Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost” is a contemporary political thriller about a writer who is selected to ghost-write the memoirs of a British Prime Minister but uncovers some dark secrets along the way.
The film has a great cast that includes Ewan McGregor (the writer), Pierce Brosnan (a proxy for Tony Blair), Kim Cattrall, Eli Wallach, Tom Wilkinson, Olivia Williams and James Belushi.
McGregor recently spoke about working with the legendary film director and was candid about his blunt demeanor, but also highly laudatory about his skills. “He pushes you quite hard and always demands that you look for the truth of the scene and pushes until you get there, until you stop acting it and you start feeling it. But he’s also got quite a brusque manner, so you have to have a thick skin,” McGregor told the L.A. Times.
“That said, I’m very fond of him. He’s one of the very few completely brilliant directors that I’ve worked with. There aren’t really very many, I have to say, or it’s a shame to say. To be an artist in terms of what you see and what you want to feel out of each scene, a kind of master of the technique and the technicalities of filmmaking, and a master of directing actors, which is usually the one that’s missing — there are many who have no idea how to speak or to pull good work out of actors — is very rare. Roman was all those things.”
Asked he felt about the director’s imprisonment, the actor said it was difficult to speak about. “I try not to [follow the news coverage of his arrest and imprisonment]. I was pretty upset. I don’t like to think of him sitting in a prison cell. But I wouldn’t comment upon it because it’s a very complicated issue, you know? It seems odd. He’s been living in Switzerland for years and I’ve visited him there, so this is all very strange.”
McGregor also spoke of working on “Amelia” with Hilary Swank (“I think she’s such an amazing actress”) and says he actively pursues working with particular actors more than he does directors (perhaps this is why his career has been in second gear for over a decade), but one actor he doesn’t want to work with is Daniel Day-Lewis. “I’ve never worked with Johnny Depp, and I’d really love to,” he said adding other wish list names. Kate Winslet. Rebecca Hall. Directors, I don’t know. I’m odd with directors because I don’t have a kind of wish list. Daniel Day-Lewis? I don’t know. I think I’d like to work with him. Whenever I watch him, I think, “What’s the point? There’s no point in carrying on. That’s it.” I remember watching ‘In the Name of the Father’ and coming out of the cinema and burning my equity card and going ‘I’m finished.’ There’s no way I can ever be that good, and it’s so depressing. I feel like I’m talking myself out of it again…”
Polanski is evidently trying to finish “The Ghost” from jail and the film is scheduled to open in March 2010 and will probably hit the Berlin Film Festival in February 2010.