A lyrical mystery drama, Charles Garrad’s spellbinding feature debut stars Northern Irish actor Colin Morgan (Merlin, Testament of Youth) and one of French cinema’s most celebrated performers, Fanny Ardant (The Woman Next Door).
Director Charles Garrad will take part in a Q&A following the screening of Waiting for You in the Queen’s Film Theatre this Tuesday.
Q&A with Colin Morgan
Actor Colin Morgan was born in Armagh in 1986 and is best known for playing the title character in the BBC fantasy TV series Merlin, as well as Channel 4 hit sci-fi show Humans and the BBC’s supernatural show, The Living and the Dead.
How did you come to be involved?
With this script I was immediately enthralled. I thought that it was really atmospheric, and mysterious. I like the fact that it had this road trip feel to it, and again what draws me to most characters is their lost-ness. I am often drawn towards characters that are trying to find something – whether it is outside themselves, inside themselves, or a mixture of the two.
When I met Charles I was taken aback by his enthusiasm for the story and how much passion he had along with his desire to get it made, which fuelled me even more. With an independent feature it can be more challenging to get it off the ground, which can make it feel even more special to be involved. It felt like a collaborative experience.
What was it like working with Fanny Ardant?
Charles didn’t want us to meet until our first scene. It had been scheduled that the first scene we meet was the first scene that we did together. I had been at this house in France filming for a few weeks, and the first scene that we did together was the scene where we first meet in the movie. That was great, because we were feeling each other out. She is incredibly warm, generous and glamorous, sophisticated and innocent, and you can’t help but admire and like her. She is a fabulous actress with a beautiful passion and a wealth of experience behind her eyes. We had a really interesting chemistry and dynamic with each other. The film delves into the past and the secrets that the house might hold, and there is this weird sexual energy that hangs around them, whether as lovers or a maternal love, making for a strange mix.
What was the greatest challenge for you?
Mapping out the journey in more or less every scene. When you are the character whose eyes the story is being told through you have to be more explicit in the changes that are happening and you are experiencing. If it is one note throughout the whole film then the audience are stuck with that for the duration, so you have to be aware that if the camera is your face then you really have to be doing some peddling underneath. The story does that naturally, but you have to be specific about where your character is in each moment. It is a constant jigsaw puzzle, and I love it, but definitely a challenge.
Colin Morgan was interviewed by Joseph Walsh