James Purefoy on appearing in Frankenstein @ Memorable TV

JAMES PUREFOY IS DR HENRY CLERVAL IN FRANKENSTEIN

ITV1 / 24 October @ 9.00pm

James Purfeoy has pretty much cornered the market in dashing not-quite-to-be-trusted men in a range of costume dramas. He reminds one of a slightly smoother Hugh Grant without the seediness. His credits include the Regency dandy Beau Brummell, and two movie versions of classic novels: Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair (opposite Reese Witherspoon's Becky Sharp) and Tom Bertram in Mansfield Park.

But it is perhaps as Mark Anthony, Julius Caesar’s brutish and sexually voracious General in Rome that he really set pulses racing and cemented his position has one the UK’s foremost leading men. Swapping knee breeches and togas, Purefoy’s latest role may be an adaptation of a classic novel, but again, he’s anything but buttoned up.

“I play a character called Dr Clerval. He is a specialist in stem cell research, and runs and owns a large biotech company. He is very much in the private sector, is very wealthy and rather worryingly has unusual and strange contacts within the security and intelligence communities.

Victoria on the other hand is very much in the public sector, that’s where her life is and where she wants to keep it. She has a greater sense of morality than he does. Clerval is all about position and power and Victoria is far more about the preservation of life. He is always trying to poach her and bring her under the umbrella of the private sector because he considers her to be exceptionally brilliant and he wants her to work for him.”

But as he goes on to explain, Clerval’s interest in Victoria is not simply a professional one.

“No it certainly isn’t. Clerval is also Victoria’s ex-husband. The two went their separate ways following an indiscretion shall we say on his part, but there is still a real spark between them. He knows he made the wrong choice and wants her back. Rather understandably she is more than a little reticent.

He’s a rather, shady, dangerous character, and of course Victoria senses that, but that’s also attractive to her. The fact that they have a son further complicates the situation as it means despite the fact she’d like to cut ties with him, there is still contact between the two.”

So with all these elements in place, how would Purefoy describe the relationship between the two?

“It’s quite difficult, it’s sparky. They’re very challenging with each other. They both respect each others work, each other’s intelligence and understanding of their jobs, because they’re both in very similar fields and can both understand where each other is coming from. But I expect she believes him to be a money grabbing capitalist!”

This is not the first time Purefoy has been involved in the adaptation of a classic novel, having taken roles in Vanity Fair, Mansfield Park and the Mayor of Casterbridge amongst other credits. Does he find going back to the source material helpful when researching his roles? “If I’m honest, I stopped reading the source material until after completing the project. I read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in my youth, so it’s not a book I am unfamiliar with, but I didn’t re-read it as I often find it no help at all.

I have worked on quite a lot of adaptations of novels now and you tend to try and put things into the script and performance which aren’t in the script but they are in the novel and it ends up confusing the issue.

They are two very different things; a novel is one thing and a film or television adaptation is quite another. They require very different things to make them work. Particularly with something like this which is a complete re-imagination of the original. Jed has done all the work and it is my job to interpret what he has written on his pages.”

Despite not having read Shelley’s classic recently, what are his overriding memories of the novel?

“Certainly not the more pervasive Hammer-horror images; I remember reading it when I was younger and just finding it a very sad book more than anything else.

One of the things I remember thinking was that while the monster is everything ‘a monster’ should be, he gradually becomes more aware as he wakes up to the world around him. And initially there is an extraordinary ambivalence from Dr Frankenstein towards his creation however he too wakes up to his responsibility as he recognises an element of humanity in the creature. And that’s the crux of the novel really. I think it’s one of the things that Jed really wanted to touch upon; ignorance and the way people treat those who are different.”

Does he feel that while Jed’s adaptation is in many ways radically different from the book, he has in fact, remained true to the heart of the novel?

“Precisely, yes I do. I think he has kept the heart of Frankenstein in ways that hammer-horrors often didn’t. I mean when they went straight for the horror they ignored the empathy in the novel.”

What was his initial reaction when he first heard how the original had been updated?

“Well I think that Jed is a really brilliant writer and director and I’m such an admirer of his work. Like any great idea, it’s the obviousness of it that astounds. And when I first heard about this dramatisation I was struck by the seeming obviousness of the setting for the doctor. The simplicity of it; it makes you wonder how no-one ever came up with the idea before, but then that is why of course he is so great. He makes complicated, nuanced issues seem so simple and straightforward.

I think probably in the medical community he is much more admired for the way he has dramatised hospitals and doctor’s lives in Bodies than a fair few other shall they remain nameless hospital dramas on the television, because he says it as it is.

He is also very much, like a lot of doctors I know; quite often they’re the ones with the greatest sense of gallows humour. It seems to come with the territory.”

As he goes on to describe the experience of filming, he like the other cast members touches on the CGI aspect of the production.

“It was hard for us, when we were shooting it to imagine how it was going to look after the first production. But this wasn’t a first for me as I have done a number of films which have involved a lot of green screen work or blue screen work.

So I’m not a stranger to special effects, but it is always a concern, but not really so much with this because we had Julian, who plays the monster in it on set all the time. Despite the fact that bits of him were covered with green material to identify where the effects go, at least he was there so you had something tangible. Julian is also an incredible actor and he was very much into the role so it wasn’t difficult for us to imagine how far to go with it.

Quite often when you do green screen stuff you are told that a dragon, for example is going to come right up to you and blow fire in your face and you say to them ‘well it had better be scary because I will look scared and I will react to it as if I’m terrified of it so this thing better have big bloody teeth!’”

Jed was great because he always outlined his vision to us and we all understood what he was after. He was very specific in what he was talking about and what the background was going to look like at any one time. He is a proper collaborator, he was very communicative about his feelings and ideas so we were able to imagine that into the scenes.”

While this was the first time he has worked with Jed, he has worked with both his female leads before.

“I have worked with Lindsay over a long period of time on Rome and I’ve worked with Helen, I think it’s actually only once but it doesn’t half feel like we’ve worked together many, many times because we’re just very good friends.

And it is the actress who plays the scientist at the heart of this story for whom he reserves his greatest praise.

“I was the first to get cast and they asked me who do you think should play this part and I said ‘Helen McCrory would be great’. She is somebody I find very easy to work with, she’s not somebody who is egocentric in the sense that she’s protecting any kind of vanity that she might have. Helen is one of those actresses who can be completely emotionally naked on a screen or on a stage with no reservations. That’s the reason she’s such a great actresses because she doesn’t have any fear at all.

All the greatest actors don’t believe vanity has any place at all in front of the camera or indeed on stage and she is certainly one of those.”

back to articles | interviews | home

RSS FEEDS AND EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to memorable tv for updates,comp news and more or Via Email

memorable tv

TELEVISION

MUSIC

MORE STUFF

JAMES PUREFOY IS DR HENRY CLERVAL IN FRANKENSTEIN