Parkinson - December 17th 2005

August 2nd, 2007 | by mima |

ITV 1 Saturday 17th of December 22:15pm

On this week’s show Dave Spikey tells Michael about his former life as a bio-scientist and how hospital humour has influenced his work as a comedian. Rachel Weisz discusses the profound effect filming her latest film in an African township had on her. Finally Sir Paul McCartney joins in and with the use of a guitar explains the origins of Blackbird.

Michael: Let me now rave now for a moment or two about a film called The Constant Gardener. Adapted from the novel by John le Carre, it’s a thriller about the exploitation of poor people in Africa by drug companies. It’s also a love story about a quiet gentlemen played by Ralph Fiennes and his wife, a vigorous activist played by my next guest. Welcome please, Rachel Weisz..(Applause)

Michael: And I think the film is absolutely marvellous. I was a great fan of the book, I thought it was a very complex book, how on earth were you going to make sense of this but by god that Meirelles, the Brazilian director who did City Of God, it’s wonderful. You can be very proud of it, I guess you are?

Rachel: Very. Very proud of it. And the director who as you say is Brazilian, it’s his first English language film so it’s incredible.

Michael: And a very good part for you too isn’t it, that’s a good part.

Rachel: It’s a great part.

Michael: I mean you don’t often come across parts like that do you?

Rachel: No.

Michael: As an actor you must seize on something like that?

Rachel: Absolutely, no I really chased it actually, I went after it, I wrote lots of letters to the director. I was very passionate about getting it.

Michael: Why was that particularly?

Rachel: I think all my life I’ve been fascinated by people in the world who are activists, people who are willing to die for what they believe is right, you know people who are prepared to put themselves in harms way to support a cause and I’ve always wondered what makes these people tick, what makes them so special. And so that was the challenge, getting into the skin of someone who was like that and as you say it was a real responsibility because these people exist, they’re working all over the world.

Michael: What’s interesting too is the love story because you’re so used to seeing nowadays butch guys, the macho thing, what’s lovely about this relationship between you and Ralph Fiennes is that Ralph is a very quiet gentle man and it comes across, well, gentle quiet is sexy isn’t it?

Rachel: Yes, yes.

Michael: And you see here, in this scene, it’s the first time you meet, he’s gone along to do a lecture on behalf of another man, you’re in the audience.

Rachel: Goodness me, you’re showing this!

Michael: It’s a good scene. This is the first time you clap eyes on each other and that sexual chemistry, you can see it about to happen. Take a look at this.Clip from The Constant Gardener

Rachel: And as you said they end up in bed about two hours later.

Michael: You can clear a room though can’t you?

Rachel: That’s the other thing I liked about this character, you know she’s an activist and a do-gooder but she’s not an angel, as you can see she’s a right pain in the arse actually, you know she doesn’t know when to stop and that’s her problem, she goes too far.

Michael: That’s her tragedy.

Rachel: And that’s her tragedy but if she didn’t go that far she wouldn’t be who she is and she wouldn’t uncover the injustices she uncovers.

Michael: I mean what it’s about is the exploitation of black Africa by pharmaceutical companies and the shots in the townships are quite extraordinary. Now first of all tell me, I mean there you are a big film crew with Winnebagos, on-site catering, all that and you move in to the middle of a township where they have all this squalor, was that how it was?

Rachel: No it wasn’t, it would have been impossible to film in that way. This is the first time anyone has ever filmed in this slum, it’s called Kabira.

Michael: In Kenya.

Rachel: In Kenya, just outside Nairobi. Interestingly if you look at a map of Nairobi it’s not there, it’s just green painted in but there a million living there, it’s a huge community.

Michael: A million?

Rachel: A million, yeah close on a million. There are no streets, no street names, no running water, no sanitation, no electricity, I mean it’s extreme abject poverty and we didn’t move in with trailers, walkie-talkies, lights and crew, we filmed more like a documentary crew.

Michael: Going in to those townships and I’ve been in to them as well, I mean you can watch all the documentaries you like in the world, you can see all the movies, but nothing prepares you for what they’re really like does it, nothing at all.

Rachel: Nothing.

Michael: I mean you’re confronted by people living in abject poverty, the kind of which you can’t imagine, as I say.

Rachel: No, and I just rattled off no water, no sanitation but to actually live without any running water and without any sanitation so there are just open sewers in the middle of the street it’s unimaginable and as a consequence of that there’s a very high level of disease, so it was shocking and shameful and it’s a tragedy but I think what really affected us all so deeply was the spirit of these people who had less than nothing but are warm and generous and hospitable and open, we were just so moved by them.

Michael: And you were ashamed by it too.

Rachel: Very ashamed.

Michael: The children particularly, when you think of your own children, your grandchildren the way you spoil them and the amount they throw away and you see these kids and they’ve got less than nothing and they’re just happy kids.

Rachel: I know, they make footballs from plastic bags wrapped together with string tied round, they were kicking these home made balls around, or they’d take a button on the end of a piece of string and pull it around like they had a pet dog, but they’re such happy, open, curious children. There’s a scene in the film where the children in the slum come running up to me and say, ‘How are you? How are you?’ And that’s a moment of documentary, that’s just what happens, they’re very curious they want to touch you, you’ve got different hair because you’re white and they want to feel your hair and they’re gorgeous children.

Michael: It had a very profound effect on everybody working on it because you’ve now set up this Constant Gardener Trust there, which is doing good work there, you’ve got a five year scheme providing schools, education and sanitation but of course when you do something like that what you become aware of is the enormity of the problem, you can only touch a bit of it can’t you.

Rachel: Absolutely. The reason we did it is we were all very moved, deeply moved and ashamed but the thing is our feelings don’t really help anybody so it was the producer Simon Channing-Williams started The Constant Gardener Charitable Trust and as you say they are small things we are doing, you can’t change the world but one of the messages in the film for me is that even if you can only do one thing or help one person it’s better than nothing and I think often in life we feel, ‘Oh what can I do the world is so big and bad and evil and corrupt, I’ll just be a drop in the ocean.’ Well I think lots of drops make an ocean.

Michael: When I was in the township in Africa I met the Bishop whose diocese was two million people all living in this kind of area, in this kind of squalor. I asked him what his day was like and he said, ‘Let me tell you about my day. I get out of bed in the morning and if I actually thought what my job was I’d get straight back in to bed again!’ But going back on your life as an actress, I mean I read once you wanted to be a detective or a spy?

Rachel: I did, yes. For many, many years I didn’t want to be an actress at all, I wanted to be a spy.

Michael: How did you see yourself?

Rachel: Well I had lots of books, there was one simply called How To Be A Detective! (Laughs) I don’t know where I got it from and I used to learn all about codes, writing and sending secret codes and I don’t know why but I always thought I’d be in a raincoat and a hat. I wanted to be an international spy.

Michael: So there was no an urge from childhood to be an actress?

Rachel: No, it was definitely a spy. I suppose there are similarities.

Michael: Observing people.

Rachel: Observing people, I guess so.

Michael: And your next movie you’ve done with your partner?

Rachel: That’s right, yes, Darren Aronofsky who wrote and directed it, it’s called The Fountain and I star opposite Hugh Jackman and actually The Fountain, the title of it refers to the search for the fountain of youth and in many ways it’s about our society’s obsession with staying eternally young.

Michael: Now will you go back to Africa? Because the temptation is to be very moved by what you see and give money or whatever but not to physically to back and see, to pay the respect I suppose in a way, to see what your money has achieved, how your work has developed.

Rachel: Oh absolutely yes.

Michael: You are?

Rachel: Yes. We want to do a screening of the film in Nairobi and also in a very remote tribal area in the north and many of them have seen only a few films, there’s a company called Film Aid that goes up there and shows them a few films and I know that when they show this film because there’s a sex scene in it they have to cut that because it’s very disturbing to the communities to see a sex scene, they’re not used to it.

Michael: Is it, really?R: Yes, and I said what are you going to do with that and they said they were going to cut over it and put some bits of The Pink Panther! (Laughter) No, seriously because apparently The Pink Panther is a hot film up there, they love it.

Michael: That’s wonderful, so The Pink Panther appears for no reason at all.R: No reason but they don’t mind.

Michael: In the middle of a sex scene, you could be on to something big here you know! (Laughter) Anyway it’s a lovely film, very well done and I hope when the Academy Award comes round I’m sure it will get nominated and I hope you do well in that, Rachel Weisz thank you very much indeed. (Applause)