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Layer Upon Layer

By Edward Douglas
www.comingsoon.net
May 9, 2005
View online

Producer Matthew Vaughn's name has long been linked with that of director Guy Richie, ever since the two formed Ska Films to produce Richie's crime dramas Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. So when it came time for Vaughn to choose a genre for his feature directorial debut, what did he go with? Another ensemble crime drama.

Unlike Richie's early films which threw regular people into the world of crime, Layer Cake based on the novel by J.J. Connolly, is set entirely in the world of drug lords and drug dealers, showing the many levels and branches of the drug traffic trade. The film's nameless lead is more of a middleman in the world of drugs who finds buyers for product, but he is trying to get out of the business. Before he can do so, he's coerced to take one last job that quickly goes haywire, teaching him a lesson on how things really work in the world of crime.

To play this nameless drug dealer, Vaughn picked Daniel Craig, a busy British actor whose face you're sure to have seen in movies like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Road to Perdition as well as a name you may have heard mentioned recently as a dark horse candidate to play the next James Bond (which is being denied at least for now).

While in New York presenting the film at the Tribeca Film Festival, Vaughn and Craig sat down for a lively chat with ComingSoon.net about their latest crime film.

CS!: What's the fascination that the British seem to have with crime and gangster movies?
Matthew Vaughn: People just want to watch movies that are entertaining, it doesn't matter what genre it is, but there are a lot more romantic comedies. I don't know what it is about gangster films, but it seems to be pinpointed. There's another romantic comedy coming out every week but no one says "Oh, it's another romantic comedy" or "It's another action film." For some reason, it's the only genre where people go, "Oh no, another gangster film."
Daniel Craig: We've tried to make this as much about our favorite movies--Matthew's and mine--the '60s and 70's movies which include the American movies like 'French Connection', things that are down and dirty but are very stylish. I think the way Ben Davis shot London makes it look stupendous! It hasn't looked that way for a long time. But Cities are about criminals. That's the bedrock that New York, Chicago, London, and Liverpool are built upon; they just went legit and went into politics.

CS!: Do each of you have any favorite crime or gangster films?
Vaughn: Of all time? There are three or four, which are also good for me, would be Godfather II, Scarface, Long Good Friday and Heat.
Craig: You've got things from the ‘70s like 'French Connection', films that show the seedier side. British films like the Michael Caine Harry Palmer movie, 'The Ipcress File'. I love the Cold War things. I think there's a scope now for those films because we have the world in trouble again and that's why those sorts of movies can start [being made again]. I'd certainly like to get involved with something along those lines, the seedier side of the spy genre.

CS!: After producing so many films, what made you decide to leap into the director's chair?
Vaughn: Guy decided not to do it. To be frank, I think there's a real mystique about directing and directors, and it began to piss me off. Everyone goes "Oh, he's a director" and sort of bow, and I wanted to try and prove that there are geniuses out there--I'll never be one of those--but there are some guys that make a film and you go "wow." I did this not to try and prove to the world that anyone could direct but that I think anyone given the chance could make it work. To my amazement I really enjoyed it and I want to carry on now. That's the problem. It blows producing away.

CS!: How much input did you have with JJ Connolly adapting his book into a screenplay?
Vaughn: Quite a bit. The writer did the first draft on his own and it was 408 pages. The book was only about 390! So I rolled up my sleeves, and it took 8 months, which really surprised me.

CS!: How did you end up going with Daniel and the rest of the cast?
Vaughn: They're all great actors. In a way, there's a great risk for these actors to say yes to working with me as a director. Trying to persuade them why I could direct, I just said they had to take a blind leap of faith, and they were all willing to do so.

CS!: Why wasn't Vinnie Jones in the movie, since he has been in all of the other movies you've produced?
Vaughn: There were two things with the way I cast the movie. As a first time director, I wanted to have what I call top quality actors, so I wasn't really struggling to get a performance. It was more about tweaking. There were times in "Lock Stock" and "Snatch" where Guy had written the most brilliant dialogue, and it was being murdered by these guys. Poor Guy was just trying to get a performance out of them. I watched that and thought I'm not going to make that mistake. As much as I love Vinnie, and as much as I love to work with him, with my first movie, everyone is going to compare it to Guy. It would have been easier for me because they're my pals, and there's nothing better than working with friends.

CS!: With that in mind, Daniel, did you feel like you had to walk Matthew through it since this was his first movie?
Craig: No, he's an experienced filmmaker, and he did all those things right. He surrounded himself with people that kind of know what they're doing and asked for their advice, which is sort of what good moviemakers do anyway. He didn't hide away. He wanted input and wanted to know what was going on. His experience pushed him through, but also he's got a great deal of talent, because he storyboarded the whole movie, down to the minute detail, which is very skillful for a first-time director to do. He's going to run Hollywood pretty soon, I think.

CS!: Did you ever find that you were being overshadowed by working with the experienced actors? Did you feel comfortable giving them feedback?
Vaughn: Yeah, we turned up, did the scene and I said that was good or it was sh*t. I had to stamp a few of them because they got a bit theatrical and I had to tell them to bring it back. In the rehearsals, we garnered each other's respect. Once you trust one another you can get so much done.

CS!: How come the main character in the film is unnamed? Did you ever have a name for him?
Craig: We thought up a few names but didn't come up with one.
Vaughn: Daniel's character in this is called XXXX, but don't get it confused [with XXX]! That was just suddenly in the credits. The guy who did the credits freaked out [because the character didn't have a name] so he just put four Xes.

CS!: Would you consider Mr. Quadruple X to be the hero of this piece?
Vaughn: I think he's more an anti-hero. He's a hero who shouldn't be, and I think it's morally got some substance to it.
Craig: The Great Train Robbery was one of the first major motion pictures, and we love someone getting away with it. What I hope this one does is that there is a moral sort of tale through this which is "if you lie down with dogs, you'll wake up with fleas" which is simple. There's an overlying theme, which is that we kid ourselves. We don't think of the drug business as a legitimate business because it's what funds governments. It's a lot of money, and it's too much money to ignore. That's the whole point of the layer cake in the film, you have the bottom end of the cake with Duke, who's just in it for the cash, the cars and the showbiz, and then you got the top, which is Michael Gambon, who never touches the stuff. It's just another commodity but it makes him sh*t loads of money. I think that's fascinating, and that's as accurate as it can be but then hopefully, we also have an entertaining movie.

CS!: One thing about your character that seems a bit odd is that he's quite clever but he still gets duped. Isn't it strange that he wouldn't be aware of the duplicity in this sort of business?
Craig: At the beginning of the movie, we meet him and he's getting out, so he's got this plan which he's fixed and he's been planning for years. The only reason that he's squirreled his money away is that at some point, he's just going to do one deal and then he's going to leave. It's all planned in his head but that's the flaw in his character. He thinks he's on top of it but it f**ks up, but it f**ks up much more than he thinks it ever would. That's why he goes and tries to assassinate [SPOILER!] and he tries to do the things on his own. All the way through, he thinks he can control it, but it just barrels out of control.

CS!: There were a few scenes where you used jump cuts, but in general, did you make a point of steering away from the Guy Ritchie visual style?.
Vaughn: Yeah but they were a little more subtle. They had a reason. The only thing Guy and I used to argue about was sometimes I'd be like, "Why the hell are we doing this? Why is the camera flying around?" I'm more interested in classic storytelling, because I think that's what lasts. When we made "Lock Stock" in England, it caused a lot of imitating, a lot of MTV style in the 90s – crash zooms, frame cutting – which you watch now and it's like blue light and smoke from the 80s. I love the movies from the 70s. That's when I first started watching movies and they had a real impact on me. Style over content has been a mantra of mine when working with directors, so I figured I better adhere to it. I think you've got to try to do things in an interesting way, but if you notice the camerawork too much, you've gone too far.

CS!: With that in mind, what about some of the musical choices you made for the film and how important it was to get songs from The Rolling Stones and Duran Duran in there?
Vaughn: Music is half the film. Any movie. I think music is what takes the experience off the screen into your soul, into your head. It ceases to be just there, it comes into you. Music is hugely important. Hugely. I actually wanted to be a musician. If I could have done anything in life – that was the ultimate dream. Music is very important to me.

CS!: What was your favorite scene to film and what was the most challenging?
Craig: You want me to say the scene with Sienna Miller, don't you? (laughter) That was up there. [The scene with Sienna Miller] was really frustrating, though. (laughter) The most challenging thing was that, as normal, we were doing horrendously long hours six days a week. Being beaten up was one of those days where technically everything went wrong so we did about two and a half hours of me just having the sh*t kicked out of me. That was probably the toughest. I think I ached for about three or four days.

CS!: Do you make enough money as an actor that you can eventually get out of it like your character does with the drug trade?
Craig: No. Never. One more movie…just one more…and they suck you back in. I'm not adverse to earning some money--I'd love to--but also, my choices of movies don't tend to make money. I'm still very happy about it. I get to sort of do films that are as interesting as they can be and we can choose the ending and that's a great freedom, but it doesn't mean that I don't want to go off and earn sh*tloads of cash somewhere.

CS!: Do you think this might be the movie that finally gets your name a bit better known over here?
Craig: Who knows? I'm not a crystal ball. I don't really know how that is going to work out. I kind of have a successful career and having my name attached to the Bond thing is a high-class problem. I just finished this film in Texas with Douglas McGrath called 'Every Word is True' about Truman Capote. It's a low-budget independent movie, but it's a fabulous script. I'm just sort of playing a small part as Perry Smith, one of the murderers that Truman has this relationship with, and it's kind of intense. I can do that in America or I can do that in Europe. That's a career. Like I said, sh*t loads of money is on the agenda hopefully, but it's not my cause in life. Being comfortable is enough. I'm not looking to earn lots of money, but if it comes along, I'll take it.

CS!: How do you feel about the choices you make from here. Do you continue to go for more artistic choices or would you prefer to get more commercial?
Craig: Just good scripts, good work, just like stuff that makes you think or tries to make you think. As long as people get to see it, which is unusual for my movies, but occasionally, at some point, somebody will see it on DVD or something. I've been offered lots of money to go and do stuff, but I know that I'd abuse it and get drunk or call up those drug dealers.
Vaughn: I always used to argue with directors that make a film no one goes to see. I don't get it, because I think you should make a movie that has an audience or a potential audience. I just want to make films that are entertaining. I like the idea of making big budget films with a heart. I'm writing a spy movie with John Hodge of Trainspotting-– the guy is genius. I'm reading his stuff and he takes a cliché and he turns it on its head. That's the sort of thing I want to do.

CS!: Do you subscribe to Michael Gambon's layer cake philosophy and is it a bit like the movie business?
Vaughn: God, yeah. I think I'm learning it. The problem with the movie business is that the sh*t's at the top.
Craig: The movie business is based upon criminals. Some of them make movies and some of them are in movies.

CS!: Sorry for the bad segue, but are you still going to work with Guy Ritchie in the future?
Vaughn: At the moment, no, because I want to direct and he definitely doesn't want to produce. Now I can understand why. It depends. I might suddenly ring him up and say I feel like producing a movie again, but hopefully, that's a long way off, because I want to direct.

CS!: Is there some message you'd like people to walk away from the movie with?
Craig: If you mix with criminals, you're going to get hurt, and that's a simple fact. But you mustn't get away from the bigger point, which is that it's everywhere and we mustn't close our eyes to the problem of drugs and organized crime and the fact that it goes through every level of society. We can kid ourselves that we live in a big comfy world but actually, there's this insidious base to life and we should be aware of it and get involved sometimes.