Istvan Szabo Interview

What was the appeal of adapting Somerset Maugham's story for you?
"A few very important elements. One is the mask and mirror relationship we are challenged by in society, to play roles all the time. Not just actors and actresses, but in a wider social context. We have challenges and we accept those roles, because we like to please. I'm not speaking about pleasing a 'system' or a government, but your mother, wife and kids - everybody. So we accept those roles, and some people lose themselves in the roles. This is one side of the message, the other side is ageing. You're fighting against ageing, and you know that behind you is a long queue of people who are talented and are maybe a little bit better because they have more energy. So how to keep new energy to keep your position. This is also an enormous problem."

Annette is terrific in the role, is that perhaps because in real life she does not share the insecurities and vanities of her character?
"Annette is a great human being because she knows what's important in her life. She knows that it's her four kids, and keeping the family together, and her husband. Between them they have an enormous duty and they enjoy it. I think she is a very healthy soul, because she knows what is and isn't important. She is also a great theatre actress, so she knows how to be on stage as well as in front of the camera. She can combine the two things and this is important."

There is a fine cast all round here, but particularly in the younger cast members too.
"That was not so easy because we didn't know them. So we asked Celestia Fox to help us, and we had a lot of camera tests, and then we invited those three fantastic talents: Lucy Punch, Shaun Evans and Tom Sturridge. All round got our dream cast. Everybody accepted our invitation, great, great actors and actresses like Juliet Stevenson, Miriam Margolyes, Michael Gambon, not to mention Jeremy Irons and Annette."

Do you see a theme running through several of your previous films, including this one?
"The world of the artist and politics, yeah. I think my interest is to examine the responsibility of talented people. Of course a baker, or a doctor or a teacher or a journalist can be talented too, and that talent is important. But because I know the world of theatre, and because I love actors, I look at them. They can communicate with the audience, reach out to, challenge or seduce the people watching. So they represent all the talented people in life. They help me, through their stories, to tell the problems of talented people. They are examples for society. They like to communicate, they have something to tell, and like to communicate with other people."

Setting Being Julia in 1938, is obviously crucial isn't it, as it helps examine that wider responsibility you mentioned?
"This is also the time when the story in Mephisto happened. The background is the same: theatre, actors, the world behind the scenes. And the character is very similar, a talented leading person who likes to reach the audience and is ambitious. Even the vanity is very similar. And the energy is similar. But the man in Mephisto was born in Germany, so to share his talent with the audience he needed to have a contract with the Third Reich, Hitler's regime. The same guy in Moscow had to do the same with Stalin's regime, and the guy in Rome had to do the same with Mussolini. But Julia is in London, living in a dream world on an island that is separated from the rest of the world."

You obviously did a great deal of research to recapture that period in history, didn't you?
"Reading Maugham I knew more and more about the period and going through magazines and newspapers from the period was very important. And I was advised by people, not least Jeremy Irons who was not only the leading man in the film but - if he will excuse me saying so - my adviser on this English era. He helped me understand British theatre, and of course so did Ronald Harwood who wrote the screenplay so well."

Annette's husband, Warren Beatty, acts a bit too. Was it tempting to try and get him a role in the film too?
"He only came out to the set two times I think, and spent a very short time there. I asked him to visit, because I thought that my crew would be happy to have him out there. But he politely declined because it was Annette's work and he didn't want to distract anything from that. We had some great dinners in different Hungarian restaurants, but he never ever disturbed Annette in her work. I think he had an enormous respect for Annette, which was great to see."