Craig Viveiros discusses his directing influences

Following on his debut feature Ghosted, director Craig Viveiros returns with his second title The Liability, bringing together a fantastic cast for an inspiring British thriller, with the likes of Tim Roth, Jack O’Connell and Peter Mullan all on board.

Leading up to the film’s May 17th theatrical release, we were fortunate enough to speak to Viveiros on the phone, to discuss working alongside such esteemed performers, while we also quiz him on the brilliant soundtrack, and his own directing influences…

Your first feature Ghosted came from a screenplay you had written yourself – how was this experience taking on somebody else’s script for the first time?

It was a good experience, I mean, part of the process of me actually taking on the project was an agreement with the producers that I would have the process of rewriting the script, and there were actually quite heavy rewrites on the script, to add some more characterisation, and to tailor some of the comedy to my sense of humour, and also to change a lot of the locations, and to rewrite the ending… So actually even the origin of the story was something that appealed to me, part of the process of me taking the job was that I would have quite a heavy say and facility to rewrite the script of my own will.

You’ve mentioned the comedy aspects  was there much of that in the original script, or is that something you implemented yourself?

The original script did have some comedy, but I really wanted to bring out the relationship between Adam (Jack O’Connell) and Roy (Tim Roth) and find the humour and awkwardness in that, and to show the steel doorway that is Roy and how Adam tries to penetrate, yet nothing came back. But yeah I thought the story was great at face value, but it just needed a little push in the right direction to make it something that was special and ultimately quite unique.

You’ve assembled a fantastic cast – you must have been thrilled to have got the likes of Tim Roth and Peter Mullan on board?

Absolutely, yeah it was amazing. Plus they’re great directors as well as actors, so that was something I was looking forward to. When you’re on set working with such prolific actors you just have to forget about them really, because in that situation you’re all the same. I’ve directed a couple of movies and those guys have been around for decades, so obviously it’s a bit daunting, but as long as you have the film in your head and you know how to interpret that to the actors, they will respect you. You’re all one when you step out onto that stage.

You’re still so young yourself – it must have been so helpful to have such experienced heads around on set?

Absolutely. Absolutely. It was just a pleasure to work with them, and they were very understanding with what I wanted to do with the film and where I wanted to take it, and I think they interpreted the direction and my vision perfectly.

Jack O’Connell is also great in the film, he has this real everyday quality to him and is very easy to relate to as a result – how important do you think it is to this story that audience are able to empathise with this character?

This is the most important factor of the film, audiences could take a disliking to Adam, but the great thing about Jack is that he has such a natural ability to be such a charming and loving performer that even if he does intentionally grate at times, you still see that there is actually just a young guy in there, looking for a role model, someone eager to impress, and there is something quite sad about that really. His history, his past and his relationship with his step-father has been so damaged that he thinks there is something wrong with himself, that he is trying too hard to impress Roy, and to be what he thinks he should be, but not what he wants to be. Jack basically had to play that complexity and he did so brilliantly, he is an amazing performer.

Tell us about your influences too – although this is certainly a unique piece of filmmaking, you can see shades of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie in there. Were they filmmakers who inspired you?

I enjoy their films and I think they’re great filmmakers, but I really try not to use other films as references. For me, I just wanted to have this hyperrealist take on the world, this heightened reality. So often we see Newcastle as a damp and dismal and gritty, but it’s a wonderful, beautiful part of the world and I really wanted to show that off and use the industrial history and heritage of the area to represent that decline in Tim’s character, which is why I changed a lot of locations on the script. We brought in new locations it added new facets to Tim’s character. I just thought using the North East as a location gave it that sense of poppiness, and it’s something that hadn’t been done in the North East before, so I chose to do it.

There is a really great choice of music in the film too – a real eclectic range of choices – can you tell us about those selections?

Yeah I wanted to add an eccentricity to Tim’s character and to give him a colourful back story, being a soldier of fortune in Angola, so we had this big story Tim had to embrace, and I gave him a series of books to read and he absolutely loved it. Obviously there are these quirks in his character, such as the Cuban music, so going in to the film I already had music I wanted to use and I knew how I wanted to use it, allowing me the chance to use lots of tracks and artists I have wanted to use in film for a very long time. This story came along about this character of Roy, so it seemed fitting, and also to add a bit more colour to the film. The film opens with an Italian, sinister love song which works for the scene, and then also there are young American and English bands that I had heard about and think are great. I love my music and I hope it works well for the film. We wanted to add a mix of the old and the new – to enhance that contrast between Adam and Roy and the music they like, and the contrast between the locations and what they represent, and it was always a theme that was underlying through the film.

So what is next for you now?

I’ve got a few things that I’m working on, and I’m currently writing a project called Pickpocket, which is a dark thriller set in London. I’m also doing a science fiction – of an economic downturn that is set in the future, and what people have to do to survive. Plus I’m working on a couple of projects in the States, so yeah, I’m keeping busy.

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