It was fun playing villains instead of nice guys, says Hugh Grant at gala screening of Cloud Atlas

 
1/8
19 February 2013
The Weekender

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The Four Weddings And A Funeral star plays six roles in the cinema version of the award-winning and ambitious novel by David Mitchell said playing killers and rapists was something he felt he had to do.

The film, directed by Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski, sees big name actors such as Tom Hanks and Halle Berry playing multiple roles across a huge period of time in an ambitious intertwining tale.

Despite the smattering of A-list names in the cast, One Day star Jim Sturgess said the project was so unique that it felt like everyone was making their first film. "You had a lot of actors from different areas - there were big Hollywood names and younger British actors, and great character actors," he said. "But it really felt like everyone was making their very first film for the first time because none of us had made a film like this before."

The up-and-coming British actor praised the directors for the way they managed to pull together the multiple threads in the story. The novel is famously epic and convoluted, with several stories set in different times told one after the other, with an interlocking theme.

"Lana and Andy and Tom were very specific - they wouldn't let you play any character just for the sake of it, there had to be some sort of connection to the other characters that you played," Sturgess said.

The film uses a lot of prosthetics to transform its stars into a myriad of different characters. Sturgess said he would often not recognise his co-stars on set, and that Grant in particular hated the heavy make-up.

"You'd sit down in the make-up chair and you would be sat next to someone who was having all kinds of prosthetics and make-up.

"Normally it was Hugh Grant actually, that poor man went through a lot of glue and sticky noses and all the rest of it. And he was the person who hated it the most so it was kind of fun watching him go through that. He was a moaner, he was definitely a moaner."

The film has so far polarised opinion among critics, with some branding it epic, but others deriding it for being overly ambitious.

Jim Broadbent, who plays five roles in the film, described it as "an event".

"I think it's unusual. People probably don't know what to expect or they think they know what to expect and it doesn't [come out like that].

"I love it and lots of people love it and I think there will be a big positive reaction and there has been a big positive reaction in some parts of the world and not others.

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