美国国家公共电台 NPR The British At 'Their Finest': How A Nation Kept Calm And Carried On

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The aging British matinee idol 1 thinks he's been given too small a role as the uncle of twin sisters. The American who's supposed to play a hero is as dull as a stick. But a young woman in the script department has an idea that might make the formula work for a wartime British drama that's supposed to lift spirits at home and warm hearts across the ocean.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THEIR FINEST")

GEMMA ARTERTON: (As Catrin Cole) If we gave you an Uncle Frank really worth your time and your talent, I wonder if you would consider putting that same time and talent towards helping 2 Mr. Lundbeck and the picture.

BILL NIGHY: (As Ambrose Hilliard) I don't think we've been properly introduced.

ARTERTON: (As Catrin Cole) I'm Catrin Cole. I'm one of the writers.

NIGHY: (As Ambrose Hilliard) Catrin, between us, we'll have them weeping in the aisles 3.

SIMON: Yeah, reach for your handkerchiefs. Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy in the new film, "Their Finest," based on the novel by Lissa Evans and directed by Lone 4 Scherfig.

Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy join us now from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

ARTERTON: Thank you.

NIGHY: My pleasure.

SIMON: The kind of films they make in this film were actually produced by the British film industry during World War II, weren't they?

NIGHY: Yes, that's correct. They made a lot of films during that period under very, very, as you can imagine, difficult circumstances in order to deliver certain information but, broadly speaking, to keep the country's spirits up during a savage 5, brutal 6 time when they were bombarded daily by the German air force.

SIMON: Yeah. And Ms. Arterton, technically 7 they were propaganda, but, I mean - I want it understood - not propaganda in the sense that German propaganda films were trying to conceal 8 genocide but propaganda in the sense that they had a political purpose.

ARTERTON: A lot of the films that we were looking at and the film that we are concentrating on in our film - there's a film within the film - that they were all kind of geared towards women. And propaganda filmmaking at that time was quite interesting and pushing boundaries. People wanted to see things that made them feel like they were being understood and spoken to. And so films became actually quite naturalistic and kitchen-sink drama-y (ph).

SIMON: And what appealed to you about playing Catrin Cole, the young woman who becomes essentially 9 recruited to be a screenwriter?

ARTERTON: My character is based on a real person called Diana Morgan who was a writer that was hired during the war to write the nausea 10 or the women's dialogue for Ealing Studios. And she went on to write a lot of films for them.

Anyway, so I found the character to be original. I hadn't read anything like that before. I didn't know anything about that period of filmmaking for women. And it's actually quite rare to read something about a female writer, especially a screenwriter.

SIMON: Bill Nighy, tell us about your character, Ambrose.

NIGHY: He's a chronically 11 self-absorbed, pompous 12 actor in his declining years who's in almost perfect denial about how old he is. Everyone else in the world, apart from Ambrose Hilliard, is completely aware that he can no longer play romantic roles. The only person who has any doubt about that is Ambrose. And it has to be gently and not so gently explained to him that he can't play the leading man anymore. He's too old. And he has to play drunken Uncle Frank. He warms up during the film.

SIMON: Yeah. He winds up having a lot of dignity and sharing it with others.

NIGHY: And he's, in a good way, manipulated into that by Gemma's character, who's very smart, and she knows how to maneuver 13 him into those positions. She, very cleverly, gives him the job of teaching the young American actor who isn't an actor - he's a war hero - teaching him how to act, which is a brilliant stroke because it - Ambrose is very flattered by that initially 14, and also - and turns out he enjoys doing it. One of the redeeming 15 factors about Ambrose is that he is actually quite serious about acting 16 and not just in a diva-ish (ph) status context but acting as a thing. He is - he has a genuine enthusiasm for it.

SIMON: I have to tell you, Mr. Nighy, you can make me laugh just by lifting your eyebrow 17.

NIGHY: (Laughter) Well, thank you very much. I wish there were more people like you. I'd like...

SIMON: Oh, I think they're quite a...

NIGHY: ...We should see more of each other.

SIMON: ...There are quite a few people like me.

NIGHY: I didn't get comic calls for jobs until I was in middle age really. And I did a movie that required me to be funny.

SIMON: Which movie was that, I wonder?

NIGHY: That was a movie called "Still Crazy" in which I played another rock 'n' roll idiot and I...

SIMON: Well, that's your - that's your role (unintelligible).

NIGHY: Well, I am a rock 'n' roll idiot, yeah, it's true. Billy Connolly once said I had rock 'n' roll legs, which - he's also said, the last time I saw legs that thin they had a message tied to them.

SIMON: (Laughter).

NIGHY: Which I think - I think is a pigeon reference.

SIMON: Yes, oh my, Gemma Arterton...

ARTERTON: Yes.

SIMON: ...Without tipping any plot points in "Their Finest," people die in this film. And it's not always the ones you expect to die. And I guess that's the story not only of war but of life. Was that ever jarring when you were making the film?

ARTERTON: It is set during the war and the Blitz, and people were dying all the time. And it was a - it was a reality. And, you know, this saying, keep calm and carry on, which is sort of very associated with British people - I guess that's what they had to do back then. I think it's a British trait (laughter).

SIMON: Bill Nighy.

NIGHY: Somebody told me something quite interesting just before I came in to do this interview - in this building, by the watercooler - which is that the keep calm and carry on slogan, which has been revived in recent times in England - and there are tea towels and coffee mugs and whatever. When it was originally introduced in poster form during the Blitz, it was very quickly withdrawn 18 because people were offended by it because they felt patronized by it because they were already doing that.

SIMON: In conclusion, let me just try one more thing. Bill Nighy, could you raise an eyebrow?

NIGHY: I just did.

SIMON: (Laughter) You see...

(LAUGHTER)

SIMON: ...Totally reflexive.

NIGHY: I'm going to raise that eyebrow more often, I'll tell you.

ARTERTON: (Laughter).

SIMON: Bill Nighy and Gemma Arterton - their new film, "Their Finest." Thanks so much for being with us.

ARTERTON: Thank you.

NIGHY: Pleasure.