Astronaut (2019)
Director: Shelagh McLeod
Writer: Shelagh McLeod
Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Lyriq Bent, Colm Feore, Krista Bridges, Art Hindle
A lonely widower battles his family, ill health and time to win a competition for a golden ticket to space.
Shelagh McLeod is an award-winning actress, writer and director. Her debut feature film, Astronaut, starring Richard Dreyfuss, will receive its world premiere at The Edinburgh Film Festival, 2019.which will premier at The Edinburgh Film Festival on Saturday 22nd June 2019.
In an exclusive interview I got an opportunity to ask Shelagh a few question about what we can expect from the film, working with Richard Drefuss and why she decided to go behind the camera.
What can we expect from your new film Astronaut?
I hope that this film will touch a universal audience. I know every filmmaker says that, but this film was written because my mum died in a nursing home and there was an old guy in the nursing home gardens in a wheelchair and he was always staring up at the sky. IN rain or sunshine, he would be there. I went to him one day and I said, “What is it your looking for up there” and he said. “Another go”. This really moved me. I had been writing for quite a while and I had been deliberating going to university, learning the craft properly and I had done a short film. But I just thought I’ve got to write a story for this man, not necessarily about this man, but for this man and everyone of both his and my mums’ generation who have been shuffled off.
So, I wrote the story because I have always wanted to go into space and what bigger challenge than for an old guy to go to space. It’s a bit of a fairy-tale and I thought well this is not going to be a grim look at old age. It was funny because when I was writing the story the levity and humour just kept on coming in. I was thinking no it’s got to be deep and dark, but the tone of the film took control and said this is what the story is going to be. I just followed the characters and there were millions of rewrites and finding the right producer was a turning point.
We made this film, which is a gleeful look at what could happen, not a gritty documentary style. When I was meeting the actors, we talked a lot about the tone of this and I said, it’s not an elevated performance, it’s just turning it up a little bit and they all got it. It’s that slightly heightened reality in a funny way. We all wish when we are feeling hopeless that there is that dream that might come true, it’s that impossible dream that might come true.
I loved the natural humour in the film and the way the characters work together, which was really touching. You have the drama and the comedy, so it doesn’t bring you down. There is that hope where you want him to get there and you want him to succeed.
I worked with a great scientist called Edward Wilmot, we call him ‘Ask Ed’, he should have his own show. He is a genius and was my right-hand guy. I would always go to him and say, “Ed explain to me rockets” and he would go, “Ok Well…” He spent years patiently explaining the science of how this would work. He spent another year explaining how roads work and what could happen. There is a reality there which we skate along and with it there is this abstract way in which the characters connect with each other, but I observed that when I was in the nursing home. People very often at the end of their lives don’t say “How are you” or “Isn’t the weather nice”, they communicate in a different way. They have the same old fights that we have. I have fights with my husband about the TV remote every single night, so I thought I would extract elements from my own life because nothing changes. The arguments between men and women every day are going to be the same, but they are slightly heightened perhaps.
When you were writing the characters which are based on your experiences, were you writing with any actors or actresses in mind?
No, but funnily enough I did make a short film over here (UK) called The Great Escape (2017) and we used an amazing actor called Kenneth Colley who was in Star Wars (1977). He done a beautiful job of it, but then I had the opportunity to shoot this in North America and I knew we would be looking for a North American actor. When my agent suggested Richard Dreyfuss my first reaction was, he wouldn’t do it, but someone up there was watching us and he said yes. The funny thing is Richard is such an energetic actor and he said there is so much melancholy to this film. He kept saying to me, “He’s a melancholic bugger” then I turned to him one day and said, “Well he’s not now is he, because your playing him. What Richard brought was a life and vibrancy to the character that I hadn’t envisioned, but he gave it such heart. I hope that on the page that Angus always had that heart, wanting to make new friends. I think it is a theme with everything that I write because I really believe with your tribe around you, you can cope with the crap that life throws at you. I think that old people, not always, but they become quite lonely and I wanted him to unite with all of the characters in the nursing home and become friends. So, his journey became their journey.
You do see that loneliness at first with his character, but as the film goes on you can see the energy coming from Richard Dreyfus. He is brilliant in the film and even though he is older he still has that energy.
I was very lucky with the actors as 90% of the work is done, you just stick them in front of the camera, you talk about the tone, talk about the character and they are off. They were all such great actors and Richard is such a superb actor and a delight to work with.
You have such a great cast and one person who I was impressed with was Graham Greene as well. Him and Richard Dreyfus together they worked brilliantly.
If you said have a wishlist of who I would have chosen those two. It was really the tenaciousness and talent of Jessica Adams our producer who really didn’t give up on this. I am a real worrier and she is such a positive young woman. I was like we are never going to get them, but she just kept pushing it. Graham again is one of the nicest most brilliant actors I have ever worked with, as well as Richard obviously. Together they were funny and really sweet. Graham said, “This was one of the hardest roles I have ever had ever had because I only have two lines”, but its what you do when the camera is on. There is this scene that literally had all of us in tears. It’s like Richard you just stick the camera on Richard and there’s some alchemy, there magic that happens.
It is quite a big film even though it is focused on primarily on the characters themselves, but was there anything in the original script which you had to take out?
I was talking about this with a friend last night, in the original script there were car chases, fights, no guns, but it was a real caper movie. The final scene was huge, and I was so proud of it. As I worked with Jessica on the script again, we kept drilling down, what was the story really about? Was it about car chases or was it about connecting to other people and having hope. I kept saying that’s the heart of the story, can we have hope at any age? At what age do we stop being valid? At what age to people stop seeing old people? What are we all about really? We kept drilling it down and the story in a way got smaller, I knew being my first film I wasn’t going to get 5,10, 50 million dollars it’s not going to happen. So the caper aspect of it is still there slightly, but its drilled down a lot.
Did you experience any issues during filming?
How about minus 25 with wind chill! I will tell you what did happen, I know Canada well because I was born there and I go back all the time, but I hadn’t been there for a winter for quite a long time because I have been working and I live over here. The film got greenlit and we started shooting on November 17th. I went into this outfitters shop where you buy winter gear and I was buying these little boots with the little bit of fake fur and I thought they look like directors’ boots; I will look like a real director if I buy these. Well the temperature was great for the first 7 days then literally overnight it plummeted 30 degrees. We had a snowstorm on our hands and we actually had to reshoot a massive sequence of the film, because whatever we did the continuity looked too absurd. We had to go back in and film two extra days. So, there was me prancing around with these groovy little boots on thinking I look so cool and by 9 o’clock in the morning I was literally frozen, and I thought I am literally going to die. Everyone was freezing, but the Canadian crew were tough. They are used to working the arctic circle and are always going up north. The gaffer Edwin Lau took one look at me and I said, “Edward I am freezing to death” and he literally took the boots off his feet and gave me his boots. He said, “I have a spare pair in my truck don’t worry put these on”. I am a size 6 and these were size 11 and they were these crappy old boots and I thought these are not gonna keep me warm, but it was like magic. It was like putting the red slippers, my feet were warm, so I was warm. I wore his boots for the rest of the shoot. It was dealing with the bitter cold and doing very long days.
Another thing that happened that I think was quite funny, we obviously have animals, children, things you’re not meant to do when you are making your first feature film. The donkeys were really hard to get and there aren’t that many donkey sanctuaries where we were shooting. We found this amazing woman and she brought down the donkey in a trailer. We were shooting at night and we had been at it all day, it was about one in the morning and we were shooting in the family’s house in the back garden for the final scene. Word got out that the donkey had arrived. We were in the garden which was huge, and it was snowing. Richard Dreyfus was sitting in the garden in his little Angus chair which he sits in starring at the sky, then the whole cast and crew just vanished. We all went running to the front of the house, it was like no one had ever seen a donkey in their life. Patty the donkey was the fluffiest, most beautiful animal. People were going mad, can we feed the donkey, cuddling it, kissing it. I suddenly thought, Shit Richard, he’s on his own. I went running through the house, running to the back of the garden and he was just humming to himself. He smiled looked up at me and said. You know the difference between cold and very cold, it’s quite a lot. The was the humility of Richard, he was funny, never complained and just brilliant.
Then of course for the scene the donkey would not look camera left. I remember the DoP saying, “Oh for god sake Patty, just look camera left. We were running around behind the camera with bags of hay trying to get the donkey to look. It was bedlam, but it was fun.
What were some of your favourite moments?
It was just magic that happens sometimes where you go, yeah that’s just great, those are the amazing moments. Graham Greene and Richard Drefuss were rehersing a scene and just having a quite chat, so I went in and I got this Water Mitty moment and I just thought if my friends could see me now, Richard Drefuss and Graham Greene, they are doing a movie with I don’t believe it. Then I heard Richards voice going “Shelagh, Shelagh, SHELAGH!” because I had completely spaced out and he said, “So what do you think?” and I said “Yeah that exactly how I think his character would probably do that”, but I hadn’t heard a word, I was completely in lala land. Richard has this look, he put his glasses down and went “Aha” and he just knew. I never did it again, it was just my one moment of really thinking can I really believe this is happening.
I was going to ask you about going into space as the film is about space exploration, is that something which interests you?
Yes, all my life. My dad took me to see 2001 (A Space Odyssey (1968)) and sat there and I thought I want to go into space. I was dyslexic as a child and my dad bought me a science fiction book and I just couldn’t put it down. We are so close and its so exciting, if you talk to anyone about space who have been in space, they are like a little kid they get so excited. I do think we’re meant to go and I am 100% behind the space exploration and I’d go.
You are probably best known for you TV dramas Peak Practise, Doctors and Holby City, what influenced your decision to go behind the camera as a writer-director?
Funnily enough I wrote and directed a test commercial for whiskers when I was in my mid 30’s. It’s not like I saw the directors and thought I wanted to do that; it came to me in a backwards way. I started writing stories and my short scripts and I kept seeing them in my head and I just got so excited about the visual aspect of filmmaking and the characters. Because I work with brilliant stars in my life Peter O’Toole, Elizabeth Taylor all of these wonderful actors and watched how they worked. Martin Sheen was an amazing actor to work with. Then I went to university and I knew that’s what I had to do.
I was standing on the set of Holby City and it was just a kind of a calling. I knew when I was writing there was this story and pictures that would just not leave me alone. Obviously, I have four or five projects which are still cooking, and they are just projects that will not go away. My Teacher at university said, “If that story in your head keeps bugging you, you’ve got to listen to it.
Do you feel whilst you are writing the story that you want to keep control of the story and take it where you want to take it?
You do. Although I have done short films and I have been in front of the camera for 500 years, doing your first big feature is a big thing. No matter how many courses you do or lessons you take or how much you shadow and observe. When you are standing there it’s a different thing. Atonally we got the film I had in my head and that’s what’s amazing, I love the post-production because the real high stress is over and now you get to create with the other guys. I like to collaborate and work with people, I am not a one-man band at all. It’s just sitting there, colouring in the pictures and creating the edit its just a magical process. You have this kind of metronome inside of yourself of the tone of your story; if you hang onto that, other things follow. I really work closely with all the heads of department and even if the property master had a good idea or the property mistress on our set i‘d go great idea shall we do it. I think where I have been lucky on my shorts and my feature everyone picked up on the style and emotion of the story.
Continuing with theme have you got any plans to return in front or behind the camera?
I would like to return to more in front stuff. It’s interesting because I have been so out of action for the last three years, I am itching to get back in front of the camera. I might even go back on stage. Of course, directing TV would be amazing.
Do you have any other projects which you are working on at the moment?
I have a project called Nexus, I started at university for my masters as part of my dissertation. It got shortlisted at Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab and last year it got chosen in the Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman Writer Lab which was an honour. They helped me develop it and I just done 6 months of rewrite. I have just sent it off now and I have producers attached.
Can you tell me a little bit about the film?
Yes, it’s a much bigger beast in a way, I can never have just one cast member it is always a cast of thousands. This is a female cast lead, a woman mid to late 40’s and she has returned back from space, she is an astronaut, and something has happened to her. She returns to her family and her normal life, but things are not right. That’s all I will say, but it’s a bit of a psychological sci-fi mystery.
Do you have anything else you are working on; I am just about to approach the first draft of another script I am writing called The Visit and Violet. I am very excited about them; they are both not finished but I am getting there. The Visit is about a family and an incredible event happens to them. It is seen through the eyes of a 20-year-old girl and her mother goes missing. Violet is about a 13-year-old schoolboy and it’s a slightly dystopian time, global warming has reached its peak. Its still set in the normal world and this is set in a boarding school, he is overweight and has acute scoliosis and is being bullied horribly. The environment is very important in this film and a strange young schoolgirl appears and becomes his friend. They slightly tip into speculative sci-fi but most of it is set here, now, but in a world that’s slightly warped.
You mentioned earlier about all the people you have worked with over the years, but is there anyone in particular that you would like to work with?
Richard again in a flash and any of those actors in Astronaut, but I should be so lucky. One actor I have always wanted to work with, but I think he has retired is Gene Hackman, but I know he has stepped down gracefully. There are so many, I love Kate Winslet, Thandie Newton and from Chernobyl (2019) Jared Harris.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to write and direct their own film.
If you are writing if from scratch, write something you care about. I would advise unless you are a genius, write about something which means something to you that’s deep inside its something you care about, you are invested in that story. If you care about the characters, the story or the me of the story, other people will too. If you try to write a best seller it’s a disaster, unless you have written 12 best sellers then you know what you are doing. Keep going, we had 150 million doors slammed in our faces. I am not an easy sale, I was a first time, middle aged tv actress who wanted to direct a movie with a rocket. Its ridiculous but we got there. If you are passionate about your script enter it for competitions, take good advice about the story and listen to the criticisms because that really helps you to write a better script and make you a better writer.
You can find out more about the Edinburgh Film Festival and purchase tickets for the film on the website
ASTRONAUT will be screened on Saturday 22 June 18:00 at Filmhouse 1 and on Monday 24 June 18:05 at VUE Omni 12.
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
