Exclusive Temple Report Number 1 – 21st June, 2002

Out Of Africa

By Richard E. Grant

Currently shooting Monsieur ‘N’ in Cape Town till the end of July, then Paris for a couple of weeks. Extraordinary experience working in Cape Town again, having left university here twenty years ago, to seek my future in England, then to return for a film. Has really underlined how far the journey has been in every sense during the interim two decades. Seen many people from way back then and enjoyed a lot of reunions, but the most significant change that supersedes everything is the collapse of apartheid. It seemed so far off in 1982, and the subsequent changes are profound and exhilarating.

Antoine de Caunnes – ‘Rapido’ on ‘Eurotrash’ some years back – is the director and an amazing leader. Has a completely different persona in France – acts, directs, writes novels. One of the best I have ever worked with. Great script, locations, cast and crew, what more can you ask for?

I play Sir Hudson Lowe, the last English governor of St. Helena, suspected of poisoning Napoleon, as his incarceration cost the English government a staggering £8 million a year in 1817. As Napoleon was deemed world enemy number one, St. Helena seemed the best option to keep him imprisoned. He was referred to as ‘Monsieur N’ as opposed to emperor, to underline his fallen status. He spoke no English, so I have to speak very fast and fluent French in my confrontations with him. Nerve wracking, as my French is grammatically crippled at best and sluggish at worst. However, I have a coach and have practiced getting up to speed at every turn.

South Africa is the chosen location as the landscape outside Cape Town is very similar to St. Helena. It is also economically viable as the exchange rate is very favourable at present due to the weak ‘rand’. There is also a well established community of film technicians in Cape Town.

Most unusually, to avoid any ‘allo allo’ carry on accents, all the English characters speak English to each other and the French speak in French. So there will be subtitles for sections of the film, depending on what the language is of the country in which it’s shown.

The current location is a town called Hermanus, an hour and a half outside Cape Town where the small harbour has been transformed into a replica of the St. Helena harbour, replete with fort, cannons, jetty and breakwater wall. Very stormy weather conditions provided the perfect background for the arrival of Hudson Lowe on the island. 200 local extras kitted out in period costume, band p[laying ‘God Save The Queen’ on the jetty, red coated soldiers lined up for inspection and waves thundering in the background. At one point, the waves were so violent that 400 people scrambled AT SPEED up the hill side to escape the water.

A make-up assistant got clobbered in the back by a satellite dish that dislodged off a nearby roof. She is fine now, but the ‘incident’ got transmuted in the local press who reported that ‘Richard E. Grant was rushed to hospital when a piece of the set hit his head during the storms’ etc. prompting a flurry of phone calls from people assuming I was out for the count.

French actor, Phillipe Torreton is playing ‘Napoleon’.

Have had a two week break back in London. Presented the National Portrait Gallery BP Award to winner Catherine Goodman and attended the launch of Prince Charles’s New Arts and Kids Foundation launch at Buckingham Palace to provide more arts activities and opportunities for children currently deprived of them. Being at the Palace underlined just how far I have ‘journeyed’ since arriving in London twenty years ago with a couple of suitcases and a head full of hope!

Am hosting a second charity clay pigeon shoot at the Holland And Holland Ground in Ruislip, on the edge of London on Thursday the 12th September, alongside Lord Richard Attenborough, fellow trustee of Waterford-Kamhlaba school in Swaziland, to raise further bursary funds.

Thank-you again to the REGiment for so loyally supporting the first event, the ‘Withnail-For-Waterford’ screening three years ago. The clay pigeon shoot raised £100,000 last year, which translated into one and a half million in the Swaziland currency, and we are hoping to raise a similar amount this year. So if there are any ‘shooters’ out there who want to put a team of four together, let me know. The cost of a team of four is £1000 and includes breakfast, endless shooting on a variety of stands, celebs, champagne reception, three course lunch, goody bag, ‘entertainment’ and an auction.

As before, every penny raised goes to the bursary fund. The costs of staging the shoot are covered by the generous sponsorship of HSBC Bank. guaranteeing that whatever we raise, or get donated, goes to the bursary fund. Am like a rottweiler when it comes to this as so often money donated to charity gets waylaid into paying admin. NOT HERE! Thank-you again to the REGiment for making donations previously. I visited the school when I had a few days free on ‘Monsieur N’ last month, and the place is as inspiring as ever.

Please email the Temple any questions you have and I will do my best to answer them.cheers and chin chin
richard.