by Jim Maloney
Later that spring Michael flew out to South Africa to team up again with his 300 co-star Dominic West in a lavish four-part historical drama for Channel 4 called The Devil’s Whore. It told the story of the English Civil War through the eyes of a spirited 17th-century aristocratic woman named Angelica Fanshawe (Andrea Riseborough). After growing up at a time when the country was both politically and religiously divided, Angelica becomes part of the court of Charles I (Peter Capaldi), enjoying a life of carefree privilege. But England is changing and outside Angelica’s gilt-edged world, the people are poor, sick, hungry and angry. And now they are demanding that society and government change radically to ensure a better life for all.
The Royal Family are forced to abandon London and take refuge in Oxford. Finally, the long-threatened war breaks out, with the Royalists and Parliamentarians clashing at the bloody Battle of Edgehill. Finally, the King is put on trial for treason and Oliver Cromwell becomes the first head of the Republican Government.
Michael initially auditioned for the role of the radical anti-monarchist Colonel Edward Sexby but that went to John Simm and he ended up playing the political Roundhead firebrand Thomas Rainsborough. Dominic Wells played Cromwell.
In an official Channel 4 interview for the drama, Michael said,
I knew about Cromwell, having grown up in Ireland. I was aware of the destruction, the way he laid waste to Ireland, and that he was against the Catholic Church, but I didn’t actually know much about Charles I and the beheading, and the Roundheads and all the internal politics going on within the revolution.
Rainsborough was almost like Lenin, a radical revolutionary three hundred years before. He wanted to get rid of the monarchy and of the entitlement to vote through nobility and lineage. He felt every man should have the vote, and everybody should be free and should have a say in the running of their country. And Cromwell just thought that was crazy. Rainsborough was quite a dangerous man to have about.
Michael said that his history lessons at school had not taught him about the fighting for social justice during this era. ‘I never knew that there was any of this sentiment in seventeenth-century England, with people fighting for the freedom of all men. They just wanted to sweep out the whole system. It would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if they’d got their way.’
The drama was filmed in South Africa, which offered cheaper production costs, and the money saved was put back into the drama. The costumes were particularly sumptuous and the cast was full of admiration for them. ‘I’d always thought the Roundheads stuff was a bit uninspiring,’ said Dominic West, ‘but when you actually put the kit on, all that leather and armour and thigh-length boots, it was just so sexy. You think the Cavaliers have a better look but they don’t – they look quite poncey.’ West saw the funny side of things too, adding, ‘In terms of clanking around in all that armour, I often felt I was in Carry on Cromwell. And Monty Python’s spectre is never too far away in these things either.’
For his role as Rainsborough, Michael grew his hair down to his shoulders and sported a moustache and goatee beard. On location, he, Simm and West formed a firm alliance, hanging out between breaks, chatting, laughing and recalling old times – more like the Three Musketeers than Puritan Roundheads. ‘I had more fun on this than anything I’ve ever done, mainly because of Michael and John,’ said West. ‘By the end, we were saying we didn’t ever want to do any role again that wasn’t on a horse. Sword fights, charging on horseback – it was brilliant, exactly what you always wanted to do from the age of six.’
Michael, as was becoming his custom, took his guitar with him to pass the time in the evenings and on days when he wasn’t required for filming but he was enjoying himself so much that John Simm got to play it more than he did himself. ‘Michael was out and I’d stay in, strumming away,’ Simm joked. ‘That’s how old I am. It’s over!’
The drama was shown in the autumn of 2008 and was well received by viewers and critics. ‘What marks this out from your average bodice-ripper is the quality of the acting,’ said the Observer. ‘A rollicking good drama,’ agreed the Guardian. ‘Three loud cheers for The Devil’s Whore, historical drama as cutting as the lash that bloodies one agitator’s back,’ said The Times.
During one break in filming, Michael flew to Cannes for the film festival in May, when Hunger was receiving its world premiere. He was joined by his parents, who watched the screening in some discomfort as their emaciated son portrayed a dying man in prison. Josef later told the Kerry newspaper the Kingdom, ‘When we saw him in the film, A [Adele] and myself were both so frightened. He looked desperate. But he had to go on a diet as the film would have looked ridiculous if he had not.’ But when the film received a standing ovation, they were mightily proud of him and what he had endured for his art. A grinning Michael turned to his father and said, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’
A first-time director, an actor in his first leading role, a grim film with scarce dialogue, subject matter which suggested limited international appeal – it would have challenged any gambler to bet on its odds of success. But in the event Hunger won the coveted Camera d’Or for Best First Feature.
After being presented with the award, Steve McQueen said, ‘My film was about The Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1981 hunger strikes. Within the prison, there were prison officers who I identify with and protestors who I identify with. The film is about people in a situation and what these people do. Thank you very much.’
The film’s co-producer Laura Hastings-Smith thought the story went beyond the prison walls to strike a chord with everyone around the world. ‘We’re all absolutely thrilled, and thrilled for Steve, thrilled for the film and for everyone who’s worked on Hunger,’ she said. ‘The key to the film was that it looked at the humanity of the story and how this place, Maze Prison, at that time in history, was a brutalising place for everyone – be you prison officer, prisoner, orderly or riot guard. It was a tragedy for everyone. We looked at what happens when dialogue stops and that has a resonance across the world.’
After the most unpromising of initial meetings, Michael and Steve had forged an unlikely alliance, friendship and respect. Both had been on escalating career paths to fame but now they stood on the brink of international acclaim and stardom. Life for both of them would change immeasurably.
Hunger may have had the look of an art-house film – slow paced, beautifully shot, minimal dialogue – but Steve McQueen baulked at such a notion. ‘What I tried to do was make the strongest, most powerful film I could from the events and the story. It may not have the conventional narrative of most feature films but that is my way of grappling with the subject. Art has absolutely nothing to do with it,’ he told the Observer. ‘What initially brought me to the subject was the notion of what an individual is capable of doing just in order to be heard. People say, “Oh, it’s a political film,” but for me it’s essentially about what we, as humans, are capable of, morally, physically, psychologically. What we will inflict and what we can endure.’
And to Dazed & Confused magazine, he explained, ‘Film-making is very much about telling stories. Whether I make art or films, it’s about engaging the audience.’ He rejected the suggestion that his film set out to portray Sands as a martyr but said it was ultimately uplifting. ‘The movie is a journey through H Block. You are focusing on the things you find interesting. You follow prison officers. You follow a hunger striker. A prison officer’s routine is just that: routine. But what happens to Bobby Sands is quite extraordinary. Obviously, as a storyteller, you follow that. I am not a nationalist. I am not a unionist. The human element overrides all that nonsense. Before you are Irish or British, you are a human being.’
Michael also stressed that the film was non-partisan. ‘To balance all that [prisoner cruelty] we show an IRA man gunning down a prison officer in cold blood, in a nursing home in front of his own mother and a room full of elderly residents,’ he said. ‘What I like about the film is you
look at it and it’s not about a political thing, it’s about how people treat each other, and how people can be cruel to each and how that affects them as well.’
Both the director and his leading man had much praise for each other. In an interview with the HollywoodReporter, Steve expressed just how much he admired Michael’s talent as an actor. ‘He’s a game-changer. He’s got a vulnerability and sensuality that is very powerful. He’s got an extraordinary femininity while still being very much a man’s man. That’s what propels him to greater roles. Often with leading actors, there’s a place they go, but they don’t go all the way. There are actors and there are artists, and Michael is an artist.’
Michael reciprocated by enthusing about the experience of working with Steve. ‘Everything about him was a real joy,’ he said. ‘He certainly brought out the best of me. It’s definitely the best work I’ve done to date and a lot of that’s down to him. He’s a pretty extraordinary person to work with.’
Michael knew that Hunger would be a life-changing experience and he was truly grateful to be cast in the film. ‘For somebody to take such a risk and give me the opportunity to do that was massive,’ he was later to recall. ‘In terms of me breaking into film and leading-man roles in film, Hunger, for sure, changed my life.’
He also revealed that the ‘faeces’ smeared over the cell walls was actually chocolate mousse – ‘I could have wiped a bit off and eaten it!’
Michael’s rapport with Liam Cunningham had developed into a friendship that was to last and he felt fortunate to have been working with him. ‘Liam and I had a great relationship when we were making the film and it was so important for our scene together,’ he said.
While in Cannes he disclosed that he would be playing Heathcliff in a new movie version of Emily Bronte’s classic love story, Wuthering Heights. It was to be directed by John Maybury, who had directed The Jacket and The Edge of Love, both featuring Keira Knightley. ‘I’m very curious who they will cast as Cathy,’ Michael told reporters. ‘Heathcliff is a great role but I’m a bit nervous about it until I get my Yorkshire accent right.’ Pretty Australian actress Abbie Cornish, who had starred in Somersault, Bright Star and Sucker Punch, was later cast as Cathy.
After his success at Cannes, a joyous Michael bid farewell to his parents and flew back out to South Africa to complete filming on The Devil’s Whore. It was then that he was telephoned by Andrea Arnold, a former children’s-TV presenter turned director, who wanted him to be in her new movie, Fish Tank. It was only her second feature-length movie. Her first, Red Road, had focused on a female CCTV operator on a Glasgow housing estate who spots a face from the past on her monitor – one she had hoped she would never see again. She becomes obsessed with finding out more about this man so she follows him, stalker-like, in real life and on CCTV. The tension builds as viewers wonder what the connection is between the two but it is not until the end that the shocking truth is revealed. The film won several awards, including the Prix du Jury in Cannes in 2006 and the Carl Foreman Award at the British Academy Awards. A previous short, Wasp, had won an Oscar in 2005 for Best Live Action Short.
Andrea gave Michael the concept of Fish Tank and told him the role she wanted him to play but not a full synopsis or even what would happen at the end because she did not want her cast to know the whole story. Michael had seen and enjoyed Red Road and he accepted the role without having read the script. They were to be given their lines in sections only a few days before filming them.
Andrea had not seen or even heard of Hunger when she first thought of Michael for the role. She remembered him from the Irvine Welsh film, Wedding Belles, in which she considered him to be ‘very charismatic’, and made the decision to approach him without meeting him. ‘He felt right and I trust my instincts that way. I don’t like to question myself when it feels right, so I just went for it,’ she was to explain.
In the summer of 2008 Michael began working on the film. The story revolved around the life of a volatile 15-year-old girl named Mia, living on a council estate in Essex with her single mother, Joanne, and foul-mouthed younger sister, Tyler. Mia is a loner who has been excluded from school and ostracised by her friends. Her only source of escape is hip-hop dance, which she practises alone.
One hot summer’s day her mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), brings home her boyfriend Connor, played by Michael, who appears to be a charming and handsome Irishman. He encourages Mia in her dancing and persuades her to send a video tape to a local club that is looking for dancers. One evening after drinking together, the pair have sex while Joanne is asleep upstairs. He tells her to keep it secret. When Michael splits with Joanne and returns to his own home, Mia tracks him down and discovers he is married with a daughter. Later, at the dance auditions, she discovers they are looking for erotic dancers so she walks away.
Andrea was keen to cast as many non-actors as possible – including the part of Mia. ‘I wanted someone who would give me trouble for real. I wanted a girl who would not have to act, could just be herself,’ she explained. She spotted 17-year-old Katie Jarvis at Tilbury train station in Essex, arguing with her boyfriend. When Andrea approached her, Katie didn’t believe she was wanted for a film and refused to hand over her telephone number. But eventually she was persuaded. ‘She came from where we were going to film and felt very real,’ said Andrea.
The role of Connor was also originally to be played by a non-actor. Andrea had her eye on a man she used to see in her local park emptying the bins, who she thought would be perfect for the part. ‘But then I began to think it would be interesting to have someone with experience mixed in with Katie’s innocence, as that would echo the relationship in the film and could work well,’ she explained.
For an actor who likes to prepare fully and work on a character’s background story for all his roles, Michael found Andrea’s working procedure – in which she fed the scripts to the cast in piecemeal fashion – to be a challenge, but one he was willing to face. ‘Not having a script is kind of worrying and most of the time you wouldn’t commit to something under those circumstances, but I’d seen Red Road and I really respected Andrea and wanted to work with her,’ he said. ‘I find her storytelling very interesting because it’s in the grey area. She deals with human beings who have flaws and have good qualities and negative qualities and are basically just trying to figure their way through life.’
Michael liked the fact that Andrea was non-judgemental of her characters and their actions and decisions. ‘There’s no clear right or wrong. Connor does cross the line but, on the flipside, he is the catalyst for Mia to become her own person. He is the only one who inspires her with confidence to follow her dreams. And that she’s not destined for shit. And so it’s again playing with that ambiguity.’
Andrea, he thought, shared with Quentin Tarantino and Steve McQueen a passion and perfectionist quality when it came to film-making. ‘There’s a level of commitment that they bring and they expect everybody else to bring that with them when they come to work. And they’re very clear communicators of what they’re looking for. Therefore, it becomes very easy to trust them and give yourself up to them, to push you beyond your safety net and your safety zone.’
For her part, Andrea admired Michael for giving up his usual working procedure and for having faith in her and the movie, which was shot over just six weeks in Essex. ‘It was brave of him to do this film really because I didn’t show him or anyone in the film the script beforehand so he didn’t know what he was letting himself in for. I wanted to shoot in order, so that the story would reveal itself to everyone as we went along.’
Although feeling out of his comfort zone, Michael got to enjoy this unusual way of working. He enjoyed the element of improvisation and found it challenging and rewarding. ‘We didn’t rehearse, talk much about anything, we just worked on every day as it came,’ he recalled. ‘I usually like to digest the script and let it rot and then play with it when it comes to the day of filming, so in this instance I tried to be as loose
and relaxed as possible. That was the main note I gave myself. Andrea is very quick and off the cuff, and works with whatever happens that day to organically feed her story and creates a very comfortable space for the actors to work in.’
Kierston Wareing was more used to such a flexible working practice. She had made her feature-film debut in Ken Loach’s It’s a Free World, in which she starred as Angie who, after being fired from her 30th job for bad behaviour, sets up an unregistered recruitment agency with her flatmate, Rose, which they run from their kitchen. ‘I love Andrea’s way of shooting – that’s how I worked with Ken Loach, so it was great to have the opportunity to do it again,’ she said. ‘In some ways I think it was good, not telling us the story in advance, because you try and put the story together in your head yourself and bit by bit I was slowly working it out.’
Kierston appreciated what she considered to be Michael’s humility. ‘Michael is so down to earth and lovely and normal. There wasn’t a barrier in terms of his film experience versus anyone else’s,’ she said.
Young Katie, who had never acted before, also found him friendly and supportive. ‘He gave me advice about certain things and was really helpful,’ she said. ‘It felt a bit weird acting some scenes with him but, because I knew what he was like off camera, it made it much easier.’
