What was it like filming the opening sequence in the US?
What a laugh! I got to shoot my very first film in South Central Los Angeles. I felt like such a proper film maker! I had gangsters, guns, helicopters, two cameras, all this crew, and I was just in heaven.
And what was it like filming in Ali G's birthplace, Staines?
The only practical difficulty is the Ali G character is so popular we would be swamped, it was like a mini version of Beatlemania every time we went on the street. It created a nice party atmosphere, but the Assistant Directors were constantly having to shuffle people out of frame.
How did Charles Dance react to the news he would have to wear drag?
He took it really well. Originally he was in a gimp costume, with the hood and billiard ball in the mouth, but we realised in a visual medium it's quite hard to tell who the actor is when he's got a mask on his face! So we re-wrote it, and muggins here had to tell him the new plan. "You get to dress up in a very short tight rubber skirt and a boob tube". There was a long silence, at which point I thought he must have hung up. Then there was this sigh and he said, "Right! I want stockings, I want a wig..." and he got completely into it. Charles actually thinks he has better legs than Nicole Kidman, and there was a little part of him that really loved it.
What do you think audiences will make of the film?
I don't know really. I think it's really funny and I hope other people will too. If people don't find it funny they can go and watch "Iris"!
