In the Loop: The truth is far, far worse...
Peter Capaldi as the demonic Malcolm Tucker in In the Loop
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Tuesday, 14, Apr 2009 12:00
Lewis Bazley is In the Loop as Armando Iannucci and Peter Capaldi discuss the funniest film of the year.
The 'special relationship' might have been in the headlines lately as the saviour of the free world… sorry, Barack Obama, graced British shores for the G20 conference, but while Gordon Brown is aiming to build bridges with the new residents of the White House, the UK's finest comic minds are skewering the British-American love-in.
In the Loop, a gloriously profane 105 minutes of intelligent, indelible one-liners amid the farcical meddling in the Whitehall and DC corridors of power sees two governments caught between spin and sanctions after a low-ranking Cabinet minister accidentally says war is 'unforeseeable'.
Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, the man behind The Day Today, I'm Alan Partridge and building on the success of Bafta-winning The Thick of It - with Peter Capaldi returning as terrifying spin doctor Malcolm Tucker - it's comfortably the funniest film of the year.
Lewis Bazley is In the Loop as Iannucci and Capaldi discuss satire, spin and squaring off with Tony Soprano.
The line between satire and reality
Iannucci: You write all these things in advance and think 'is this too silly, will people believe this?' and sometimes you think it's not silly enough. I forgot to tell Tom [Hollander] that he was plastered all over the Sun with the word 'porn' next to him! It was in connection with the Jacqui Smith story and there's a line in In the Loop about it so they used a picture of Tom's character. But Steve Coogan has a line in the film about a guy wanting to ban foreign languages in shops; we filmed it last summer and there was a court case on similar grounds last month!
And then you start worrying whether the things we made up about the war in the film are actually going to happen. A lot of it is based on research and finding out what actually goes on in these enclosed government buildings but you do worry it's too silly. And then somebody from government comes up to you after a screening and says 'It's far, far worse!'
The discomfort of the editing process
Iannucci: It was a long and increasingly painful process - because of the improvisation, the first assembly of the film was four hours! I didn't want the Heaven's Gate of comedy! The last two months, getting rid of the final 15 minutes to get it down to one hour 45 minutes, was very difficult. There were at least four or five scenes I really liked, but had known in the back of my head would have to go, as they got in the way of the story. But it'll be a great DVD!
The experience of filming in 10 Downing Street
Iannucci: It was great because all the Malcolms who work in number ten had brought their cameras in and were quite excited! I didn't understand the dynamic about being more excited about a fictional character…
Capaldi: I did, because I've been to a Star Trek convention…
Iannucci: I remember when I was researching the film I spoke to Joe Biden's chief of staff, when Biden was a senator, and he was a youngish, intelligent, good-looking guy, powerful in Washington. And he said 'It's very exciting, this job - last week we were at a reception and Bradley Whitford, Josh Lyman on The West Wing was there'. And I was thinking 'But you're him!'
On The Thick of It breaking America
Iannucci: All the Washington politicos know it. But they're very into British comedy in the US anyway. As I was going through customs in New York, I said I was from BBC comedy and the immigration guy replied (singing) 'French and Saunders!' (laughs) And I had a driver who did an Alan Partridge 'A-ha!'
Working with the US cast
Iannucci: James [Gandolfini] is very funny in real life anyway - he was a fan of the show anyway, but he was very good at physical comedy, at slapstick. But I've always felt that the American tradition is more to do with naturalism and dialogue that feels real and therefore American actors are more comfortable with making their lines feel less theatrically performed.
Capaldi: I found them quite scary because they were brilliant actors and brilliantly funny - and they never stopped! They get a bit intimidated about our background of traditional theatre though, and you can lie about it and say you've been with the RSC!
Malcolm Tucker v Tony Soprano
Capaldi: It was an enormous thrill because I'm a huge fan of his and I was facing off with Tony Soprano and he's a big guy! But we both just went for it and you can't be intimidated by how you feel when you're filming that kind of thing. I wished we'd filmed together for a couple of hours… and I'd have sorted him out!
The exhilaration and exhaustion of playing Tucker
Capaldi: It's a combination of both. He's much cleverer than I am because he's got six writers coming up with lots of wonderful lines for him and he's got a bigger vocabulary than me, but I inhabit him. I'm the keeper of his black soul, so it's nice to get that cauldron of bile boiling over!
Alastair Campbell's influence on Malcolm Tucker
Capaldi: I think when we started the character, none of us sat down and said 'this is Alastair Campbell'. So the idea that the way Tucker behaves is based on Campbell's behaviour is some strange melding of some concept of him and what we've done. I've never seen any film of him acting like that but I think people quite want Alastair to be Malcolm and I think he quite likes it too.
Tucker's intrusion into real life
Capaldi: It does, because you have to get yourself into this zone of impatience and nastiness - it usually happens in my kitchen when I'm sat learning the lines and my daughter hasn't done her homework. I'll suddenly tear into her, they have to live with Malcolm Tucker; 'Where's the f*****g remote control? I left it there! Don't f*****g leave it there! Who's doing the f*****g school run in the morning? Not me, don't f*****g come to me with that… You listen to me right now, get up those stairs!'
Counting the number of swearwords in Tucker's dialogue
Capaldi: It takes enough time learning them! The truth is the written material had been sweated over and some of it is like Restoration comedy. The writers really like you to put the "f*****g f**k* in the right place. If you put the "c**t" in the wrong place, then the "f**k" won't come out properly!
Iannucci: There's our poster!
The differences between British and American politics
Iannucci: In Britain, we have very little influence so we counter that by talking very actively about bringing down crime figures, raising a standard by the year 2020 - we're very specific for our claims to make up for the fact there's very little we can actually do. In America, it's the opposite. They have amazing influence and power but because they're so at the behest of interest groups and biennial elections, they have to be noncommittal publicly, so they say things like 'Yes we can', 'Hope we can believe in' and other non-specific things. But when they get elected they can do an awful lot. And the Americans were very puzzled about the scene in our film where Simon Foster (Hollander) has to return to his constituency and deal with the public. They find it intriguing that we actually have to touch the public!
A squad of 22-year-olds holding court in hugely powerful Washington positions
Iannucci: It's certainly something that struck us in Washington, they are so young. They're very bright, they get a degree and then they go off to Georgetown in DC and get degrees in things like 'Strategic Terrorism Studies', these very specialised fields of politics. Or they start by campaigning for a congressman in some small district in a Midwestern state and then the congressman wins and goes off to Washington and doesn't know anyone, so brings his campaign team. And suddenly a 22-year-old is a congressman's chief foreign affairs adviser. Because Washington is so big, it's very easy to find yourself in charge of something that no-one else has claimed - we met a 23-year-old who had written a policy paper on Central America and the State Department liked it but said 'Look, we're all busy - you do it'. So he was in charge of Central America! A 22-year-old was sent out to Baghdad to help draw up the constitution as well. I don't know whether he can drive a car though…
The satirists' view of government scandals
Iannucci: I feel I'm genuinely not interested because it tells me nothing. There was a story about four weeks ago about a senior civil servant up before a select committee in the House of Commons who said when they drew up that [Iraq] dossier, they knew that some of the sources were very unreliable and there was mainly one person coming up with the information. And the MPs kept asking 'Well, why didn't you say anything?' He replied: 'Because it was made pretty clear that if we objected, our careers would be over.' It was a tiny, little story, only covered in one broadsheet really and that, to me, is a much more interesting story than what Jacqui Smith's husband is watching because she's away in London all year.
Lewis Bazley
In the Loop is released on April 17th