Scott Hicks Interview

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

SCOTT HICKS (Director/Screenwriter) was propelled to the forefront of international filmmakers in 1996, following the release of his highly successful film Shine. He has won numerous awards for his film work and continues to work with the who's who of the film industry. His latest project is the very sentimental and moving "Hearts In Atlantis" starring acclaimed actor Sir Anthony Hopkins and newcomer Anton Yelchin.

In town briefly to promote his new work of art, the very passionate and eloquent Scott Hicks sat down to a chat with Femail.

Femail: Congratulations on your new film "Hearts In Atlantis". I have seen the film and was very moved by it.

Scott: Oh thank you, I am glad it moved you, that is lovely to hear.

Femail: How would you sum up the overall experience of filming "Hearts In Atlantis"?

Scott: Well, I thoroughly enjoyed such a wonderful cast. When you're directing a movie and if you can surround yourself with terrific actors and hopefully make the right choices in those areas, then it's an enormous part of the battle. I also had a tremendously enthusiastic crew - in some ways it was like working on an Australian movie from that point of view. People felt very involved with the film and they felt that they were making something worthwhile and they really wanted to contribute their best work. So that feeling contributed to a really good sense of camaraderie through the shoot, which isn't always the case by any means, so that was really enjoyable.

Femail: Is this a film you are immensely proud of?

Scott: Yes I am, but I sort of feel that about all my films, but it's important. The thing is here I am now, it's a year since we finished shooting and soon it will be two years since I first read the script. It's important to feel that amount of time of your life was worthwhile and so I do look at the film and think, "yeah, you know, I'm glad I spent my time doing that." I like the emotion that people seem to get from it, I don't feel that I have to punish myself too much for thinking about what I didn't get right, I feel happy with what I did.

Femail: What attracted you to work on "Hearts In Atlantis"?

Scott: The screenplay just arrived, as they do these days and it had these marvellous heavy hitting names on it, being William Goldman and Stephen King. I thought Stephen King; "I'm really not into horror!" But it wasn't a horror story, it was a story of characters, an unusual set of characters growing up in the 50s and the experience of the last summer of Bobby Garfield's childhood when he is befriended by this mysterious person upstairs - who has a sort of haunted past. I found it very intriguing and ultimately very moving, to the point where I just felt, yes this is what I'd like to do next.

Femail: Overall, how long was this film in the making?

Scott: We had a period of 70 shooting days over 4-5 months. Overall, from the time that I agreed to do the movie to putting the finishing touches to the movie, it was about a year. I do all the picture editing at home in Adelaide [Australia] and did some of the sound work here in Melbourne, and some in Sydney and that's always enjoyable because it's nice to be home.

Femail: Is it important for you to still be connected to your homeland?

Scott: Yes but it's more about my wanting to be home and secondly there are good people in Adelaide that I like to work with so it just makes sense.

Femail: How did you find the experience of working with such a distinguished and accomplished actor like Anthony Hopkins?

Scott: Yeah he is extraordinary isn't he? He is one of the most mesmerizing people on screen.

Femail: Were you a little intimidated?

Scott: No not at all because I like working with actors, and I've been doing it for a few years now so I don't feel any of those thoughts. It's more about how to develop the relationship with someone so that they will be responsive to what you say. So that you can guide and mould what they're doing to the extent that you need to. In those ways it was very straightforward and he is very unassuming in a lot of ways. He doesn't make a big deal about acting, he says "it's just learn the lines and shut up!" If only it were that simple! (laughs)

But it is, he likes to keep it simple and he doesn't have a lot of time for fussing around. He likes to get on with it; he's impatient about that, which is good. It gives an energy to what you're doing and I like that.

Femail: Another actor that stands out in my mind is Anton Yelchin who plays BOBBY GARFIELD. After seeing the film myself, I instantly warmed to the character of Bobby Garfield who lit up the screen each and every time. Is this one of the reasons why you cast Anton in the role of Bobby?

Scott: Absolutely, he has something very, very special about him, which is apparent when you see him as well - something incandescent about him. He connected so well with Anthony Hopkins, when I got them to read together it was immediately apparent that something rather special could happen here and I think it did. There was something caught between the two of them, which is quite magical. And he's certainly something to watch I would say.

Femail: Which scene from "Hearts In Atlantis" did you quite like directing?

Scott: Oh gosh, there were a lot of things.

Femail: Was there one particular moment that you enjoyed creating?

Scott: I enjoyed a variety of things for different reasons. This may be rather a boy thing but the big baseball scene where Anthony Hopkins tells the boy a story, of which really is a part of bonding, I found very challenging as a director to do it - to be very still, very simple, so there was that.

Also working with Anton and young Mika Boorem who plays Carol. I found such a wonderful openness and eagerness in them and when it came to doing a really difficult, emotional scene like where young Carol has been beaten up by a local bully and Bobby finds her, I found it rather moving to watch it because there's this helpless kid desperate to help the girl who is his dearest friend, and his plight is so apparent to him that he doesn't know how to do it. Yet he finds some amazing reserve of inner strength that enables him to rescue her and some of that strength is drawn from the story that he was told earlier about the football player. And so that scene was one that I was trepid about, but because the kids were so good, it made it something much simpler than I initially thought.


- Annemarie Failla

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