From Rebecca Murray,
Your Guide to Hollywood Movies.
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The future as envisioned in Children of Men finds mankind on the brink of extinction. It's been 18 years since a child was born and the world is in turmoil. But there is hope. A young woman has been discovered to be pregnant and now it's up to Theo (Clive Owen), a disillusioned bureacrat, to help get her to a group of activists who will protect both mom and baby.

The P.D. James Book and the Relevance of Children of Men: “I didn’t know the book and I read it afterwards. It’s obviously like whenever you do an adaptation of a book, that was the starting [point] and the huge inspiration for the movie. But then Alfonso had a lot of other things he wanted to discuss. Alfonso, I think, with this movie has been very clever. He’s actually using a film set 30 years in the future as an excuse to talk about present worries, concerns, and fears that we all have. It’s an incredibly relevant vision of the future because he’s really looking ahead and saying, ‘If we’re not careful, this is where things could be going.’

I don’t think the film is that futuristic. If you look at the opening scene, my character walks into a café, walks outside, and a bomb goes off. The beginning of the movie, that’s the world we’re in. That’s not futuristic, you know? That’s incredibly relevant. I think it’s not that farfetched. There are endless images in this movie that we’ve seen that we are sort of already familiar with. He’s obviously taken it further than the real thing but I just don’t think it’s a fantasy.”

The Single Take Process of Children of Men: Owen’s recently been a part of a couple of films involving special technical processes, and the actor says he’s always aware of what’s going on behind the camera while he’s performing. “It’s one of the elements of making movies that I actually really enjoy. I love the collaboration of doing shots like those in Children of Men because there’s something about filmmaking that, you know, if it was just about putting great directors, great scripts, and great actors together and you’re guaranteed a great film, that’s one thing, but that isn’t the case. There aren’t any rules. There’s something sort of elusive that’s out of any individual’s control that makes a film work or not work, and when you’re doing one of those hugely ambitious long sequences of one shot, it’s a genuine collaboration. It’s everybody pulling together to try and make something happen. The responsibility is a collective one.

The strongest memory from the movie was how much, how closely I had to work with the [camera] operator on those sequences. We would rehearse for a very, very long time and it was very painstaking and specific. But then when we come to shoot it, it has to feel like we’re catching it on the run. You’ve got to feel like you’re in the thick of it and it’s all about pacing. If you hold a beat a bit too long, it will suddenly feel a bit manipulative. Like, ‘He’s held there so we see the tank just over his right shoulder.’ We work very, very specifically about what we want to see and what we want to catch. Then when we go for it, we’ve got to shape that up and keep an energy that is much looser than that.

They’re very adrenalized, those sequences, because there’s huge resets. It’s like some of those big ones are four, five-hour resets to try and go again for a take like that. So everybody is very adrenalized, gearing up to go in for one of those takes, and there’s something just a bit magical. I think that technically some of this film is pretty staggering. The operator…most of the film is hand-held and the operator did a really incredible job, I think.”

What Goes on Behind the Scenes During the Long Takes? Owen says Cuaron just lets it flow after they’ve rehearsed and choreographed everything down to the smallest detail. “Somebody’s there to abort if something early on goes wrong. There’s no point in going on and carrying on and blowing up the side of that building if very early on there’s something that is obviously amiss. No, it was really about rehearsing very, very thoroughly. Then it was very cool of Alfonso because he then – sort of the pacing and everything – he then hands the trust over to George [the camera operator] and I that we’re going to do that thing.

One of the takes of the big sequence at the end going through the thing, there was a unanimous sense at the end of that one that that was the one. Alfonso was then very worried because the blood spattered on the camera and Emmanuel Lubezki said, ‘But that’s brilliant. That’s brilliant!’ But collectively at the end of that take, there was a sense – George, I, everybody – like that was it. We nailed that one. And Alfonso decided in the end we’re going with it because it worked. That was the best take.”

Working with Newcomer Claire-Hope Ashitey: “She’s a very talented and lovely actress, and it’s just really about making sure that she feels comfortable in that environment. She hasn’t done that many films and it’s a big film, and it’s an ambitious film. You don’t have to talk about it, but it’s just everybody’s very aware of making her feel confident and comfortable. I mean, you know it’s a given that actors do their best work when they’re confident. If the confidence goes, the work’s not going to be as good. So you’re just constantly trying to create an environment where people feel comfortable and confident to do their thing.

She was lovely to work with. It was great casting. I think Alfonso is a very pure, visionary director, and he just cast the best person for the part.”

Page 2: On Alfonso Cuaron and Playing a Different Sort of Action Hero