I, Dave Johns: Loach graduate
I, Daniel Blake star Dave Johns talks improv, raw emotions, and becoming a (screen) working-class hero with James Croot.
Six months ago, the closest thing Dave Johns had come to movie stardom was appearing in stage adaptations of The Shawshank Redemption, 12 Angry Men and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. But now the Newcastle-born stand-up comedian is not only being talked about for awards glory, he’s become something of a cult figure for his role in Ken Loach’s latest drama I, Daniel Blake.
As a 59-year-old, bald, working-class Geordie himself, the role isn’t exactly a stretch, but Johns delivers a compelling, emotional performance as the widowed joiner of the title who finds himself caught up in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he tries to keep himself from financial ruin while recovering from a heart-attack.
If the story was initially notable for being the one that dragged the now 80-year-old director Loach out of retirement, its pre-eminence was confirmed when the film took home the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May. Since then, it has gone onto critical and audience acclaim around the globe, with Johns thrust into the spotlight like never before.
When asked what the wildest part of the whole journey so far has been, Johns admits that it was ‘‘getting the role in the first place’’.
‘‘I’m a stand-up comic. Shooting a gritty drama this time last year in my hometown and then going to Cannes and winning the Palme d’Or? I didn’t see that coming at all.’’
Recommended for the role by a producer of the stage version of Cuckoo’s Nest he was in, Johns was just excited by the ‘‘honour’’ of getting to do ‘‘some improv with Ken Loach’’. ‘‘But then I kept getting asked back and I kept saying to my friends who are actors, ’I’ve been asked to go back, what does that mean?’, ‘Oh, you’re doing something right’, they’d say, ‘don’t change it – just keep doing what you are doing’.’’
Of course, getting the part was just the start. Then there was getting used to Loach’s unique way of working, although at least some things were familiar.
‘‘We shot in the Newcastle suburb of Byker [Grove], the place where I grew up as a kid. It was quite strange doing scenes on the local high street – it’s a different place now.
‘‘Ken said to me on the first day – ‘there’s no music on this film, my actors are very exposed. It’s very raw, stark and any failing to get the real emotion will show. When you are in the scenes together, all you have to do is listen to each other. Find the truth, the feeling inside you. Get the right emotion and that will read right on the screen’.’’
Helping Johns and co-star Hayley Squires (who plays young single mum Katie, who Daniel assists with her own social services headaches) to get into character, the film was shot in chronological order (a virtual rarity in modern-day cinema) and the pair only received a few pages of script each day.
‘‘Basically you live the life of the character and you don’t know what’s coming one day to the next,’’ says Johns. ‘‘You have to throw yourself into it. Everyday you come home, wait for two pages of script to come through your letterbox, you learn it that night and then you’re up again at 6am. That’s what I did every day for eight weeks.
‘‘The way Ken works is he puts his actors in real situations. For instance, the scene where Katie is shoplifting. Most directors would close the shop and put lots of extras in. Ken just left it open and you’d hear him say things like, ‘let’s just let this guy pay his gas bill and then we’ll do another take’. It’s no wonder it’s got that feel of reality which is a hallmark of all Ken Loach’s films.’’
He cites a particularly harrowing scene set in a food bank as an example of the power of Loach’s ‘‘process’’.
‘‘Nobody knew what was happening – only Hayley and the crew. So it was a complete shock to everybody, including me. You get a visceral feeling of, ‘oh dear God, what’s happening?’ Everyone who sees the film talks about that scene and it’s why his films have such grit, you know, and real emotion.’’
Despite that, the first time Johns saw the film, in a near empty theatre in London’s Soho, he wasn’t overly impressed. ‘‘I just kept thinking the back of my head looked horrible.
That’s all I could think of. You are so exposed in these films.’’
In fact, it wasn’t until Cannes and the night before the gala premiere that Johns and company got wind of just how much impact their film might have.
‘‘They had done four screenings for press and we were out at dinner when the PR came rushing up and said, ‘something really weird is happening, reviewers are coming out the screenings crying – they’re really upset about it’.
‘‘Then the next day we got a 14-minute ovation at the premiere and basically from that I decided to take the summer off to go to a whole lot of different film festivals – San Sebastian, Locarno, Sarajevo, Slovakia – it was weird.
‘‘I took my 10-year-old daughter to Locarno, where they did this screening on a 24 metre-high screen to 800 people and, when it stopped, you could hear a pin drop – people were sitting there in stunned silence.
‘‘I don’t how I would have felt if I’d seen my Dad on a screen like that, but I think she was proud. She said to me, ‘wow, Dad, this is just amazing’. She knew the story was about poverty, but whether she took it all on board, I don’t know.’’
Daniel Blake‘s effect on adults though is unquestionable. ‘‘People have been coming up to me afterwards saying, ‘this is happening in our country as well’ – France, Spain. In Britain, I think it has really struck a chord because of the rise of zero hour contracts and the failing of the welfare system for the people who need it. People are angry about that kind of
’I’m a stand-up comic. Shooting a gritty drama this time last year in my hometown and then going to Cannes and winning the Palme d’Or? I didn’t see that coming at all.’ Dave Johns
austerity and I think people see that Dan could be your grandfather, your Uncle, your Dad. Katie could be your sister, your daughter. It’s an honest story, with honest people who the system is failing. That why it’s universal.
‘‘I was talking to one of the guys from Variety magazine and he said ‘this will talk to the working poor in America as well – people who feel they are being left behind’. I think that’s why it’s got this power to it and it’s taken us all by surprise.
‘‘I get stopped in the street now and people come up to me and go, ‘thank you so much for your film’. It’s an amazing feeling to have.’’
With posters of Johns with his fist in the air being unfurled up and down Britain as the film hit cinemas there last week, he admits he has become ‘‘a sort of working-class icon-hero, I suppose’’.
However, he confesses that perception might be tested, as he ventures back into his more usual realm of stand-up comedy over the next few weeks.
‘‘Yeah, this is going to be the first time people will see my act since the film came out. I don’t know what the reaction is going to be.
‘‘My stand-up isn’t political at all – it’s very surreal. Things like stories about how Van Gogh stole all the yellow paint in Paris from the rest of the impressionist painters in the 1800s. I don’t know what they are going to think about that one.’’
Still convinced that there’s nothing better than making people laugh, Johns says he has fond memories of a few gigs he did back in Wellington in 2004. ‘‘I came out on tour with a stage production of 12 Angry Men and did some solo shows. I love New Zealand. Your food is fantastic – there’s nowhere in the world better – especially, your seafood, it’s amazing.’’
Keen for a return visit, Johns says that may depend on what acting jobs come his way after Daniel Blake.
‘‘I’ve got a few things that my agent and people are looking at. But to be honest, if I never did another film again after being the lead in a Ken Loach that won the Palme d’Or and is having such an effect on people, I could quite happily hang that up and go ‘okay, I’ll take that’.
I, Daniel Blake
screening. (M) is now