What fresh Madness is this? Chris Sullivan listens to Suggs and co recording the sound of silence before checking out Mark Wahlberg's impressive right hook in The Fighter...
On my way to today's screening I bumped into my old pals Suggs and Chas Smash from Madness and their producer Clive Langer. They were outside my local, The French House in London's Soho, freezing their cojones while supping on a wee dram. They were waiting to record four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence for Cage Against The Machine - a charity release that’s aimed at stopping The X Factor winner from reaching number one over Yuletide. The chaps dragged me into the Dean Street Studio which was packed with famous musicians - none of whom I recognised. As I am quite unable to keep silent for even a second, I had to adjourn. Still I’d love to hear a silent Christmas single. Bloody marvellous.
The movie I saw was The Fighter, directed by David O. Russell. It's based on the true story of boxing half brothers ‘Irish’ Mickey Ward and Dicky Eklund and was absolutely superb. Starring Mark Wahlberg on top form as Micky and the forever brilliant Christian Bale as Dicky, I was riveted.
"The Fighter is about family, love, relationships and overcoming adversity. The drama of the story is as powerful as the boxing is exciting,” explains Wahlberg, who trained intensively for several years to take on the physically and emotionally demanding role of Micky Ward. “David O. Russell really had a great view of the script, of this world and the people in it.
"David got that scrappy spirit of the movie, and we did exactly that. Every day I lived and breathed boxing to become Micky Ward. I knew the kind of expectations Micky had and mine were just as high I wanted to be believable in every aspect of the role, including the boxing. I didn’t want to rely on editing or choreography, I wanted to look and be the part, for real.”
”Mark inhabited Micky,” says Russell. “He moved like him, dressed like him and got his style of fighting down perfectly. More than that, I think he also he really understood him. Like Micky, Mark’s family has been through everything - all kinds of heartbreak. Like Micky, he doesn’t give up, ever. He has that same intensity to him. It’s a quiet, frightening intensity that when he breaks it out, is extremely powerful.”
He goes on: “Mark has been a fighter, he has also been in and out of jail in the past, so he brought all that realness, all that heart and all that experience to the character of Micky. Mark set the bar very high with how much commitment he had to give the role and how much love he had for these people. It elevated everything everyone else did, whether you were the make-up artist or the director.”
The Fighter opens on February 4th.
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