Tom Hooper has come a long way from directing plays and television commercials.
These initial jobs led to a 2003 revival of ITV's Prime Suspect, starring Helen Mirren; he then directed her again for HBO Films in the drama Elizabeth I. On the big-screen front, Hooper tackled The King's Speech ( which won four Oscars, including Best Picture ) and, later, Les Miserables and an all-star cast.
He returns to work again, with actor Eddie Redmayne in the new film The Danish Girl, which is up for three Golden Globes. It is based on David Ebershoff's 2000 novel of the same name that tells the story of one of the first known gender-reassignment surgeries.
Windy City Times recently talked with Hooper about his direction and latest project.
Windy City Times: It's the Tom and Jerry Show! Did you always want to make films?
Tom Hooper: I fell in love with it when I was 12. There is a line in the Spike Jones movie Adaptation that says, "We fall in love in order to simplify the world for ourselves," and I feel like that when I look back at that moment. There are so many complex choices on what one can do but at that point I knew what it was. I was lucky.
I started to make films on my 16mm Bolex camera on a hundred feet of film that I spliced in the attic. I was a silent filmmaker from the ages of 12 to 16. The world has changed bizarrely because now your iPhone has a better camera on it. I had old school training as a teenager.
WCT: That is the real deal.
TH: There is something romantic about holding the images in your hand. In the digital world, it is so different. I don't understand the technology driving it. There is something very immediate about the tactile connection to the material.
WCT: Were you ever intimidated directing Helen Mirren?
TH: Yes. I have never mentioned it before but I remember a day on Prime Suspect where I had laid a track for the camera on the floor. Helen came on set and I explained where she would be walking. She asked me why and I said, "Because the track is here and we are shooting around these columns." She asked she couldn't just do the whole scene standing there by the window. It started an interesting process where I thought it might be a better idea.
I learned that even when the actors walk into the room, you keep the plan to yourself and see what the actor brings. Let them feel free to offer their ideas. Sometimes they have a better idea than I even imagined. Really great actors are like co-directors because they do have a sense of staging in the scene and awareness of what extras are doing.
With Helen Mirren, I learned to listen. She had an eye on so many things even beyond herself. Not only is it about working with the best possible actors but what they can bring to the set.
WCT: What attracted you to The Danish Girl in the first place?
TH: I fell in love with this incredible script late in 2008. I was really moved by the love story at the center. I felt like for this transition to happen in the 1920s at a time when there was no language to verify what Lili [Elbe] was going through. The word "transgender" wasn't there and the establishment didn't acknowledge or accept the claims she was making about herself, which we now would see completely differently. The space for change was made possible through that marriage.
The film is about unconditional love at its purest. Love is really about putting someone else ahead of yourself and caring about them more than yourself. The film explores this and helps create a space where Lili can emerge. I found that moved me to tears and that is what made me want to make the film.
WCT: Was there never any thought of focusing on Lili's family?
TH: The script was so powerful that I committed in my head to remaining quite loyal to the way Lucinda Coxon wrote it. It was also inspired by David Ebershoff's great novel. I did commission some research to see what we could bring in but I felt the central story that I wanted to tell was about the navigation of this situation in a marriage.
WCT: Did you consider a transgender person playing this role of Lili Elbe and Einar Wegener?
TH: When you sometimes read a script you put an actor in the characterand I imagined Eddie in that very first read. That was seven years ago and I had time to think about other options, but he remained my first and strong instinct. We collaborated before, with Elizabeth I, where he played a young earl who rebelled against her and was sentenced to death. The raw emotional power he showed in that scene where he was killed knocked me sideways.
In Les Miz again, he was so emotional. He is gifted. He almost has an emotional transparency. I feel you can see through his skin almost and into his heart.
I wanted an actor where Lili would never be other-ed, where Lily's change would never feel strange or uncomfortable for the audience. Eddie has that gift in the movie. He takes you with it step by step so the emergence feels inevitable and necessary. I think that was important.
Something I also thought of is Eddie is drawn to the feminine. He played girl's parts at school. He played Viola in Mark Rylance's Twelfth Night. So he had a body of work playing women before this so that was fascinating to me. I wanted to give Eddie the opportunity to push farther into his psyche. Gender is on a spectrum and we all fall somewhere on that spectrum.
The last consideration was that, for the majority of the film, the character is living as a man and the transition happens quite late in the film. So that played a part into my thinking.
WCT: What were the challenges of making this movie in that time period?
TH: I didn't feel it was a challenge. I felt it was a joy. It is such a great period. The look of the Danish world was very inspired by the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershoi, who is a Danish artist I love. His palette is an austere blue gray. He tends to build his own apartment so we built our version of Hammershoi's apartment for Einar to live in.
I thought of Einar, living as Lili, who had a color palette that spoke to his sense of constriction. In Paris there was an explosion of Art Nouveau, which was a revolution of the feminine in design and rejection of the masculine. The embracing of the curve line with a pattern of explosions of color. I thought that revolution in the arts would be a great backdrop for the emotions of Lili. It was treat to work in the vernacular of this period.
WCT: Where was it filmed?
TH: It was filmed in Copenhagen, Brussels, London, Paris, Dresden and in Norway. We were on the same budget as The King's Speech$15 millionso it was tough!
WCT: What is next for you?
TH: It is like looking after our baby as we release it into the world. I would love for the film to find an audience so I am going to support it in any way I can and for as long as I need to. That will take me through to the spring of next year. There are three things after that, one of which I really like that I am developing but I can't say yet.
WCT: You should come to Chicago.
TH: I love Chicago. That is the home of Lana Wachowski, whom I met with through Eddie right at the beginning. She had brilliant advice for us both and was very inspiring.
WCT: There must have been tons of research for this project.
TH: Yes, lots of reading. My favorite book was Conundrum, by Jan Morris. It is the most beautiful book about transition.
Read up on The Danish Girl and check the film out in a theater near you, currently playing locally at Landmark Century Theatre, 2828 N. Clark St.