Stephen Fry director of Bright Young Things
By Daniel Robert Epstein
Aug 19, 2004
Stephen Fry is one of those British actors that has been in everything from Black Adder to Gosford Park and along the way he has starred in his own TV series called Jeeves and Wooster. Now he’s finally written and directed his first film called Bright Young Things adapted from the novel Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh. It stars Stephen Moore, Peter O’Toole and Emily Mortimer.
Bright Young Things is about, Adam [Moore], who needs to get enough money to marry the beautiful Nina [Mortimer]. His friends - eccentric, wild, louche and entirely shocking to the older generation, seem one by one to self-destruct, to crash and burn in their endless search for newer and faster sensations. Their world is that of the very young, wild, party-loving creatures new to gramophone records and the telephone - this is a self-consciously modern generation that cannot keep still for a second. They are known to the press, who follow their every move, as the Bright Young Things.
Check out the official website for Bright Young Things
Daniel Robert Epstein: Is it a coincidence that an actor who came up in the 80’s did a movie like this? You must have hung with similar crowds and gone to parties like this.
Stephen Fry: Well there is no question that after I reread the book that the movie is based on, Vile Bodies, that our generation and even generations younger than me somehow believe they invented the party culture and the obsession with celebrity. We all think it’s a modern curse. But actually almost everything that defines the way we live today was invented by the young generation in the 1920’s. Take for example the fact that they were the first generation to get their music kicks from black American musicians. That had never happened before. It even still happens today when the white middle class kid puts on the slang and the attitude of the ghetto while the ghetto has to keep changing to keep its own purity. But also portable music began then. Their parents had big Victrolas that never left the room. They were able to close them up and take the party with you. Their parents never had their own music. They sang ballads on the piano like in Clifton Webb movie. It was a much more stable world. There were child rebellions of course but not with whole generations.
There was also gender bending for the first time. After the First World War women started to cut their hair, flatten their chest and look boyish. That was completely against what their parents had done with corsets to emphasize their female shape. The men started to shave their hair which had never happened since George Washington’s day. When you see photographs from then it’s people almost peeping out from behind shrubberies. Technology also meant that whatever they did at a party could be in the newspaper the next day. Everything was fast, cocaine, driving and the music. When we think of that we think of the 80’s. That’s one of the things that appealed to me about this is that they invented youth culture. Even down to the fact that there were theme parties where everyone would dress as a devilish creature.
There was also gender bending for the first time. After the First World War women started to cut their hair, flatten their chest and look boyish. That was completely against what their parents had done with corsets to emphasize their female shape. The men started to shave their hair which had never happened since George Washington’s day. When you see photographs from then it’s people almost peeping out from behind shrubberies. Technology also meant that whatever they did at a party could be in the newspaper the next day. Everything was fast, cocaine, driving and the music. When we think of that we think of the 80’s. That’s one of the things that appealed to me about this is that they invented youth culture. Even down to the fact that there were theme parties where everyone would dress as a devilish creature.
DRE:
That part kind of reminded me of a rave.
SF:
Exactly.
DRE:
Had you been to raves?
SF:
I had been to acid house and raves towards the end of my party career. I dropped E, go crazy and stroke people. Back in the 20’s they had those decadent and wild parties. One of the first things you see in the movie is the character of Nina [Emily Mortimer] dancing crazily in this mad cavern of red and gold while her friend is getting her an absinthe while she says “I’ve never been so bored in my life.” That’s another part of it, the not letting other people see you having a good time. You’ve got to be cool. Each blast must be greater than the one before which is a classic sign of addiction. You’ve got to have a bigger line or dose or whatever in order to keep the buzz alive.
DRE:
How was this movie personal for you?
SF:
I’d had that kind of party life but by the 80’s I had exhausted myself. It was more about friends. I always had a fantastic joy in my work. I loved writing and performing so I never wanted to be at the point where I couldn’t get up in the morning and work. To me there are lots of buzzes. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a buzz to be had from waking up at 5 am and working whether it’s on a film set or writing all day. It can be a fantastic high. It would kill me to be denied that. Sometimes people who seek pleasure are dishonest with themselves because they won’t admit to themselves where they find pleasure. They think you only find pleasure in places where you are supposed to, like parties, sex and drugs. Sometimes if they’re honest with themselves they can get pleasure from a walk in the country or from anything but they think it’s too bourgeois. If you’re going to be a real pleasure seeker you’ve got to be ruthlessly honest about where you find pleasure. Sometimes it’s ok to say that you are bored at a party. You just don’t care that there is a vodka fountain, an enormous penis carved out of ice and girls sliding down it. That is ok to say.
DRE:
Everything you’ve said sounds like a story that Peter O’Toole would tell. Had you worked with Peter before casting him?
SF:
No I had known him socially. We are both crazy for a strange English ritual called cricket. He’s so mad about it that he actually took a course to become a qualified cricket coach. I remember watching the cricket men’s finals with him and he was smoking. A man came up to him and said “I’m sorry sir but there is no smoking here.” Peter turned to him, looked him in the eyes and said “Fuck off darling.” The man just backed off. I would love to be able to say fuck off darling to someone. It’s the darling that makes it, doesn’t it? But you have to be Peter O’Toole to be able to do that without getting kicked out.
DRE:
Did he see the movie and say that those parties were nothing?
SF:
No he loved it. It’s very indiscreet for me say this but we were at a memorial service for a great English comic named Spike Milligan. I had sent him the script and I asked him if he wanted to do it. He says “I’d love to fucking do it darling. It’s fantastic. Fucking great. They kept sending me that fucking wank that twit all that fucking Tolkien. Pixies and fucking elves. That fucking adolescent masturbatory fantasies. They kept sending me that fucking thing and wanted me to play a fucking wizard. I said fuck off I don’t want to play a fucking wizard. I don’t want those useless spotty people with spectacles and bad dandruff. I’m not doing it. Then they sent around a boy with a bicycle who said he was going to wait there until I fucking read it. I said I wasn’t going to fucking read it. I’m not fucking doing it. So I told him to wait there and I will pretend to read it. I asked him why it was printed on blue paper and he said it was so no one could photocopy it. Who would want to photocopy it? Pompous cunts!” This was in a church! A crowd was gathering around. Then he said “I gather Ian McKellan is going to do it and it will fucking suit him.” That’s a little insight into the casting of Lord of the Rings.
DRE:
Do you feel there is a party culture today that is as vibrant as the one in the 20’s?
SF:
I fear not. I’m very hesitant about saying anything though. There is nothing more boring than someone from the 80’s saying that the modern times don’t match up to their time. But I would say there is a quality difference between the stylish figures from the 80’s, the ones from the 20’s and say Paris Hilton [laughs]. There is something dead in her eyes. They don’t seem to have any dazzle or wit. If you look at Steve Rubell and the Studio 54 generation which is what influenced my group at least there was some style there. But as I’m saying this there are probably groups of people in garages that will be bringing out the next new thing. The good thing about Goths is the pageantry, the dressing up, the makeup and the theatre of it. I have a great respect for that.
DRE:
Adam didn’t seem too concerned that the police confiscated the manuscript for his book.
SF:
No and in the book he’s even less concerned. That’s signature Evelyn Waugh. They get crapped on and just go home. It makes him seem rather wet and it’s difficult because that’s the motor of the plot. He owes money because he didn’t have the book.
DRE:
I’m a big fan of comedy. I’m sure you must have known Dan Aykroyd.
SF:
Absolutely. We are both aware of each other’s work obviously me a great deal more than him.
DRE:
A wealthy fast talking newspaperman is the perfect role for him.
SF:
Yes it’s perfect for him in many ways that people won’t actually get. The character is based on a real Canadian man named Lord Beaverbrook who was the most powerful man the world for about ten years as a newspaperman. He made and unmade politicians with a snap of his fingers.
DRE:
Have you ever been stung by the gossip pages?
SF:
I don’t know if I’ve been stung. I had something on an embarrassment in the mid-90’s. I was in a play on the West End and deeply unhappy. One night I went home, didn’t go to bed, then got into a car, drove to the cost, got into a ferryboat and just left. On Monday I didn’t turn up into the theatre and people started calling other people. The press went crazy and there were police all over my flat in London looking for my body because they thought I had committed suicide. The press tracked me through my credit cards then chasing me across Europe. I didn’t even realize such a big thing was being made of it. I was in Hamburg and saw a newspaper. I called my parents and assured them. I just flipped out.
DRE:
Was it a nervous breakdown?
SF:
Not an actual nervous breakdown. I was just deeply miserable. I ended up coming to America and buying a place on the Upper East Side. Eventually after a year I crept back to England. Still whenever I do press an English journalist will bring that up.
DRE:
I would imagine that you’re a big star in England. Was it difficult to get this movie together though?
SF:
Fame has its disadvantages and advantages. People had faith that I knew how films were made. But no one wants to put their money into a movie unless they are sure there are many ways to get it back.
DRE:
How do you look back on A Fish Called Wanda?
SF:
I was literally a day player on that movie. John Cleese called me up and asked if I would play someone who gets their head bashed in. I said of course I would.
DRE:
The television comedy scene in England seems very small. It seems like everyone worked on Black Adder or Mr. Bean.
SF:
Yes you can draw a family tree of these things. But it’s a small country. There isn’t a standup tradition, it’s about a group and how you inspire one another. I was very lucky because I went to university with Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie. We just wrote and performed together then did a series together.
DRE:
Do you have a big role in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers?
SF:
It’s a small role but it’s pivotal. I play a guy named Maurice Woodruff who was very well known in his day as a psychic or fraud as we say in English. Amongst the other tragedies in his life Peter Sellers believed in psychic phenomena, which is pathetic but true. So he wouldn’t do anything unless Maurice Woodruff said he should. The studios would offer money to Maurice Woodruff if he convinced Peter Sellers to do the third Pink Panther film with Blake Edwards which he doesn’t want to do. Maurice Woodruff told Peter that the spirits had been very busy and said that his happiness depends on involving himself with someone who has the initials B.E. Sellers goes off to his hotel and he sees on the news that a British actress named Britt Ekland was coming into town. He makes the connection that B.E. is her. He goes to her, says they were destined to be together and two days later they were married. It’s a really good film that I think Geoffrey Rush is excellent in it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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