We talk horse-whispering, bathroom hygeine and Superman villains with the lovely living legend…
Ahead of the release of his second feature film The Double (in cinemas Friday 4 April), our man Eoghan Doherty caught up with one of JOE’s comedy heroes in Dublin city centre…
JOE: Richard, lovely to meet you. How are you doing today?
Richard: Good thanks, yeah.
JOE: Congratulations on The Double first of all. I realise it’s your second feature film but is it true that you were planning it a few years in advance of Submarine (Ayoade’s 2010 feature film debut) coming out?
Richard: Yeah, yeah. It was Avi Korine who I ended up writing it with. He finished his first draft in 2007 and around the time I was starting to write on Submarine. So yeah, it’s been going for a while.
JOE: And was Jesse Eisenburg always the right two men for the job?
Richard: (Laughs) Yeah, yeah, he was. We didn’t ask anyone else.
We couldn’t think of anyone who felt they would be as good as him. You know, just in terms of his range and ability to do both and it felt like he was the perfect age. You can think of maybe some older actors but I can’t think of an actor, his age, around 30, who’s like him. Or even just an actor in his league who’s that age, I just can’t think of anyone.
JOE: From all of your experience, have you found that it’s now easier to spot a great talent like Jesse?
JOE was fortunate enough to meet him last year and he very impressive, smart and quick-witted. Was that something that stood out for you personally as a director when you were looking for talent to work with?
Richard: For me it was seeing him in The Squid And The Whale (2005) and since then I just watched everything he was in. I just thought he was so brilliant in that film.
It’s just rare that someone’s that good and obviously very intelligent, but isn’t inhibited as the performer. You know, there’s something about being considered that can stop you being reactive, I guess, but he is able to do both and that’s kind of rare.
JOE: Jesse’s big news with is that he’s been cast as Lex Luther in the new Superman vs Batman film, and we’ve now seen a darker side to him in your film. Do you think he’ll fare well in that upcoming villainous role?
Richard: I mean, I think he’ll be good in whatever he does.
I think there are some actors, and often the best actors, like James Stewart – it’s almost the highest compliment to say that they feel like they’re playing themselves or they’re playing a similar role. It’s simply because people don’t see the acting and so they just go, “Oh James Stewart’s in another film,” despite the enormous difference between It’s A Wonderful Life and the darker westerns he did with Anthony Mann or Vertigo. There’s such incredible range in what he does but you just go “It’s a James Stewart film.”
So Jesse has that star quality, all while being an amazing actor and also having incredible range without people noticing because he doesn’t drop weight or balloon or make huge physical adjustments generally. I really think Jesse’s like that. You know, he looks like him in stuff.
JOE: Looking like himself in stuff, that helps.
Richard: It’s not like suddenly he’s 50lbs heavier or something. But yeah, I think he’ll be great in that film. I’ve never seen him be bad in anything.
You know, I actually tend to watch films often because of the writer or the director, and not so much because of the actors, but he was one of the few people that I would watch a film because he was in it.
JOE: Now that you’ve done so many aspects of the film-making process – well, maybe not the catering, I don’t know – but in terms of direction. Maybe you have done the catering?
Richard: I am more comfortable catering than acting.
JOE: That’s refreshing to hear that you enjoy the catering. You’ve acted, you’re director on this particular project and a screenwriter as well. Do any of them come easier to you personally, or is there one aspect that you’ve a love and an affinity for?
Richard: Well, acting comes very uneasy to me and it’s not something I do very often or with any skill, so I feel I have more aptitude for directing and writing, but that is comparative in the great scheme of things. I’m also poor at those things but it’s just compared to acting I feel more comfortable doing that.
And the thing I actually like best is doing the sound, at the very end. That’s a bit where, for a variety of reasons, it feels it’s only getting better because the film is locked and most of the stuff you’re doing is improving it. That’s a very pleasant feeling.
JOE: This is obviously the moment where I am supposed to interject and say “of course you’re wonderful Richard, at all aspects of everything you do.”
Richard: (Laughs) Well, you mustn’t.
JOE: Ok. I won’t then.
Richard: Good.
JOE: Right from the beginning of The Double the sound is something that does really stand out. That obviously plays a very important role for you, equally as important as some of the other elements of the film?
Richard: Yeah, I mean, on everything I’ve always done the sound, other maybe than Submarine which had a lot of natural sound, but we were very careful in the recording of it. Martin Beresford (sound engineer) was very careful with the sound. I just said “Can you be very careful?” and that’s what constitutes work as a Director.
JOE: We’ll give you credit for that sure…
Richard: Asking other people to do stuff. “Can you do that?” And they do it really well and you go “I did that”.
The sound has always taken longer than the shoot for me and with Submarine it was the music with Andrew Hewitt and Alex Turner. It was a long thing, you know, we spoke to Alex a year before we filmed. So that is a bit that I always like a lot and say with Garth Marenghi we spent a long time doing the sound.
JOE: Watching Garth Marenghi was actually where I first became aware of your non-talent as you describe it. I must say that I was very impressed with your non-talent back then.
How difficult though, is it to be good at making something that bad… if you know what I mean?
Richard: (Laughs) That is a thing that I personally don’t find hard, to make something look bad is the thing that comes easiest to me. I like it in films where people watch or read things and it’s fun to make those things. It’s not someone watching Neighbours and then you see it and you go “Oh right, which episode is this?”
Yeah, that isn’t the thing I find hardest, to make them look bad.
JOE: This being your second feature film as director obviously presented different technical difficulties, mainly because you’ve got Jesse playing two separate characters. Did you find it much more of a challenge than Submarine?
Richard: It’s hardest for the actor because they can’t react off another person. There’s a huge technical difficulty in remembering eyelines and where to look. All of that is really hard to do but Jesse has one of those brains that is able to be technically very precise and he can still act and hit a mark. I still don’t understand how actors manage to stop in the right place. I kind of have to look at the floor to make sure I’m still in the right place so I find that very impressive.
Once Jesse had recorded one of the characters on the film, when he filmed the other character he has to stay in time with that character and that’s very weird for an actor. But the technology of it can be annoying and it breaks down and it takes forever but it’s just technology and it’s ok. So, it’s more that it seems ridiculous. But there is a scene in a bar, which looks really simple on the screen and it took us a day to do this one shot. It’s maddening how slow it is.
JOE: Thanks for talking about The Double Richard, but now it’s time for some of the more important questions. So, would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses?
Richard: One horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses? Fight them? I feel they’re both relatively peaceful creatures so I’d probably try and get to the root of what the problem is before resorting to violence.
JOE: You’d be like the Horse Whisperer, except it’d be like the Duck-Sized Horse Whisperer.
Richard: Yeah, I’d seek to make peaceable reparation.
JOE: Everyone has a unique answer for that question but you’re definitely the most peaceful person we’ve met so far which is encouraging.
And usually, when we’re coming up with the questions, we like to compose them while we’re relaxing on the toilet. But what do you like to read whenever you’re relaxing in the bathroom?
Richard: You see, I’m too frightened of spoiling the pages and I don’t think I’ve had, without revealing too much about me, a bath since I’d say the early noughties. It’s been showers all the way and showering while reading is inadvisable.
JOE: It’s certainly not the most practical combination of activities…
Richard: No, I’ve never been a bath reader. The bath, for me, has been largely linked to hygiene rather than reading.
JOE:: That’s fair enough. We’ve also been fortunate enough to meet Terry Gilliam recently but who are your own comedy influences? Would you also be a big Monty Python fan?
Richard: I really like Monty Python. I guess Woody Allen, I suppose. They’re just people I like. I don’t know whether I do anything like them but Chris Morris and Monthy Python, Woody Allen, Buster Keaton, Groucho Marx and Richard Pryor. But I know that I don’t do anything near what they do. And Peter Cook, no great surprises. There are some people that are so good that everyone agrees.
JOE: There’s probably a little bit of every one of those influences in your own work in some way I’m sure. finally, speaking of your other work, with the I.T. Crowd, one of my fellow colleagues asked “How did you manage to keep a straight face in the Final Countdown episode?”
Was that a particularly difficult episode to film? Is it one that even stands out for yourself?
Richard: That episode is so strange because it’s filmed in front of an audience on the night so the whole day is just terror. It’s just nerves and you just cannot remember anything. It’s just like being in a car accident. I don’t mean that in terms of the show but just as in, I find it very frightening. I have bad stage fright. So you’re just hoping not to forget things or screw it up so you’re unable to recall it. It’s sort of an awful blackout of things. Well for me, personally.
But with directing I can still remember, in order, everything that happened that I’ve filmed, but if I’m in something I can’t remember it.
JOE: As you said, maybe that’s something to do with the nerves as well.
Richard: Yeah, I feel very uptight.
JOE: Well hopefully we haven’t made you feel too nervous today and thanks a million for chatting to us today. It’s been a pleasure to meet you and best of luck with the release of the film.
Richard: Thank you, it was a pleasure to meet you too and no, you didn’t make me feel too nervous at all.
The Double is in Irish cinemas from Friday 4th April.
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