three children to some extent wandering around in this landscape with two adults that are separated from each other. There's no real structure for people in this situation. A kind of death in space if you like. Very tragic. Very sad. Nobody really knowing how to manage it. There's this attempt to make the real Tom's death in some sense mean something. There's this concept of 'justice' that runs through this film, and you see how relative all those terms are.
Stephen Dillane won a Bafta for Best Actor for his performance as Anthony Hurndall. He's also been Emmy nominated for his role as Thomas Jefferson in the HBO series John Adams, which broadcast on More4.
