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EDDIE IZZARD (Charlie Chaplin)

Did you study newsreels to help you play Charlie Chaplin?
No, I read up about him in 1989. It was the 100th anniversary of his birth. I read his biography and it said he was so funny that people had to tighten up the cinema seats because people were laughing so much, [the seats] were coming undone.

I found his stuff unfunny on television. I hadn't really watched him, so I went and watched him in the cinema. I thought he really is funny but you have to see it in a cinema, with an audience and an orchestral score. It really kicked and I loved it. I found out he really was funny. I was fascinated with his life because he wanted to go to America and become the most famous person in the world. When I heard about the "Chaplin" film - I only heard about it when it was coming out - I thought, "Damn, I'd have liked to have at least auditioned for that." Then Peter asked if I wanted to do this one, and I thought that was great.

Did you study Robert Downey Jr.'s performance in "Chaplin?"
I'd seen it before. I don't think I went and watched it after that because I didn't want to get influenced by what Robert Downey Jr. had done. He was Oscar-nominated and I thought it was great. People were kind of down on the film, but I found it fascinating just because I was fascinated by his life.

Did you try to talk like Chaplin talked in American movies?
In 1919, a journalist wrote up a report saying he speaks with a strong South London accent. That was the last date I had clocking him going South London. In 1942, you've got his re-voice over for “The Gold Rush” and you've got him speaking differently. Sometime during those years he changed his voice pattern. This [movie] is 5 years after the article, and we don't know when the elocution lessons happened. I just thought I would take a slightly posh version of my own accent. This was Chaplin all about getting laid, and that's it. No one knows what he was like off-stage. Even in pictures of him, he looks different. I don't really look like him. Anthony Hopkins was sort of my model here because he played Nixon. This year I watched “Nixon” and I thought, "That doesn't look like Nixon." After a while I thought, “Actually, what does Nixon look like? Ah, f&*k it. This is Nixon.” [Anthony Hopkins] was going for the essence. I went for the essence of Chaplin.

I made some sweeping decisions on how I thought this whole sexual relationship thing happened. I think he suffered from a low sexual self-esteem, which I think a lot of kids have. I don't think he knew how to flirt with women. I think he used to cast people who he fancied. He was God-like on the set and he knew it. It was a silent movie set so all the crew could laugh. Woman - and men - would have been impressed. He got paid $800,000 for “The Kid,” which is about $80 million these days. This is the guy. That's why he could go off with these 16-17 year olds, I think. He just didn't know how to bring what he was doing onstage - which was all kind of visual - into interacting with women, which is sort of covered in the film, as well. The year before (this incident), Pola Negri came over from Europe. She was this gorgeous Polish actress and she said, “I want to marry Charlie Chaplin.” They were going out and I think Charlie just went with this, if you look at his pictures. Paramount was kind of behind the scenes going, “Good publicity, let's go with this.” And then it all just fizzled out. They were engaged, but I think Chaplin said he couldn't do this. One year later, in 1924, I think Marion had a sense of humor and she was allowed to have flings with other actors. Hearst was 62, she was 27, and Chaplin was a threat. I think what we filmed was probably what really did happen.

Did you and Peter Bogdanovich discuss how you wanted to approach Chaplin?
No, I just did it. I sort of developed it somewhat on the way. The way it was shot initially, I just had some scenes walking in and out of doors. Then we went down to Greece and I started doing more scenes there. I was kind of developing it on the hoof.

Did Bogdanovic make suggestions on Chaplin's movements?
No, I didn't want any [help with] movements. He was the kind of director that if it was working, then he was happy with it. He just let me go. I didn't want any of Chaplin's screen stuff happening, I just wanted to bring him to me. We don't know what he was like off screen. If you look at those pictures of him, he just looks different in each one. I know that in a party situation, he could do the party pieces. But I felt let's not do that, let's do him trying to get laid, actively flirting - flirting as if his life depends upon it.

I sort of took parts of my own experience in my own life, and brought that in. My strange 'coming out' at 23. I was a very cocky kid as a straight transvestite. Then, at puberty, I lost all of my confidence. I had low sexual self-esteem and it came back in my mid-20s when I started learning how to flirt, so that's how I played him.

I thought this was the period after Pola Negri where he was getting it on with Marion. That's all documented. The press thought that they were going out. It was in the book “The Chief” - the Hearst biography - which I picked up at San Simeon, which I went to after the film. You've got the week before that fateful weekend, Chaplin is caught with Marion in someone else's cabin on that boat, making love. And then there's a mock wedding on the set of her film. They both went through a mock wedding that was filmed. [Chaplin] was hanging around the set all the day. Hearst was out with his family, because he has a bloody family. If Hearst turned up, it would have been a problem, but she was allowed to have flings. They filmed this wedding and then the producer says, “Can't have that,” and takes it and burns it. That's documented in this biography so this really was happening.