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Working with wolves must have been interesting. Did you do any special training in order to feel even semi-comfortable around them?
“Really it was just hanging out with them, and it’s more about them feeling comfortable with you," said Hugh Dancy. "Although obviously I had to pull myself together a little bit too because the wolves can’t be trained. They’re wild animals. You can’t really teach them tricks so it’s more about me getting used to the idea that this wolf is just going to jump on me to get at the little piece of red meat on my shoulder which they had placed there. Obviously it took some convincing. (Laughing) I mean me not the wolf.”
How many times did you flinch?
(Laughing) “You know, you realize pretty quickly that the sensible thing to do is not flinch. Flinching goes out the window pretty quickly. They were beautiful, really beautiful animals and fascinating to be so close to them. Once you’re comfortable around them it’s very easy to fall into the illusion that, ‘Oh, they’re just kind of big, big, hairy dogs,’ you know? They come up and they’re like dogs. You can play with them and can pet them a little bit. They lick your hand or whatever, and then suddenly someone comes out with a bit of food and you see what’s underneath that and you have to think again.”
They would actually just put meat on your shoulder and expect you to stand there while a wolf came at you?
“Yeah, in a very general, very broad sense that’s the way it works. But I realized that they’re not just… It’s not like they’re going to go for the meat but if they can’t get that they’ll take the next best thing, like your ear. They’re more advanced than that, so I lost whatever fear I might have had pretty quickly.”
But you still have to act while they’re coming at you…
“Yeah, but you have to act terrified so it’s not too difficult.”
And you didn’t have to worry about them hitting their marks?
“No, because most of the time their mark was me (laughing). I could see them coming. There was technicalities and things, the little stuff you do. It’s weird. You end up worrying more about, ‘Okay, how am I going to land? Make sure the wolf’s head is going in the right place for the camera and I have to do this and that.’ You think, ‘Hang on! Somebody is throwing a grown wolf at me. Why am I worried about all this other stuff.’ But it was all pretty good.”
When you were having grown wolves launched at you, did you ever at that point question why they didn’t go with CGI instead?
(Laughing) “Yeah. ‘These live wolves seemed like such a good idea at the time.’ No, honestly not. I’ve worked with CGI before and there may have been moments of nervousness with the wolves but nothing compared with the long stretches with tedium that you have to endure when you’re acting - and also the humiliation - when you’re pretending to be wrestled to the ground by something that isn’t there. You’ve got a whole film crew standing around looking at you. It’s just embarrassing. I prefer the real thing any day.”
Not only did you have wolves launched at you but you also had to do an American accent. How difficult is it for you to pick up accents?
“Not too tough. I mean it depends, really. I guess I feel fairly comfortable doing that.”
Is it usually a matter of just studying a little bit and then it comes pretty quickly?
“I was working with a few Americans and I’m working with Agnes [Bruckner] and you just have to rely upon people’s honesty. I’ve done it the other way around. I’ve worked with American actors doing British accents and you have to remember, ‘Okay, there’s no point in being polite.’ If I messed it up, I hope that somebody will say to me, ‘Look, that’s not how we say whatever it might be.’”
Have accents always come pretty easy for you?
“Yes, relatively speaking. It’s a bit of a hostage to fortune to say that, but it’s not something that really daunts me. I mean, maybe it should more than it does but it’s not something I worry about too much.”
And how was working with Agnes Bruckner?
”Great. Agnes is a lot of fun. I really did have a very good time with her. There were moments when we were filming two weeks back-to-back of night shoots and it just decided to pour with rain every night all night. You know, we’re having fun but that can be a little of an uphill struggle. And so you need a kind of somebody to cheer you along and vice a versa, and she was great like that.”
After doing a ‘horror’ movie like this, would you do it again?
“Yeah, sure. As far as I’m concerned, in general, the best thing you can hope to do is to vary what you do. You never know what the result will be. Particularly with movies, you never know what the end product is going to be when you get involved and that’s part of the pleasure. You’re putting yourself in this massive group venture so, yeah, to keep yourself enthusiastic you look for something new somewhere down the line. But certainly doing this hasn’t made me think, ‘God, I’d never do a horror-based movie again.’ Quite the contrary.”
Page 3: On Choosing Scripts, The Jane Austen Book Club, and Evening
