The screening we went to had many audience members reduced to tears. When you did watch the film, were you watching it for the emotion or for the self-critique?
Bill Nighy: The answer is the former, but you can’t help but say the latter. I’m not good at watching myself which I think is perfectly natural, I don’t give myself a hard time about it, and I am the worst critic as people often say. I was moved by it. I was moved by it when I read it, and I just found it to be very simple. It’s not rocket science, it’s the central fact of everybody’s lives; how to stay married, how to be in a family, how to maintain those relationships, the ones that turn out to be important in your life. I find it very affecting because it’s so simply and beautifully expressed. I really enjoyed the movie even though this guy came on and didn’t quite pull it off in my view and all that. I don’t know if it’s his (Richard Curtis) best film, but I think it’s currently my favorite of Richard’s and I do think he did everything that he set out to do.
In England, where it’s been very successful, everybody leaves the cinema and phones their dad, and everybody goes away including me thinking I’m really going to make the most of tomorrow. I’m really going to try and get the biggest bang out of everything. One of your colleagues just now said that he had seen it some days ago and since then he’s been trying to say this is what’s happening, this is your life. Just be here, don’t disappear into what might happen in a minute or what you messed up last time. As an audience I’m the same as them.
How long does that last?
Bill Nighy: Well I’ve been at it for a while. This has been my quest for a long while. I think it’s a function of getting older, and when you get to my age you look at the clock and you think ‘I better pay attention.’ I keep reading obituaries of people who are younger than me and that kind of gets your attention.
It seems like you and Richard are taking this in kind of an opposite approach in terms of the autumn chapter of your life. Richard said this is the last film he is going to direct, and you’re like, “Bring it on! I want to do as much work as possible!” So have you guys discussed that?
Bill Nighy: Well we’ve discussed it a little bit, yeah. He’s not going to stop. He’s just going to stop directing. I don’t blame him, but I hope he’s lying. He’s going to continue to write. He’s the busiest man I know, Richard Curtis, and he has a schedule that would make you want to lie down. Honestly, he does so much apart from making movies. He made a deal when he was young that he was going to try and constantly and consistently do something about the fact that people in contemporary society still die completely unnecessarily and completely preventably from extreme poverty.
He’s one of the rare people you can look at and you can quite seriously, and without qualification, point to and say that man has saved millions and millions and millions and millions, and you can carry on, of lives. He started Comic Relief in our country, and he got American Idol for one hour in the USA a couple of years ago and made $70 million dollars in an hour. He just made $75 million dollars on Comic Relief. He’s been doing that for thirty years and he quietly does all other kinds of stuff, so he’s got his hands full. My theory is that he won’t like other people directing his scripts. What’s three years in days? 1000 days of pain, 1000 days of tension which is one way of describing the filmmaking process, and that’s probably pretty accurate. So I don’t blame him, but I hope it’s not true.
You’ve worked with Richard Curtis a lot. What do you find so appealing about working with him as a writer and director?
Bill Nighy: On a personal level and on the film set level, he’s endlessly courteous, funny as anything and sharp and can really help as a director. He writes me great roles and they usually come with a string of pretty good jokes. That makes him popular in my world. He has an enthusiasm for what’s good about people. We’ve got plenty of movies about what isn’t good about people, and that’s fine because we need those movies too. I love the fact that he celebrates what is decent and tender and powerful between people. I should be his PR person! [Laughs]
Were there any takes where did you do some improvisation, or did everything just come from the script?
Bill Nighy: No. I’m lucky that I work with very good writers and I don’t think there’s an improvised word in the movie. I hope not because I admire writing. I like artists. Improvising is kind of gambling. It’s writing but you’re standing up. Not many people can write, so I think writing is usually going to be better. And I am a fan of rehearsal too. I like doing it over and over and over and over until it looks like you never did it before, that’s the kind of thing.