STACK #137 Mar 2016

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So did she already know that you were going to play her father? Yes. Stephen had said to David ,“I’m going to ask Chris O’Dowd”, and David had said yes and then he had called his daughter and said, “you know, they are talking about getting Chris O’Dowd”, and I learned later that while she was listening to Dawn and I talk about it all, she texted her Dad and said, “you won’t believe who is sitting at the next table…” And the film company weren’t incredibly excited about me and David getting

You think it got personal? Yes, I think it was personal. I think there were things said at various times that are in the book, and I won’t necessarily say them because they are not in the film, where Lance had spoken things about David’s personal life that weren’t very kind and then Lance thought he was so untouchable. Has David seen the film? Yes, he was very involved. Before I took on the role I wanted to talk to David because I didn’t want to do it unless he was fully behind it. writing and he was a countryman and sometimes with these things somebody buys a book and they make a film out of it and it doesn’t necessarily mean that the writer of the book is behind it or there is some weird publishing thing, you know the way it goes, it’s “I’m not going to be involved in that.” So I just wanted to make sure it was something he was into. So I managed, in an odd way, to get his contact details. Why? I think because I knew his

What do you mean by “in an odd way”? I was out to dinner with my wife and it was the day after Stephen had told me about the film and had given me David’s book and I was telling her all about it and we were at a little restaurant somewhere in Bermondsey [South London] where we live and after a while this young lady came over and said, “listen, I don’t want to interrupt…” and I said, “do you want a photo or something?” and she said, “no, my father is David Walsh” …What are the chances? It was extraordinary.

in touch – they wanted to make sure everything was done through due diligence, but I got David’s phone number and email address from his daughter and so we started talking, and once I knew he was on board, I started getting these great stories from him that weren’t in the book and I thought were useful. So he has been great. And apparently he likes the film and I saw him this morning – for the first time since he’d seen it – and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if he wasn’t happy, but he was incredibly positive about it.

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