Empire Australasia August 2017

ALAMY

MOMENT

LOCATION

AUDITION

COSTUME

WORDS OLLY RICHARDS

BEST OF TIMES |WORST OF TIMES

JASON ISA AC S

The Patriot. My agent said, “You won’t get it.

Jude Law’s doing it.” I went in and it was clear

they wanted to give me the job. I was sure I’d got

it. Then nothing for two weeks. It turned out I had

it but had to wait for Mel Gibson to approve it and

Jude Law to say he didn’t want it!

I was trying to decide between a great play and taking Dragonheart.

I spoke to Ian McKellen, who said, “Do the film, love. I’ve had the lead in

every great play going and I’m broke.” I told Dragonheart’s director, Rob

Cohen, about it and he said, “Ian McKellen was available?”

It’s happened loads of times and it’s any studio executive or producer

who tells you, “Get ready for your life to change after this. You won’t

be able to walk down the road without being mobbed.” A) It’s never true.

B) Why would you bloody want that anyway?

I went in for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, for

Green Goblin. He asked my thoughts on the

script and we spent a day talking about it, then

he said, “What do you think about playing him?”

I said I thought I was too young. I believe my

agent’s words were, “You c__t!”

Anything Lucius Malfoy wore in Potter. They were just going to have me

in business suits and I asked if we could try something more elaborate,

which they ran with. I could have looked like Michael Gove.

The green sequined dress in Sweet November, but only because I really

hoped I was going to be fanciable. I put it on and I looked like some kind

of Puerto Rican truck driver on a dare. It was not what I envisaged.

I made a terrible film

called Passionada. My

girlfriend came on set

and whispered in my

ear, “I’m pregnant.”

This dire experience

became wonderful.

Both my kids were IVF

and that film paid for it.

On Black Hawk Down,

I ran down a street in

war mode. After we’d

cut it was pointed out

the magazine had fallen

out of my weapon and

I’d been saying, “Bang!”

every time I pulled

the trigger.

We shot Peter Pan in Queensland and I was put up in

this huge house on the beach, which Brad Pitt was

going to stay in if he’d done The Fountain. The shoot was

extended from six to 14 months. I didn’t mind at all!

Everyone would come to our house when we had days

off from filming. There were Lost Boys boogie-boarding on

the beach most weekends.

We shot Dragonheart in this bleak part of Slovakia.

Swelteringly hot, miles from anything. There was one shop,

about half an hour’s drive from where we were staying. Every

week, going to the supermarket was like going to Shangri-La.

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