We went to meet the main stars and director of Legend after seeing the film about the Krays, shot in London starring Tom Hardy playing both of the Kray twins.
Attendees:
Brian Helgeland – Director
Actors:
Tom Hardy
Emily Browning
Christopher Eccleston
When did the Krays first enter your atmosphere?
Tom: I think as a kid you see the books in the true crime section; well I did anyway, they popped up, and I had a brief interest in true crime, when I was about 15 or so. That’s when they first time on to my horizon, That’s about it really. And then playing them was a question of going back and looking at all the source material that is available and there’s a lot of source material on the Krays.
Emily: I honestly had never heard of them until I read the script!
Christopher: Who are the Krays? …As a teenage boy, I think like Tom, there’s a point where you become obsessed very interested in Gothic violence and I remember going to the true crime section a lot, so I would be about the same age.
Tom: …but a lot better looking
Christopher: And I have twin brothers so I was particularly interested in it…
In terms of the research that you did, did you speak to people who were involved in the Krays, did you read books, etc?
Tom: Well there’s always that question about research, like have you done your home work? No, no, I didn’t know what I was doing! To a certain degree that’s true, and let it be what it is, but there is in fact a plethora of research that one can do on the Krays. I did wear Reggie’s watch that he died in, on my wrist. And we had various members of the world come out and talk, and the private meetings, and then there’s only one piece on the BBC where they are speaking for a minute, but you can’t really take a lot from that because they were on show, so you can’t tell whether that’s their true voice or their true mannerisms. There’s lots of photos, there’s mythic tales that circulate which are usually from people that didn’t know them; and then it forms patterns of stories and anecdotes that seem to reappear a lot, and lot of diaries and footage from documentaries…Yeah I did loads of research there you go!
Emily: I mean there’s really not as much information about Francis as there is about the Krays themselves, which was actually nice for me, I didn’t feel like there was maybe as much pressure on me to not get it right. So I had little bits and pieces and Brian actually got me a few letters that Francis had written to Reggie, and that was what I held onto and I built her around that. But otherwise, the research for me was really about the accent and learning about the time, and the place, but otherwise I just did it I suppose.
Christopher: To quote David Bowie, ‘I threw my homework on the fire and I took a car downtown!’ I think there’s a lot of bollocks spoken about research.
Tom: Totally mate…!
Christopher: It’s make-believe. I felt what Brian had written sent a very clear message to me about what he wanted. So I relied entirely on what was in the script and what happened on set. Me and Brian did have a number of conversations about what kind of dog ‘Nipper’ Read might be. We decided on a bloodhound, because apparently a bloodhound, according to Brian, and this may be complete fantasy, will run until it dies! Will chase a criminal or prey or whatever until its heart bursts! No homework.
KRISTA: For Tom – In the notes it said you were more interested to play Ron rather than Reg; what drew you to want to play Ron more?
Tom: The truth of the fact is; from a technical point of view, Ron is predictably unpredictable, so for a performer it’s fun to play, you’ve got multiple options and you can pull the rug over anybody you want at any given time; so it’s a freeball character. Whereas Reggie is constrained to meet boundaries and strict discipline in life, and that’s kind of boring in some aspects for me, because I don’t want to go straight down the line, I want natural choices and I want to have fun so I was drawn initially because I have a bit of a disco ball head, like Ronnie.
Was there a particular shot that was a challenge to film with two Toms?
Brian: We tried to not make the camera too aware of what was going on, try not to draw attention to what he was doing, it was a lot of little things really. There were some things we found were just untenable in terms of how much time they took up. but we used a couple of tricks really and used them over and over again without getting too fancy
Tom: It was a question of how we were going to do it, it was basic. There was no budget for CGI, so it was back to old school slightly basic drill. We were finding out for the first time using split screen, talking to a tennis ball, or taking to Jacob. Ultimately, there had to be another actor there, and somebody who who I could act opposite. It was sort of a mental puzzle. It was mathematical in a strange sort of way, a mixture of sums, geometric shapes and maths and a bit of creative blagging! And then obviously a bit of home work!
Was there any reason why Violet Kray had a such small role in the movie?
Brian: So much has been done about the mum and the boys that I wanted to stay away from it. You know, that’s the thing that’s really been done to death. I never bought into the whole close with their mum idea. Every gangster story I know, the characters are close with their mums, so I didn’t especially take it as something that was unique to them, maybe that might be my own point of view.
What’s your opinion of the Krays?
Tom: I just have a healthy indifference to be fair; it was a thesis that I worked on for a little bit, and that was my subject and I spent a little bit of time researching and working with them in fantasy and pretending; and that’s where we leave it at the end of the day. So I got to do a bit of research, and some schooling as it were, but I have a sort of healthy indifference to everything really so I can just invest in the next thing that comes along, and each experience is something under the belt; to move forward.
What was the turnaround from going from Reggie to Ron in terms of make up/styling?
Tom: it was about an hour and a half? It had to be quick. We had teeth, a wig, we had to plump up the nose. So there was about an hour’s worth of make-up between Ronnie and Reggie, but we only had seven weeks to shoot. So we couldn’t faff about – we had to get on with it quite quickly. There were also wedges in the shoes because Ronnie had to be a bit taller, and he had an extra layer of shirts so his shirts were bigger, a double-breasted suit, waistcoat, glasses, so there was a different silhouette between the two guys.
What was it like wearing period costumes?
Emily: It was great, I love that period, in terms of fashion so it was very enjoyable for me really.
Christopher: I looked exactly like my paternal grandfather, and he was a frightening man, I was struck by that when they put me in the gear, and I looked at my self, and I based it on him, and his effect on me as a child (laughs) and his basic outlook as I imagined it. So it was helpful.
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Legend is out in UK cinemas on 9th September.
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