Armando Iannucci opens up about his 'diverse and contemporary' take on David Copperfield
We caught up with Armando to talk about his latest film
Last updated 24th Jan 2020
Scottish writer and director Giovanni Iannucci OBE joined Simon Mayo to talk about his latest offering The Personal History of David Copperfield, an original take on Charles Dickens' novel, David Copperfield.
Armando is a satirist, who most recently directed The Death of Stalin, and explained his reasons for wanting to take on the 160-year-old story; "I wanted to tell it a different way, I wanted to approach it as if no-one had ever made a costume drama and there were no rules and conventions as to how you did it."
Armando revealed he wanted to make the film ten years ago when he re-read the book. He said, "I was struck by how very modern it was, how the issues in it about ‘Who am I?’ and imposter syndrome, David spends the whole book trying to wonder who he is, if people liked him and if he’s fitting in and if he’ll be found out and it felt very contemporary. I knew then as I was reading it that I wanted to make it as a movie.
" I’ve always read Dickens and I’ve always found it really funny. We have this idea of Dickens being a long-winded big Victorian novelist who talks about fog and mud and street urchins and poverty, and yes there is that but also he’s very, very funny, especially in his earlier books, and lots of great one liners. David Copperfield describes this guy who has personal space issues as being “so close to you that he’s nearer to you than your own shirt”, and that’s a gag!"
Watch the official trailer for The Personal History of David Copperfield
The cast of The Personal History of David Copperfield
Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel takes on the titular role of David Copperfield, accompanied by an all-star cast including Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Ben Whishaw, Peter Capaldi, Gwendoline Christie, Benedict Wong and Aneurin Barnard to name just a few.
The film has been undertaken with blind-casting, where roles are awarded for talent as opposed to characteristics. Armando explained, "I wanted the casting to feel diverse and contemporary but set it very much authentically in 1840 because I want the issues within it to feel fresh and imaginative. I didn’t want to use CGI trickery, I wanted to use slightly more fun, hand-made special effects and to stress the comedy and life in it."
Armando also told us how he enjoys the promotion of films, "First of all you’ve got to be happy with what you’ve done and I’m really pleased with the film and how it’s come out, so I want to go out and sell it. It’s so different from doing a TV show where you never really get to meet the people who see your show because everyone’s at home watching it, whereas with a film you go out and you do these screenings and you do questions with the audience afterwards and you get to meet your audience really, which is great.
"The last film I did, which was The Death Of Stalin, it was really moving at times because in the audience would be people who grew up in the Soviet Union under Stalin and would come up and tell me of their experiences. Once in LA, at a screening in LA, someone came up to me, and he looked a bit familiar, he was American but he looked familiar and as I was leaving he said 'Trotsky was my uncle!'"
Listen to Scala Radio's Armando Iannucci interview
You can listen to our Armando Iannucci interview in full for a limited time on the Simon Mayo catch up episode from Wednesday 22nd January at approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes into the episode.
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