STACK Aug #154

CINEMA FEATURE

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STACK sat down with Christopher Nolan, Harry Styles and FionnWhitehead to talk Dunkirk . Words Gill Pringle The Great Escape

W hen Christopher Nolan first announced he would make an epic action film about Dunkirk - the big question was: who would play Winston Churchill? After all, one of Churchill’s most iconic addresses is so pertinent to the Dunkirk story, his stirring words commonly referred to today as the “We shall fight on the beaches” speech. Intense secrecy surrounded Nolan’s 70-page script about the WWII evacuation of 330,000

British and Allied forces from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, between May 27 and June 4 1940, and none of the cast were even given copies before being hired; the lines they were asked to rehearse were often red herrings. With so many competing Churchill performances in the starry 2017 film and TV line-up - Brian Cox in Churchill , Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour and John Lithgow in TV’s The Crown - would Nolan even be so bold as to throw a fourth Churchill into the mix? Unsure if an actor had actually been cast as Churchill then, who would be chosen to actually recite his historic speech? “That was a tough one because while we were rehearsing to play soldiers, many of us - including myself - were given Churchill’s speech to read,” recalls Harry Styles, 23, whose presence in the film will guarantee that every teenage girl on the planet will become a WWII history buff. The task of reciting Churchill’s speech would ultimately fall to unknown British actor Fionn Whitehead who, as Tommy, is the emotional heart of the movie.“It was included in the audition but no-one knew who they were going for and whether or not it was going to be in the script. “It wasn’t until I was offered the role and given the script, that I found out. No pressure there!” grins Whitehead when STACK meets with him and Styles at a hangar at Santa Monica airport where WWII aircraft and rifles are displayed on make-shift beaches. “The whole time I was reading it, I was

Director Christopher Nolan on set with Kenneth Branagh

There was no room for complaining about any personal discomfort

Harry Styles (left) with Aneurin Barnard and FionnWhitehead

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AUGUST 2017

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21/7/17 12:06 pm