The Times Online – Thursday 11th August, 2005

By Richard E Grant

Budget nightmares, casting catastrophes, defecting producers…..despite all this the actor Richard E. Grant got his directorial debut ready for the Edinburgh Festival next week.

When I first started to pitch Wah-Wah I was an unknown quantity: I had no track record to prove myself as a director to any actor or financier. My work outside acting had consisted solely of my film diaries and my novel, By Design. People thought I could write, but writing a screenplay was another risk factor. It was difficult trying to get people to take me seriously.

Wah-Wah is about my upbringing in Swaziland and the trauma of my parents’ separation. Being an actor helped to get it made – it allowed me to get my foot through the door and approach people who knew who I was. But they said I had no track record: “Why should we give you money?” Then, of course, people wanted to know who was going to star in the film. To secure interest you have to get actors – you have to bull**** them. That happens only one way: you send out the script and hope that somebody bites.

Gabriel Byrne and Julie Walters wanted to do the film almost straight away, and once they had committed it made things a little easier. Byrne, though, was very worried that his character, based on my abusive father, was so hateful that anybody watching the film would find it difficult to relate to him. After a while, though, he saw the role for what it was: a challenging one.

The filming was beset by problems from the outset. The first producer, whom I had relied on hugely, withdrew to become a drugs counsellor in the West Indies. Another year and a half went by with nothing much happening, and Wah-Wah was placed with an executive producer who was basically babysitting the project. We weren’t able to secure any finance but I felt comforted in the fact that at least it was a production company that had a reputation for making feature films. Then finally a French producer came on board with whom I had worked before. It became a co-production between France, the UK and a bank in Johannesburg.

The financing of Wah-Wah was a quagmire. Trying to make people believe that we were indeed going to start shooting in June 2004 was difficult. Then, just as we were getting off the ground, there were changes in tax loopholes for people filming in Britain. It was like having the film pulled out from underneath you. I remember I took two dozen phone calls that morning with people saying how sorry they were to hear that my film had failed. I phoned the co-producers and they said that while they were worried, they would stick with the film.

There were times that seemed utterly surreal. The actor Nicholas Hoult, who plays my character as a teenager, effectively withdrew from filming because he was starting to look older than his part. I then had to recast the younger version of him. Hoult then became available again. The tiniest change can throw the whole schedule off. You feel like you are juggling marshmallow and jelly at the same time. It sounds funny now, but at the time there was a sense of complete despair.

I found that my obsessive nature helped get me through the experience. I prepared as much as I possibly could. We went to Swaziland and every door that was previously closed to us was opened. All the groundwork research had been done.

Time and time again I was told that I would never make the film on time and never make it on budget. That kind of criticism tends to turn me into a great big motor of efficiency. The actors also got equally committed and it helped that they fell in love with the country and were committed to the story. There was a real cohesion and we thought we would pull it off against the odds.

Filming isn’t the end of the process, though. I was told by industry people that the title was too weird and that it didn’t address the 18 to 24-year-old testosterised group of people who go to the cinema these days. How are you going to sell it, people asked me. Who will it appeal to?

Once, during one of the many collapses of this film, I was working with Robert Altman on Gosford Park. Jude Law pulled out weeks before filming was due to begin. The film was pulled since the financiers thought they couldn’t sell it in the US without a major star. “We’re floating on gas at the moment,” said Altman. In the end they got Ryan Phillippe to replace Law. I thought if this can happen to a person with as great a reputation as Altman the stuff I was going through was small beer.

If you believe in something enough you hope it will reach people. We had a film screening in London to which we invited members of the public. To make them laugh and move them was a thrilling experience – I levitated. I realised that even if my film worked for just 40 people in a tiny movie theatre, then it would find a home. It was an incredible relief.

Wah-Wah will be screened on Wednesday at Cineworld, Edinburgh (0131-623 8030)

Lessons with Richard E. Grant

“No” is the word you will hear more than any other. Tattoo “Yes” onto your psyche and never give up.

Always have an answer – even if you change your mind five minutes later. Best compliment your crew can give you is “He knows what he wants”.

Get the best catering your budget can afford – a well-fed cast and crew are all the happier for it.

Start shooting as early as possible. It establishes a rhythm and galvanises everyone into action.

Ensure that your script is watertight. If it’s not on the page, it will never magically appear on the screen.