After a five-film 'apprenticeship' in America, the English director's first British movie is the 007 picture Skyfall. Here, stars including Daniel Craig and Naomie Harris reveal exclusively what it is like working with him
Sam Mendes has proper English credentials. He grew up amid the spires and meadows of Oxford, where cricket was his passion. Taking a first in English at Cambridge, he then spent time in the provincial city of Chichester, learning how to handle the theatrical types who strut across British stages.
Yet Mendes, who has been hailed since American Beauty in 1999 as a leading Hollywood film-maker, has taken a long time to come home. Now after five films, each fairly hardboiled takes on life across the Atlantic, he is trumpeting his return to British cinema by directing the latest instalment in the most quintessentially English franchise of them all: James Bond.
It is a twist that amuses his star and friend, Daniel Craig, who had a hand in making it happen. "Sam had this stratospheric start to his career and made these great films, but he had never made a movie at home," he told the Observer this weekend. "And he is such a cinephile, so it is extraordinary that the first British film he has made is James Bond, which is about as British as it can be."
Craig was looking for someone to help him steer his third portrayal of the most famous spy in the world. "I met Sam at a party and I had had a few drinks. I told him what I wanted to do in the next film, to get back to the humour and the lightness and the sophistication, because I wanted to sound him out for the job."
Mendes has also joked about his lengthy "apprenticeship" in the United States, before he was ready for Bond. After his Academy Award for directing American Beauty at the age of 34 came his gangster tale, Road to Perdition, then the war story Jarhead and the sterile suburbia of Revolutionary Road, before his smart-talking travelogue, Away We Go. Mendes's choice of a Bond movie seemed strange after these intelligent tales but, as a succession of critics line up to give Skyfall a glowing five stars, it appears to have paid off.
"We knew we had it, to be honest. Sam and I could tell as we were making it," said Craig. "Of course, it comes from the writing on the page in the script too, and from never, ever forgetting it is a Bond film. Sam hasn't directed Ibsen here, after all, although he could do that very well too."
The world will make its judgment when the film is released on Friday, although Craig confirms Mendes has still been editing footage over the last fortnight. It is a visually arresting and unexpectedly emotional spectacle, but audiences will also see a sly paean to the craft of acting.
"Sam comes from a theatre background, so I knew he would speak the language of actors," said Naomie Harris, the British actress who plays the MI6 field agent Eve.
"I knew he would know how to direct us. It is surprising how many film directors don't know how to do that."
Harris, 36, believes Mendes's intense focus on the dynamic of relationships binds all his film work together. "He sees that if you get that right, then everything else follows. Even in Bond, you can get lost in all the action without that. All the people around Bond have to be as credible as possible, then the chemistry makes it more exciting."
After the Chichester Festival Theatre, Mendes directed Dame Judi Dench in The Cherry Orchard in the West End when he was only 24, then went on to run the Donmar Warehouse. Dench now plays a central role in Skyfall, in her seventh outing as "M". She carries the weight of the story – and its message, too.
"There is a lot of subtext in this film, not just the mother theme, which is fairly obvious," says Craig, "but the idea of coming home too, and of dealing with your past; coming home to this dark place. It's a story with many levels, but it is quite a deliberately simple, strong plot. We did a lot of work on that. Sam wanted it to be clear."
Watching one of the film's previews last week was another Dame for whom the story is particularly pertinent: Stella Rimington, the first woman to lead MI5 and at least half the inspiration for Dench's character. "It made me rather sad actually," she said of the film. "I kept hoping it wasn't going to end like that."
Star acting turns come from Javier Bardem and the 76-year-old Albert Finney. According to Craig, the cast came to Mendes because of his reputation. "Sam is so bloody-minded about getting what he wants, and he understands how to get it. On the set of Road to Perdition I remember him coming up to Paul Newman and just saying quietly 'Do it better,' into his ear. Newman just shrugged and said 'OK'."
Jude Law shares Craig's memories from Road to Perdition: "It was a very smooth operation, but the script allowed for quite a bit of interpretation and Sam relished letting my imagination go. I visited the Donmar under Sam regularly and his diversity of style was inspiring. Somehow everything he touched became relevant."
Harris was slightly unnerved by Mendes's willingness to use her ideas. "He is a total collaborator. I just wish I had thought of a few more ideas to offer. My mother is a scriptwriter, so I am always very respectful of the script. But you were free to experiment," she said.
Craig said he was allowed to improvise a bit with some funny lines, but that Mendes was careful to rein him in when he overstepped the mark. "We didn't want it to be disrespectful to Bond. We were clear about that."
Harris, who has appeared in the Pirates of the Caribbean films and starred on television in the BBC drama Small Island, was picked out by Mendes when he saw her perform at London's National Theatre in Danny Boyle's acclaimed Frankenstein. "He called Danny and asked him what I was like to work with," she said this weekend.
"I did three auditions and they told me there was a good chance I would get it. He told me that they wanted a modern Bond girl, someone who could go toe-to-toe with Bond."
She describes Mendes's work on set as "detailed and specific". "He is good at sussing you out as a person and he uses that. It sounds a bit manipulative, but it isn't. It is just a skill."
His confident manner, which Mendes has described as a product of "the Oxbridge machine", was comforting. "He must have been nervous, but all you saw was a smile. I have not seen the film yet, so I don't know what he has done tonally, but he was clearly having a ball. One day I asked him whether he was always this happy. He said, yes, and it was because he is a Bond fan."
Back in 2002, when the film director went into collaboration with Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks, Mendes said he would be going back to his roots in Britain "soon". In fact, it took a decade, one failed marriage to Kate Winslet and the sort of populist project that no one would have predicted to lure him home.
In the runup to the Skyfall premiere, Mendes, who is now in a relationship with Sir Peter Hall's daughter Rebecca, has talked enthusiastically of the challenge of making "a big, glamorous escapist movie that still deals with the world we are living in".
Mendes's Bond film aims high, expressing a faltering but beguiling British patriotism. And he has even hinted that he might make another Bond film, since Craig is due to play the part at least twice more.
For now, the director must prepare his first West End musical since a revival of Company at the Donmar in 1995. It is a fresh version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, opening in the summer, made with the blessing of Roald Dahl's estate and with Douglas Hodge in the role of Willy Wonka. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
Sam Mendes has proper English credentials. He grew up amid the spires and meadows of Oxford, where cricket was his passion. Taking a first in English at Cambridge, he then spent time in the provincial city of Chichester, learning how to handle the theatrical types who strut across British stages.
Yet Mendes, who has been hailed since American Beauty in 1999 as a leading Hollywood film-maker, has taken a long time to come home. Now after five films, each fairly hardboiled takes on life across the Atlantic, he is trumpeting his return to British cinema by directing the latest instalment in the most quintessentially English franchise of them all: James Bond.
It is a twist that amuses his star and friend, Daniel Craig, who had a hand in making it happen. "Sam had this stratospheric start to his career and made these great films, but he had never made a movie at home," he told the Observer this weekend. "And he is such a cinephile, so it is extraordinary that the first British film he has made is James Bond, which is about as British as it can be."
Craig was looking for someone to help him steer his third portrayal of the most famous spy in the world. "I met Sam at a party and I had had a few drinks. I told him what I wanted to do in the next film, to get back to the humour and the lightness and the sophistication, because I wanted to sound him out for the job."
Mendes has also joked about his lengthy "apprenticeship" in the United States, before he was ready for Bond. After his Academy Award for directing American Beauty at the age of 34 came his gangster tale, Road to Perdition, then the war story Jarhead and the sterile suburbia of Revolutionary Road, before his smart-talking travelogue, Away We Go. Mendes's choice of a Bond movie seemed strange after these intelligent tales but, as a succession of critics line up to give Skyfall a glowing five stars, it appears to have paid off.
"We knew we had it, to be honest. Sam and I could tell as we were making it," said Craig. "Of course, it comes from the writing on the page in the script too, and from never, ever forgetting it is a Bond film. Sam hasn't directed Ibsen here, after all, although he could do that very well too."
The world will make its judgment when the film is released on Friday, although Craig confirms Mendes has still been editing footage over the last fortnight. It is a visually arresting and unexpectedly emotional spectacle, but audiences will also see a sly paean to the craft of acting.
"Sam comes from a theatre background, so I knew he would speak the language of actors," said Naomie Harris, the British actress who plays the MI6 field agent Eve.
"I knew he would know how to direct us. It is surprising how many film directors don't know how to do that."
Harris, 36, believes Mendes's intense focus on the dynamic of relationships binds all his film work together. "He sees that if you get that right, then everything else follows. Even in Bond, you can get lost in all the action without that. All the people around Bond have to be as credible as possible, then the chemistry makes it more exciting."
After the Chichester Festival Theatre, Mendes directed Dame Judi Dench in The Cherry Orchard in the West End when he was only 24, then went on to run the Donmar Warehouse. Dench now plays a central role in Skyfall, in her seventh outing as "M". She carries the weight of the story – and its message, too.
"There is a lot of subtext in this film, not just the mother theme, which is fairly obvious," says Craig, "but the idea of coming home too, and of dealing with your past; coming home to this dark place. It's a story with many levels, but it is quite a deliberately simple, strong plot. We did a lot of work on that. Sam wanted it to be clear."
Watching one of the film's previews last week was another Dame for whom the story is particularly pertinent: Stella Rimington, the first woman to lead MI5 and at least half the inspiration for Dench's character. "It made me rather sad actually," she said of the film. "I kept hoping it wasn't going to end like that."
Star acting turns come from Javier Bardem and the 76-year-old Albert Finney. According to Craig, the cast came to Mendes because of his reputation. "Sam is so bloody-minded about getting what he wants, and he understands how to get it. On the set of Road to Perdition I remember him coming up to Paul Newman and just saying quietly 'Do it better,' into his ear. Newman just shrugged and said 'OK'."
Jude Law shares Craig's memories from Road to Perdition: "It was a very smooth operation, but the script allowed for quite a bit of interpretation and Sam relished letting my imagination go. I visited the Donmar under Sam regularly and his diversity of style was inspiring. Somehow everything he touched became relevant."
Harris was slightly unnerved by Mendes's willingness to use her ideas. "He is a total collaborator. I just wish I had thought of a few more ideas to offer. My mother is a scriptwriter, so I am always very respectful of the script. But you were free to experiment," she said.
Craig said he was allowed to improvise a bit with some funny lines, but that Mendes was careful to rein him in when he overstepped the mark. "We didn't want it to be disrespectful to Bond. We were clear about that."
Harris, who has appeared in the Pirates of the Caribbean films and starred on television in the BBC drama Small Island, was picked out by Mendes when he saw her perform at London's National Theatre in Danny Boyle's acclaimed Frankenstein. "He called Danny and asked him what I was like to work with," she said this weekend.
"I did three auditions and they told me there was a good chance I would get it. He told me that they wanted a modern Bond girl, someone who could go toe-to-toe with Bond."
She describes Mendes's work on set as "detailed and specific". "He is good at sussing you out as a person and he uses that. It sounds a bit manipulative, but it isn't. It is just a skill."
His confident manner, which Mendes has described as a product of "the Oxbridge machine", was comforting. "He must have been nervous, but all you saw was a smile. I have not seen the film yet, so I don't know what he has done tonally, but he was clearly having a ball. One day I asked him whether he was always this happy. He said, yes, and it was because he is a Bond fan."
Back in 2002, when the film director went into collaboration with Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks, Mendes said he would be going back to his roots in Britain "soon". In fact, it took a decade, one failed marriage to Kate Winslet and the sort of populist project that no one would have predicted to lure him home.
In the runup to the Skyfall premiere, Mendes, who is now in a relationship with Sir Peter Hall's daughter Rebecca, has talked enthusiastically of the challenge of making "a big, glamorous escapist movie that still deals with the world we are living in".
Mendes's Bond film aims high, expressing a faltering but beguiling British patriotism. And he has even hinted that he might make another Bond film, since Craig is due to play the part at least twice more.
For now, the director must prepare his first West End musical since a revival of Company at the Donmar in 1995. It is a fresh version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, opening in the summer, made with the blessing of Roald Dahl's estate and with Douglas Hodge in the role of Willy Wonka. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.