Eden Lake - Casting the movie
Eden Lake is a terrifying new British thriller from the writer of My Little Eye and The Descent 2, starring Michael Fassbender (Hunger, 300) and Thomas Turgoose (This Is England).
“Having avoided social realism in our approach to the script, we decided to embrace it in the casting. We didn’t want stunt casting, or bimbo casting or cheesy casting. We wanted the film to be scary and believable and we wanted the authority that only great actors could bring to these roles’ says Colson.
“So who did we go for to play Jenny Young?” chuckles director James Watkins. “Only the most talented actress of her generation, and one of the most beautiful - Kelly Reilly. Like all great actors, she is unique and immensely charismatic. Technically she’s amazing and has the range to take the audience with her on what is a horrific journey. I didn’t want Jenny to be a sort of take-charge Ripley heroine. I was after a different kind of raw realism She’s a primary school teacher who has to face the question of whether she really could kill a child. It’s a question that’s a complete anathema to her mindset yet one she has to consider for survival. I felt Kelly could really ground that unthinkable horror in the starkest of reality”.
For award-winning actress Kelly Reilly, star of Mrs Henderson Presents, the EDEN LAKE script represented a great opportunity she couldn’t pass up. “’I’ll be quite frank”, she declares, “if this was your average psycho stalker movie there’s no way I’d be in it! My understanding of horror films up to this point was they were more about supernatural ghouls and monsters and that certainly wasn’t this script. EDEN LAKE was a thriller, with lots of suspense, yes, - I mean I needed a stiff drink by Page 20 - but it was more a very dark, penetrating drama. James wrote a cracking script showing the real upshot of violent actions, and I couldn’t put it down”.
“I was moved by the hardship the characters endure in the course of the chase action”, she explains further. “I was drawn to the whole notion of kids committing violent acts, the things you read about now in the press every day. The fine line they cross from youths behaving badly to becoming just plain vicious and feral is something I hadn’t seen before in movies, a world of horrifying reality. The irony is Jenny is a primary school teacher by profession. She goes from protecting children to slaughtering them”.
She adds, “Then I met James who explained the ironies and sub-texts so eloquently and told me exactly what he wanted. To make the audience believe what Jenny is capable of without turning her into a Lara Croft-style warrior. That it had to be difficult for her to get to the point where she has to murder a child to survive. It had to come from the heart because she’s not supposed to be in this hyper surreal action movie that’s exploding around her. I found that an exciting challenge”.
To play Jenny’s boyfriend Steve Taylor, Watkins made good on a promise to ‘Hunger’ star Michael Fassbender who had appeared in the short film. “He commands the screen. He has that rare quality of masculinity so many of today’s limp leading men lack. He’s a proper bloke. In EDEN LAKE he plays a man faced with boys - not sure how to deal with them, frustrated and angry with himself that he doesn’t know how. Michael got this immediately and his performance in the film is terrifically natural and, I hope, moving’.
Watkins adds, “One of the biggest lessons I learnt from the shorts was not to cast stage school kids, the polite ones who introduce themselves to you before auditioning, but the real deal. I was looking for raw quality. I found it in a marvellous workshop in Nottingham, the Carlton ITV Junior Television Workshop, run by Ian Smith. Ian takes disadvantaged kids and, with great skill and wit, gives them direction. Watching Ian work taught me a great deal. Jack O’Connell, James Burrows and Thomas Turgoose all knew each other from that project helping cement the gang bond from the outset”.
“James gave me dialogue from an assortment of characters including Brett, but he liked the way I played Cooper the best. I suppose that was because I’m quite small for my age, a little chubby and I do seem quite innocent, although I’m not really! Cooper is like me in the way that I don’t really want to get into trouble. I felt comfortable playing Cooper and enjoyed it more because we were so similar “.
“I was worried about doing EDEN LAKE at first”, admits Turgoose. “The script was 18 rated, very violent and full-on. I won’t be able to watch it with my mates even. But I wanted to do it and my drama teacher told me I should. I also asked actor Stephen Graham for advice. (Graham played Combo in This Is England). I’ve stayed in touch with everyone from This Is England because that film focused my life and changed my whole attitude. He told me to go for it too’.
In fact EDEN LAKE turned out to be a This Is England acting reunion of sorts for Turgoose. “Thanks to Shane Meadows I’d already met Finn Atkins (who plays Paige), James Burrows (Harry) and Jack O’Connell (Brett). In truth, Jack and I didn’t get on too well before. Shane had to keep splitting us up all the time because we argued non-stop. We were kids, both used to stamping our feet to get what we wanted. We have grown up since then and became firm friends on EDEN LAKE”.
“It’s true”, laughs Jack O’Connell, “Tommo and I did hate each other for a while but we got over that because we all meshed well as the gang. Like Tommo I read for different parts but the one I wanted the most I got. A majority of the characters I’ve played in the past have been bad lad types. I didn’t feel Brett fitted that stereotype at all because there were so many layers to explore with him. Brett wasn’t something a million miles away from myself, an alpha male with a bit of attitude. I have never been quite as extreme as Brett proves to be. He’s a nasty piece of work. They don’t come worse and I based him on people, gang leaders I’ve known, but with a twist. I always try to use my own experiences in the parts I play and I had a lot to draw on with Brett”.
“I read the script through Brett’s eyes”, points out O’Connell. “From having fun winding up Jenny and Steve and the death of his dog, to turning relentless psycho and looking at himself in the mirror at the end. Seemingly without a care in the world even though his best friend and girlfriend have been horrifically killed. It was an incredibly meaty role with lots to chew on.”
Eden Lake will be released in UK cinemas on 12th September 2008.
