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Directed by Sam Mendes and Empire of Light’s Olivia Colman.
The new film “Empire of Light” from Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”, “Skyfall”) opens in theaters on December 9.
Set in an English seaside cinema in the early 1980s called Empire, Hilary Small (Olivia Colman) is a theater manager dealing with unwanted sexual advances from her boss Mr. Ellis (Colin Firth) and her own your mental health problems.
When a younger man named Steven (Michael Ward) starts working at the theater, Hilary and he begin a relationship that will ultimately change both of their lives forever.
In addition to Oscar winners Olivia Colman and Colin Firth and Michael Ward, the cast also includes Toby Jones, Tom Brook, Crystal Clarke and Tanya Moody.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Olivia Colman and director Sam Mendes about their work on “Empire of Light,” how Mendes drew on her own childhood for the script, Coleman’s approach to her character, Hilary’s relationship with Steven, and the creation of the set on the spot.
(Left to right) Olivia Colman and Sam Mendes on the set of Empire of Light. Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh, courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All rights reserved.
Moviefone: First off, Sam, can you talk about writing the script, setting it in the 1980s, and the themes you wanted to explore with this project?
Sam Mendes: Well, I wanted to basically explore mental illness with this character of Hilary, who is based somewhat on my own mother. Growing up at the time in the early 80’s with someone who was struggling with her mental health and struggling to not be dragged into the darkness all the time.
At the same time, my teenage years in the early 1980s were a time of great excitement musically and film-wise. On the other hand, it was a time of great social upheaval, very high unemployment in the UK, racial tension riots and what not. So for me, I’m trying to find those two. There is an internal struggle in it and there is an external struggle in the world and eventually they collide.
MF: Olivia, can you talk about your approach to the role of Hilary and what are some of the aspects of the character you’re excited to explore on screen?
Olivia Colman: I was excited about all of it, except for the sex scenes, which I was terrified of, but they turned out well and made everyone comfortable. But I didn’t want to disappoint Sam. He trusted me a lot to play someone who is very personal to him.
I had Sam helping me every step of the way, so I knew I could ask him anything. I knew he would always be honest and I could say, “So when someone comes off Lithium, what is it?” I had Sam describe every moment of it to me. It made my job very easy and I was excited to try it for real.
Olivia Colman in Empire of Light. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All rights reserved.
MF: Can you also talk about the relationship between Hilary and Stephen, why they bond with each other and how that friendship changes both of their lives?
OC: I think they see each other in a way that, well, he sees her, which no one does. He sees past the fact that she is much older than him and is quite impressed with her academic background. I think since he is clearly an academic young man, it is quite obvious that she sees a dazzling, beautiful, vibrant young being coming into her world.
Everyone is looking at him because he is so handsome and she is excited that they are reacting to each other. This is true love. It’s something that will obviously never last, but there’s something beautiful between them and it somehow transcends age and color. It doesn’t matter to them. I think that was the wonderful thing about it.
MF: Finally, Sam, can you talk about the challenges of finding the right location for this film and converting the Dreamland Margate Cinema in Kent into the Empire Theatre?
SM: I mean there’s something about the English countryside, especially the English coast, especially in winter, that has a grandeur about it. Gloomy slate, gray skies and I grew up in and around this coastline. As for me, I wanted to find somewhere that had that feeling of emptiness and beauty, but at the same time it had to have a cinema that just looked straight out to sea. It was based on a cinema I remember from my childhood that was in Brighton, but that’s long gone.
Then we found this amazing giant art deco palace on the seafront in Margate, which is actually on the north coast of Kent. So this is where J. MW Turner painted his great pictures and where TS Eliot wrote The Waste Land. It is a place of true melancholy and strangeness, but also beautiful.
There was a cinema and that gave us everything. I kind of moved for a week and rewrote the script to fit the environment and fit the location because I had envisioned a different type of city, but I felt this was better. So we really did it to and around this seaside town and it gave us a lot.
(Left to right) Michael Ward, Sam Mendes and Olivia Colman on the set of Empire of Light. Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh, courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All rights reserved.
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