Hugh Whitemore wrote the screenplay for THE GATHERING STORM. He spoke with HBO.com from his home in London, England.
HBO: Welcome Hugh Whitemore.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Thank you.
HBO: First off, tell us about the genesis of the screenplay, and What it was like researching such a hugely significant historical figure as Winston Churchill.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Well, the genesis couldn't have been less auspicious, really. I was approached by the producer, Frank Dolger, and asked if I would be interested in doing this. I was planning to do something else, and I felt daunted, I suppose, by the prospect of writing Churchill, of trying to bring him to life dramatically.
Over the course of my writing life, quite without planning it, I seem to have written a lot of stuff which is based on real people or real events. And I'm not quite sure how this happened, but it has happened. And this wasn't the first time that somebody had asked me about Churchill. I mean, it goes back, I don't know, twenty-odd years. I've been asked to do it for the stage. And I've always said no, because I didn't know how to bring it any freshness.
But in this particular instance, there was a very interesting subplot in the material that Frank Dolger brought me. It was about a man called Ralph Wigram, who worked in the British Foreign Office, and who was so appalled by what he believed was the British Government's concealing information from the British public what was really going on in Nazi Germany, that he-Wigram-decided to take secret documents from the Foreign Office, to show them to Churchill, so that Churchill's speeches would have the truth in them. His words would carry the ring of truth.
Now this interested me, cause I thought this element of almost John LeCarre sort of stealing of documents, gave the thing a narrative. It wasn't just a slice of history dramatized; it was a story. There was an interesting character, who was very sketchily introduced into the material that Frank gave me. But I decided to do a bit of research about Wigram. And to my great good fortune, I discovered somebody who actually knew him.
Now he died many, many years ago. But I actually came across somebody who knew him and his wife, and talked about him at length to me. And suddenly that seemed to be an interesting idea. But I was still very um... frightened about the idea of writing Churchill. And I didn't know how one could put words into his mouth, how one could possibly recreate this. Especially for English audiences, I mean, he is, you know, he is an icon.
HBO: Yes.
HUGH WHITEMORE: So I had an idea for a scene...between Clemmie-that's his wife, Clementine Churchill-and Winston. So I thought, well, I'll just sit down and write it, and if it's no good, I'll just tear it up.
HBO: [CHUCKLES]
HUGH WHITEMORE: And, in fact, it turned out well. In fact, the scene is in the movie, totally unchanged I think.
HBO: Which scene is it?
HUGH WHITEMORE: It's the scene when she tells him that she's going on a cruise, and he accuses her of being selfish.
HBO: Oh, yes. It's a wonderful scene.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Which I wrote in about half an hour. And, you know, it's just extraordinary. I just sort of thought, well, I'll just try it. And then I thought, well, maybe I can do it. And so I said to Frank, "Yes, okay, I'll have a go." And then of course, one had to start researching it. And we had a very good researcher, a research lady from the BBC who helped provide stuff for me. And I suppose I read about 150 books.
HBO: Jesus.
HUGH WHITEMORE: You know, the trouble about doing research is that no matter how good and how wonderful the researcher may be, it's only by doing it yourself-see, I've discovered this time and time again. That you're looking at maybe, you know, something like how Churchill spent his morning working. And on the page before, your eye suddenly catches something about what Churchill had for breakfast. Which suddenly becomes much more interesting in a movie.
It's the way people live. I mean, that's the problem. It's easy enough to research the public events-the speeches, the meetings, the confrontations, and all that. That's relatively easy to find. But what is difficult to find are those moments... the smell of the time, the actual reality of day-to-day living. That's difficult, that's difficult. And that's, of course, what makes it, makes the movie work or not. I mean, you don't want to have a load of waxworks stomping around. This thing of giving them flesh and blood.
Obviously, one draws from one's life as well. I know what family life is like, how children can annoy you. I know how husbands and wives have rows, you know, and make it up, and all that sort of thing. So there's a lot of me in it. And I'm old enough to have been alive for the War, the Second World War.
HBO: Tell us a bit about Britain at that time.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Well, the interesting thing is, you see, in Britain the 1930s really continued until around 1960. The War-the Second World War-sort of cut out a great chunk of social development of the country. And really...when I was a child, growing up in the 1940s and 50s, it was really still the 1930s in atmosphere. And this is why the 60s were such a revolutionary thing, and of course it changed everything. So I do remember something of the flavor of the years. The sort of life, the sort of attitudes which were around at the time the movie is about. So that's a great advantage. For once, it's an advantage being older.
HBO: [LAUGHS] Now once you committed to the project, and had found a way into the story, was there anything after that which was daunting?
HUGH WHITEMORE: Well, the thing was giving Churchill and Clemmie life. You know, to make the audience moved by them, be fond of them, be infuriated by him. You know, when you write about real people, the most important thing is to try to find incidents in their lives, or moments, which have the-what's it called?-the shock of the real.
HBO: Mm-hmm.
HUGH WHITEMORE: In a way, with Churchill, one wanted to see him, you know being difficult with his staff, being jealous of his wife. Every husband gets jealous; every father gets cross; every person with people working for him gets cross with them from time to time. And he was a difficult man. You know. He was undoubtedly...as somebody said, a huge baby, really. Selfish and self-centered.
And yet, of course, he had this vision...this confidence, I suppose, which...won the War. But one really had to find ways of-this was a difficult thing-of bringing him to full, rounded life. One didn't want uh- I...By this time, I didn't know who was going to act him, of course. One wanted to give the actor-whoever it was-a real chance to create not just the representation of Churchill, but somebody with vitality and uniqueness.
HBO: And flaws. The humanizing flaws and unique personality details are what make the movie come alive.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Yes. You know, people, no matter how famous they are, how distinguished or how prominent in public life they are, you know, they all- they all- they're human beings. I remember, when I did this Nixon film, I remember thinking: when the whole Watergate thing blew up in his face, he had to go to bed and stand at the mirror and shave. And I thought, what on earth does he think as he looks into his reflection as he shaves? He's a human being.
HBO: Absolutely.
HUGH WHITEMORE: You know, drama is- I mean, there's this rather sort of dismissive thing about what we call over here 'docudrama.' I think you (in America) do to, which I think is a meaningless term. Because after all, look at Shakespeare. He wrote Julius Caesar, Henry V, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard II; all, you know, based on real people, real events. But he used those events, and used those characters, to try to forge a drama which engaged you with historical events, but also had a human weight and a human significance, and explored something. After all, plays and movies, that's what they do: explore human beings. And this is just another way of doing it, I think.
HBO: Much of the film explores the love story between Churchill and Clementine. Do you think their love story outlives its time? And if so, what about it makes it timeless?
HUGH WHITEMORE: Well, I think it is timeless. It's about a marriage with all its, you know, rocks and shoals, and happiness and irritations. Which I think Albert and Vanessa do quite wonderfully. But what makes it timeless, I hope, is its truthfulness. You know, if you write about marriage in a truthful way, which I try to do in this, then that, if it works, makes it timeless. Because truth... In any situation, any human relationship, any human endeavor, the truth...is never of one time. It should be timeless. And that's what I think I wanted to do. And I think in a way, with enormous help from the actors, I think we've pulled off.
HBO: Indeed.
HUGH WHITEMORE: It's very strange, actually, because I've known Vanessa (Redgrave) off and on-and no, I've never worked with her before, but I've known her for many, many years. And Albert (Finney) and I were at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts at the same time. And I remember one day (during the shooting of the film) we were down at the studio, and I wanted to give Albert some extra lines or something. And I went into his caravan, and he was sitting there, dressed like Winston Churchill, with a sort of suit, vest, and all that. And smoking a cigar. And he looked just like Winston Churchill. I mean, it looked as if I'd gone into the caravan and there was Winston Churchill.
HBO: What was the most remarkable thing you discovered in your research about Churchill?
HUGH WHITEMORE: How vulnerable he was. His vulnerability. You know, when a man becomes a hero, a war hero and a great leader, you think he must have sailed through life with great confidence and self-assurance. But in fact, he had a miserable childhood. His parents treated him like shit, you know. He had no love, he had no attention. He needed so much the security of his relationship with Clemmie. And he was an incredibly vulnerable man. He would cry easily. He was emotional. And so one realizes the enormous-what should I say? Um. The size of his courage was enormous, because he wasn't naturally like that. And I found this very moving. And I didn't realize that until I started to read about him.
HBO: The public and private sides of Churchill's life- how did you balance them so equally?
HUGH WHITEMORE: The answer is: [LAUGHING] by a great deal of work. You've got to shape it. But I do that after I've done the first draft. I think the first draft's got to just be a living, you know, like a living thing.
HBO: Do you find the characters lead you rather than you leading them?
HUGH WHITEMORE: Oh yes. (But) we didn't know how to end it, you see. And that all really sort of came out as we struggled through the last few pages. Richard Loncraine, the director, was round here at my house, and we were talking about the ending. And we came to this marvelous phrase, "Winston's back." And suddenly, Richard ran across- I've got a very long room here, and he ran down the length of the room and, and acted, really, said, "This is how it should be," and did it. So we all said, "Terrific."
HBO: What was it like working with (executive producer) Ridley Scott?
HUGH WHITEMORE: Well, I can tell you a very funny story about that. It was terrific, and he was enormously helpful. But I had the idea, right at the beginning that really started me off, having done the scene with Clemmie and Winston. It seemed to me that Churchill had spent his life wanting to be a hero. And had great admiration, almost idolatry, of his ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough, who won this great victory at the Battle of Blenheim; that seemed to me to be what he wanted. He wanted to be a hero like the Duke of Marlborough. So then I had this idea maybe we should see the Battle of Blenheim. And that's what he wants, you know, that glory: the flags, and the cannon, and all that. But one gets so used to thinking, "Oh, well, that's gonna cost too much. Don't even bother. As a writer, particularly these days when everybody's cutting their costs, you know, you simply say, "Oh well, there must be a cheaper way of doing it." And then I thought, "No, no, sod it. I- Damn it," you know.
HBO: [LAUGHS]
HUGH WHITEMORE: I thought, "Ridley Scott... Look at the great scope of his movies. And since he is producing this, I shall put in the Battle of Blenheim."
HBO: It's wonderful.
HUGH WHITEMORE: It was Ridley's presence, as it were, that gave me the courage to do it.
HBO: Tell us about how Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave came aboard.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Albert and I met and he'd agreed to do it. And what was remarkable- Well, two remarkable things. One is that he came for a make-up test. And off he went. And we were sitting in the room that overlooked the car park... big windows. And one of the people there said, "My God, look at that." And I looked out the window, and there's Albert, made up as Churchill, walking across the car park. I mean, it was incredible. And I ran downstairs and went up to him, I said, "My God, Albert, that looks unbelievable." And he said, "It's not Al- It's not- No, it's not Albert," he said. "Not Albert."
HBO: [LAUGHS]
HUGH WHITEMORE: And the thing is- Cause he had hardly any make-up at all. He shaved his head, and they put a wonderful sort of wig of sort of thinning hair onto his head. But he wore no other make-up. He said right from the beginning, from our first meeting, "I don't want any prosthetics. I don't want any of that. I can do it." And he actually shortened himself. And I'm not quite sure- he seemed to lower himself down into his chest, and stick his head forward. And he lost about six inches. It's extraordinary.
What he's also brilliantly done is, the voice is not like Churchill's. Well...it's not a copy of- it's not an imitation of Churchill's voice. But what he did, he sort of wrote the whole script out in sort of phonetic language. And all dialogue is music, you know. A chap like me, a man who writes dialogue, really writes music. Because it's what it is. It has to have rhythm and all that. That's what matters. And he got the rhythm. I was enormously careful, in the writing of the dialogue, to get the rhythms right. And Albert took it a stage further and sort of took those rhythms and made it into... something which is convincingly Churchillian, but is not an imitation.
And then Vanessa was quite obviously, you know, the ideal casting. And again it's rather funny, actually, because we had lunch with her. And I said, "Well, what is it, what do you think it is? Why was their marriage so...so happy and productive? What was it she saw in Winston, who after all was a difficult, difficult man at the best of times?" And Vanessa said, "Well, he was a sort of a poet," she said. "That's why she loved him."
HBO: Hmm.
HUGH WHITEMORE: She says, "You read the letters..." Actually, it's a marvelous book edited by Churchill's daughter, Mary Soames, called Winston & Clementine.
HBO: I've been pouring through it actually.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Vanessa said those letters were the clue to how she played the character. She said he- she knew his... Where the truth lay for Vanessa.
HBO: The way he addresses, and the language he uses, it's so beautiful...
HUGH WHITEMORE: Yes. It's a very touching. And then we had a read-through of the script before we started filming. You know, I was just dazzled, dazzled by what they did. I was there most of the time, actually, during filming. And you'd be having a cup of coffee, and then suddenly, they'd go on, and they became other people. And it's very strange when you see people you know well walk a few feet away from you, and become somebody else.
HBO: Tell us some of the day-to-day events that struck you...of the production itself.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Well, I mean, Richard Loncraine made it look... It doesn't look like a sort of old-fashioned, period reconstruction. And the look of it: it looks real. I mean...I defy anybody to say, "Oh, that... doesn't look real." And this is stuff I found so fascinating, is that the production designer, you know, Luciana Arrighi, and all the props people. You go into a room, and you couldn't believe that the characters hadn't just walked out- and real people had just walked out, leaving a newspaper on the chair, or a half-finished cigarette in the ashtray, or whatever it is. The whole feel of the period, of the place, the Englishness of it, was so perfectly captured.
So...there was a real world for these characters to move in. And I loved watching that. And we had this marvelous lady who came and cooked. I mean, you know, she came and cooked 1930s-type meals for them. So that the lunch that Clemmie and Winston have is...you know, was a proper 1930s-type menu they had.
HBO: Which was what?
HUGH WHITEMORE: Well, it was steak and kidney pie, and brussels sprouts-which Clemmie throws at him, and potatoes. Also...he would, of course, drink his champagne with lunch, and also smoke a cigar at the same time. And there's a scene later on in the movie when Winston and Clemmie go to have lunch with Ralph and Ava Wigram. And in the after-lunch scene, they talk about the imminence of war. And I noticed when I went and saw that set, that they'd arranged little petit fours, little biscuits and chocolates to have with the after-lunch coffee. Every detail was correct, and every... And so the world we created-you know, me with words, Peter Hanlon with his photography, Richard with the overall direction-it was a wonderful world for the actors to sort of blossom and develop in. In...in other words, it was all terrific teamwork.
HBO: You mentioned an interesting detail, story-wise, of the Wigram character, of the child that he and his wife had.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Oh yes. Well he had cerebral palsy, which used to be called spastic. And, you know, it's very important... this child was a very important, pivotal part of the story, really. And we talked rather a lot about how to do this-whether we should get a normal child and make him act like a child who's got this disability. But we then thought that would be dishonest. So Julie Payne (who produced the film with Ridley Scott) knew somebody who worked with handicapped children, and through this friend, made contact with a society which deals with children with cerebral palsy, and put the problem to them.
And I don't know how they did it; I think they sort of asked a number of parents how they would feel about it. And one wonderful lady came along and said yes. She has this marvelous little boy called Laurie. And he came along to the studio, and was...you know, utterly, unbelievably enchanting. And he did it.
HBO: It's one of the more fascinating parts of the film - how the child motivated the father to act.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Well, the racial purity thing all came up, you see. (Wigram) knew that Hitler was part of these dreadful sterilization laws, that anybody mentally handicapped or physically handicapped, were...that people were being sterilized. And, you know, I'm sure this had the most colossal emotional impact on Ralph Wigram. I think that drove him even more determinedly to make the British public know what was really going on. And this is all true. That a senior government figure went and saw his wife and said, you know, "Unless your husband plays ball, we're going to make life difficult for you and your child."
HBO: It's a very powerful scene.
HUGH WHITEMORE: Incidentally, that character, Ava, who's so beautifully played, I think, by Lena Headey; she remained, in fact, one of Winston's closest friends right the way through till the end of his life.
HBO: What do think it is about Churchill's speeches and spirit that American leaders in particular are drawing on so heavily in the wake of September 11?
HUGH WHITEMORE: I think he is an example of a very great leader in adversity. And I suppose in times of great trouble, which you're having in- well, the whole world's having, actually. You know, one looks around the world and thinks - there is no leader like Churchill who has the sort of vision and the determination and the sheer balls to pull it together. But it is based, I'm quite sure, on this great vision of life which he had. You know, he was an artist as well. He painted. He wrote beautifully. He got the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was-to use an awful, cliched phrase-a Renaissance man. He did so much. He experienced so much. And because of this experience, that's what made him a great leader.
HBO: Hugh Whitemore, thank you for your time.
HUGH WHITEMORE: You're very welcome.
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