Ian McEwan was very, very moved. Visibly moved, which is the kind of critical response that I like to see
Roger Michell is now one of Britain's foremost directors. As well as making the most commercially successful UK movie ever (Notting Hill), he's also achieved the seemingly impossible and coaxed a good performance out of Ben Affleck in Changing Lanes. His latest movie, Enduring Love, is an adaptation of the acclaimed Ian McEwan novel and sees Daniel Craig's science lecturer becoming the unwitting object of Rhys Ifans' affections.
What attracted you to Enduring Love?
It's a very well known book and has this thing going for it that it is a very dense, rich and complicated investigation into the nature of love but at the same time, running parallel with that meditation, is a really good thriller. And that seemed to be a wonderful and subtle combination for a film adaption.
You've called the film "a deliberation on love and you take what you wish from it". So what did you take from it?
The film asks a number of questions about love and doesn't pretend to have a view of its own. The film and the book ask whether love endures, or whether the only true enduring love is the love of a mad Welsh stalker [Rhys Ifans]! The film also investigates what it's like to 'endure' love, and to endure being loved.
You mentioned that it's a very well known book. How did you approach the adaptation?
When you're dealing with a book that a lot of people have read like this, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you can only make your version of the book. Whatever you do, you're going to upset some people because you can never make the film that people run in their heads when they read a book - that is the film we all aspire to make. You can only make some emphatic version of the book whilst trying to honour the point of the book. I think - and so does Ian McEwan - that we've been absolutely faithful to the preoccupation of the book and why the book was written.
Ian McEwan is associate producer on the film, but what was his actual involvement?
Ian was our kind of Godfather on the project. We showed him drafts as they developed at script stage, and he made his views very clear - some things he liked, some things he didn't like. We changed what we thought we could change. He was extremely benign, if not always without criticism of what we were trying to do. He was extremely constructive about it. He also came and saw us filming stuff - he was particularly interested in the hot air balloon sequence [at the beginning of the film]. It wasn't until he came to see an early cut of the film that I feel that he really got what we were trying to do. I have a lot of sympathy for him, because it must have felt that we were taking his child and cutting it into pieces and putting it in a different order. He's very pleased with the film.
So what was it like, that first screening with him present?
Very nerve-wracking for me, because in a way I wanted his approval more than anyone else's - because the last thing you want to do when you're making a film is feel that you're in some way disrespecting or destroying its point of departure.
And what was his response at the end of that screening?
He was very, very moved. Visibly moved, which is the kind of critical response that I like to see!
WATCH: Roger discuss shooting the famed hit-air balloon sequence at the beginning of the movie
WATCH: Roger talk about working with Daniel Craig and Rhys Ifans
WATCH: Roger analyze his movies and reveal what's next for him
