Cinema: Interview with the cast of The Boat That Rocked

Wednesday 1st April 2009

Susan Griffin meets the cast of the latest sure-fire Richard Curtis hit – The Boat That Rocked

It’s not often you find yourself sitting opposite world-famous director Richard Curtis, king of old-school cool Bill Nighy, rock god Welshman Rhys Ifans, up-and-coming star Tom Sturridge and funnyman Nick Frost.

It’s a daunting experience – if only to know where or with whom to begin.

This motley crew has gathered to promote The Boat That Rocked – the latest offering from Richard Curtis, the man responsible for Four Weddings And A Funeral, Love Actually and Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Set in 1966, the story revolves around the pirate radio DJs who broadcast from boats moored in the North Sea. This act of rebellion, which came at a time when the BBC limited rock and pop music to just two hours a week, drew about 25 million British listeners every day.

“It’s a personal story but I think the film is more about that sense of what it’s like hanging out with your friends and playing and listening to music,” says 52-year-old Richard, a calm presence among the assorted cast members.

“You went from your mum and dad’s music to Jimi Hendrix, so it couldn’t have been more radical,” adds 59-year-old Bill Nighy.

“It was major.”

Minus the montage sequences that cut back to listeners on the mainland, all scenes were based aboard a boat, so Richard set up “boat camp”, which saw cast members living in the claustrophobic confines of a boat for a few days.

“I think it gave everyone a sense of what we wanted to do. There are like 12 people in most of the scenes and every scene was about everybody in the room,” he explains.

While the interior scenes were shot in the studio, the rest were filmed aboard a vessel based off the Dorset coast.

“Filming on the boat was fantastic because it’s an actual three-dimensional set, so everywhere you put the camera, there’s sun, sky, sea, rust, funnels, all that kind of stuff,” Richard says.

“Also, it was quite close to what we were filming. Here were men of a certain age, out in the middle of the sea in a boat with loud music playing and smoking.”

But filming on the high seas was not without logistical problems.

“If you got into slightly stormy seas the boat would drift back towards land,” Richard recalls. “So we’d have to stop and sail back out again for 40 minutes.”

As for seasickness, the only cast members to really suffer were those filmed arriving by smaller boats.

“I think Emma Thompson (who turns up in a cameo appearance) found it a nauseating experience,” he says, before adding to everyone’s amusement, “don’t use that quote, just generally!”

There’s a dramatic turn of events towards the end of the movie and filming the scenes proved pretty eventful for the cast, too.

“It was very exciting,” says Nick Frost, 37, who plays amorous radio DJ Dave.

Nick, best known for pairing up with best mate Simon Pegg in Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, says everything with such a deadpan expression it’s hard not to find yourself chortling at whatever comes out of his mouth.

“I think it’s difficult to get the sense that we’re all dying,” he adds.

“I think you can actually see me just sort of leaning on one of the banisters, smoking a fag.”

Chuckling at this is softly spoken Tom Sturridge, who plays wide-eyed teenager Carl. After being expelled from school, his mother sends him to the boat to find direction in life.

“My memory of that whole sinking experience was all the stuff we shot on the boat was horizontal. It’s very difficult to pretend you’re dying when you see Nick, Rhys and Bill kind of splayed, pretending to hang off the boat!” the 23-year-old newcomer says, admitting that he was slightly star-struck by his more experienced co-stars.

“I felt the same awe, excitement, fear and pleasure from being in their company as Carl does in the company of their characters.”

Bill Nighy, who plays the boat’s laissez-faire captain, dismisses any talk of seasickness on board.

“The only time I got nauseous was in my cabin in the studio, not on the boat, because the cabin was on a hydraulic gimble, which could make it go like that,” he says, making a motioning gesture.

“Yeah, the set was more dangerous and seasick-inducing than the actual ocean,” adds Rhys Ifans, his slumped posture and half-shut eyes suggesting that he’s been living up to his reputation of hardcore partying.

Rhys, 40, got his big break in another of Richard’s films, Notting Hill, as Hugh Grant’s scene-stealing flatmate, Spike. In The Boat That Rocked, he plays Gavin, a rather more smooth and magnetic DJ.

“It was brave of Richard to cast me in such a completely different role to Spike. He really handed me something very special,” Rhys says. His character and The Count – a brash American god of the airwaves played by acting heavyweight Philip Seymour Hoffman – are involved in a dramatic scene atop the boat’s mast.

“Have you been claiming you actually did climb the mast?” Richard says, turning to Rhys.

“No, I haven’t. I tried to lie but I got a nervous rash,” says Rhys in his thick Welsh accent. Cue more chuckles from around the table.

Getting Oscar winner Hoffman on board was a real coup for Richard, and the cast admit feeling a sense of anticipation before his arrival. “He was adorable to work with and made us all feel comfortable,” says Bill.

While Richard has been behind some of the biggest British films in recent years he says he is unfazed about whether it goes down well with moviegoers.

“Honestly I don’t. Making a film is such a long process that the idea of whether or not at some point in the distant future it’s going to do well is not something that hangs heavy over you. I’m just so delighted to have finished the film that I wanted to finish.”

The Boat That Rocked is released on Friday, April 3.