White Lightnin'

An intense, visceral portrait of a troubled soul, White Lightnin' is the feature debut of British commercials director Dominic Murphy. Inspired by the life of notorious Appalachian Mountain dancer Jesco White, it blends reality and fantasy to hallucinogenic levels. Set in America, filmed in Croatia, and starring a lad from Doncaster, White Lightnin' is as unique as its crazed protagonist. It's also a big break for Edward Hogg (Brothers Of The Head), who's going on to star in hip Brit comedy Bunny And The Bull later this year.

What attracted you to Jesco's story?

DOMINIC: It was a very powerful story. I kind of identified with it for some strange reason. It was a guy battling with his demons, tormented, using drugs and alcohol to try and numb the pain and making it worse. I guess I identify with all of that.

How did the project come about?

DOMINIC: It was a long development process. There's a short story that my friend Shane Smith wrote, reflecting on Jesse's life and telling his life story. We developed that into a screenplay. It took a few years, and through that time I would go meet Jess, go hang out down in Boone County, Virginia a little bit. Ed went and hung out for a wild afternoon down there, shooting guns and getting drunk, people were stripping off...

ED: Best day I've had in ages!

Edward Hogg on stage as Jesco White in White Lightnin'.

How did you prepare for playing such an extreme character, Ed?

ED: I used to do thing where I used to do 'high knees' which is basically running on the spot for two minutes before we shot. Sometimes I used to scream before we did the shot, which is quite embarrassing when you talk about it, but it really gets you to a level and you can go into the scene emotionally charged. But Dominic was constantly telling me to be nice. It's very easy just to play very hard and very angry.

DOMINIC: Some very dangerous, frightening people, the more angry they get the more polite they get and that's when it gets really frightening. It was all about repressed anger and rage. You have this pressure cooker that's building all the way through the film, so that when it explodes it makes sense.

What were the challenges of filming in Croatia?

DOMINIC: Well, apart from not speaking the language and not having any money… We had a million quid for everything including post, music, everything. So the shoot was probably half of that, which is like some of the commercials that I do. So it was a pretty small amount of money, but they were brilliant out there. They make a lot of films out there they can't afford to buy stuff so they just make things all the time.

How did the film's distinctive style come about?

DOMINIC: I didn't want it to look Hollywood and I didn't want it to look documentary style, so it was an attempt to reconcile those two. The idea was that it was a blend: we wanted it to be a real movie piece, not documentary style, but at the same time I wanted it to have naturalism and grit.

How was filming a feature different from working on commercials?

DOMINIC: Surprisingly, it's not that different. I love working with actors, I've done a lot of improvisation with actors and I studied acting so I wasn't freaked out by the acting side. No-one thought we could do the schedule - five six-day weeks - we just had to hit it hard and keep moving, so that was physically demanding. You push yourself on a commercial - I guess the difference is you push yourself for three days, and with this you push yourself for five weeks.

Ed, this must have been quite different for you...

ED: Yeah, it was the first time I've played a role of a certain size on screen. I was very nervous before we started. When you're doing a small part in a film and you're on it two or three days, no one talks to you, you have two lines to say, and you put a whole load of pressure on yourself to say those two lines, and nobody gives you any feedback. Doing this I had a real dread that I was going to have five weeks of that, but I had a lot more contact with Dominic. You form a relationship, it was thrilling. Theatre was the world I come from - it was just a lot more like that. I felt like I was collaborating with the director and getting feedback - it was very exciting.

DOMINIC: I tried not to let Ed do any rehearsing. He was quite freaked out by coming on set and really not knowing what he was going to do. The dialogue's verbatim as it was in the script but he had no idea how he was going to do any of it, he'd learnt the words and that was it. So through the process of this shoot, which we shot roughly chronologically, Ed was very disorientated which was great because it brought out this anxious energy and really contributed to his performance. He was getting more and more into the character as we progressed.

What was the most challenging scene to film?

DOMINIC: The scene with Reilly in the trailer, the climax.

ED: We did 18 scenes that day, I think we'd done 17 hours!

Something really electric happened at that moment and it was the perfect moment for him to do it because it was the climax.

DOMINIC: We came to that scene and Ed took it to another plain and everyone on the crew went 'F**K!'. Something really electric happened at that moment and it was the perfect moment for him to do it because it was the climax.

A hairy moment for Birty Mae, played by Carrie Fisher.

Do you think you sometimes get best results when pushed to the limit?

ED: Absolutely, when you're doing six day weeks... With creativity you do get to that point when you stop worrying so much, you're so tired and something exciting always happens then. You go to a different place, you're pushing so hard. I'd say the best directors always do that. I've only really got two directors that I feel that way about and Dominic's one of them. Daniel Kramer the theatre director is the other. For me it's the best way of working, the end results are just so much more thrilling. It's hard at the time but all the best things come from it being hard - it shouldn't be easy.

Do you prefer working in film or theatre?

ED: I like theatre more but I'd love to do more screen. I want to do as much film as I can. I'm in Bunny and the Bull, I'm doing another film in July and August called Ollie Kepler's Expanding Purple World and I'm doing a play at the National Theatre till January called 'Our Class'.

And what are you working on next, Dominic?

DOMINIC: I'm still doing commercials, and I've got a few things I'm developing - one's a very, very exciting science fiction project and one's set in the late 60s, a story of a marriage that's in crisis.

Do you feel a responsibility to represent Britain in any kind of way or do you feel that you're part of an international scene?

DOMINIC: I think the film scene is international just by nature of how it's financed and how things are put together, but at the same time I feel really British. I like the fact that this is a British film and it's an American story. I don't want to ship out to LA - I want to stay in Europe. I find British and European films very exciting, I'm proud of British film history.

ED: I think I feel the same, but I don't know how much choice you have. You have to take the role that's chosen for you and embrace it. But if I had a choice I'd like to be involved in European cinema. I wish I could speak more languages than English... I guess we only see the best of foreign cinema in England. We see a lot of good French films, a lot of good Spanish films. I'd love to work with some of those directors as well.

DOMINIC: The UK Film Council have been brilliant - they've backed us all the way, really supported us. They loved the script and didn't want to change anything in the edit. I think for young British filmmakers, culturally you feel really connected to people like commissioners and you talk their language. You go to America and it's really different there, is it's a real business, a commercial venture. You feel a little bit alien over there sometimes.

What advice would you give people starting out in film?

ED: I'd say for an actor, in the beginning, whatever work you get offered just do. Don't be picky and choosy, just keep working. Unless you're fortunate enough to be offered three or four jobs - if not don't be fussy and just work and hopefully it will lead to bigger and better things.

DOMINIC: I'd advise filmmakers not to try to fit into some conventional way of making films so that they can be commercially successful, or write a script because they've been told this is how you're supposed to write a script. If they really believe in something and it comes from their heart then I think that comes through the work. Just be confident in that.

White Lightnin' is due for release in UK cinemas on Friday 25th September 2009.

Anna Smith | Published 26th June 09