Flicks Magazine
April 1999
Daylight Robbery
Trainspotters Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller are up to no
good again. Claire Lloyd talks to wicked highwaymen Plunkett and
Macleane.
Here's a buddy film with a difference: set in 1748, it is based on
two real life highwaymen, Will Plunkett, the scourge of the Thief
Taker General, and Captain James Macleane, a destitute, amoral
aristocrat. Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller reunite to play
Plunkett and Macleane - but were they cast in the right parts?
"We could have switched roles," says The Full Monty's Carlyle, 27,
who plays the wily Plunkett, "but I think the choice and the balance
works very well. I personally enjoy playing the bad guy. They are
more interesting to play because there are different dimensions to
these characters.
"Plunkett is basically driven by his hatred of the English class
system and his dream is to travel to classless America. But for
that he need a lot of money. Basically this film has me swearing
and stealing from the start!"
Macleane - 'The Highway Gentleman' - has different motives, as
Jonny Lee Miller points out: "His love of the good life drives him
as much as money drives Plunkett. He's a totally selfish bloke
who just wants to have a good time.
"These two are not what you could call heroes. I don't imagine
people will compare us to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
somehow.
"Anyway, we had to try not to play being heroes because if you
break a leg or something that's everyone's work up the creek. But
Bobby and I have worked together before [as Trainspotters Begbie
and Sick Boy respectively] and have a code of trust between us now.
We take care. With scenes like the head-butting one, we knew it
was time to stop when we started getting lumps on our forehead.
Nobody was trying to out-butt anyone there!"
Both actors also trained to battle on horseback. "Learning to
ride was a real thrill," Carlyle says. "Wearing 18th Century
costumes was harder. This was the first costume drama I've ever
done but as I've done more since [Antonia Bird's horror pic
Ravenous and Alan Parker's drama Angela's Ashes], I can't seem to
get away from it!"
But it's clear straightaway that Plunkett and Macleane is no
conventional costume drama. It's the debut feature of Jake Scott
(son of Ridley, nephew of Tony), a director who shot music videos
for the like of U2 and REM, and has now progressed to making a $15
million budgeted picture made largely on location in the Czech
Republic.
"Anyone will notice that liberties have been taken even with the
design of the film," comments Carlyle. "It is a kind of mixed
genre film. To me it is in the tradition of the Hollywood films of
the Fifties and Sixties when they took subjects that were set in
the West and made entertaining films - and didn't worry too much
about being historically accurate."
"They created a magical world and this film is like that,"
continues Lee Miller, 26, last seen in Afterglow, as Julie
Christie's younger man and next to be seen in Mansfield Park, a
film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. "We obviously don't know
the language of the time, least of all the slang, so the way we give
them slang was to use dialogue of our own, words like 'geezer' and
'bollocks'.
"Basically the film is an irreverent adventure with robberies,
horses and guns and plenty of elaborate set-ups and ambitious action
sequences."
There's also and all-star supporting cast. Ken Stott plays
Chance, the Thief Taker General, Michael Gambon is Lord Chief
Justice Gibson, Alan Cumming a foppish Lord Rochester and Claire
Rushbrook the rapacious Lady Estelle. Liv Tyler portrays the
English Rose of the piece, Lady Rebecca Gibson, niece of Chief
Justice Gibson.
And there's a star behind the camera, too. One of the executive
producers is Gary Oldman who, some time ago, considered doing the
project with Tim Roth. So who would have played Plunkett and who
Macleane . . . ?
Plunkett and Macleane is released on April 2
Liv Tyler: ice cold in corsets
"I loved my role as Lady Rebecca. It was one that is easy to relate
to: a rebellious girl stuck in one of society's ruts where her
life was all about doing what was expected of her. When she sees
the Gentleman Highwayman she virtually begs him to ambush her
horrible uncle's coach so she can escape with him to a new life.
But it doesn't quite go that way
I really loved working with Jonny and Bobby. They are special;
they live very real lives and thrive off that reality. I enjoyed
taking direction from Jake. I think he is soooo talented. And I
particularly enjoyed being with Michael Gambon, my uncle Lord
Gibson, who has the most extraordinary sense of humour.
The only awful thing about shooting the film was the cold. We shot
much of it in winter in the Czech Republic which is very very cold.
We spent five days in the sewers underneath Prague for one sequence
. They'd actually steam-cleaned them for us abut it was absolutely
icy. I had on all these velvet clothes with corsets and petticoats
, and a wet suit underneath all that and wellies up to my thighs.
Man, was it rough, running sopping-wet through the sewers of the
city."
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