In the swim
 Peter Mullan has achieved huge success not only on a domestic front but also on an international level, both as an actor and later director. But the Scotsman — who was responsible for directing the controversial, yet award-winning film, The Magdalene Sisters — is back in front of the camera with his latest project On A Clear Day. He talks to rí-rá about the film, which sees him swim the English channel, and the intensive training programme he had to undergo in preparation.
How do explain your character in On A Clear Day?
He’s a guy who has lost his job and lost his son. He’s become a victim of panic attacks. I did some research on it. What a lot of people do, they give themselves an inordinately difficult task just so they can live normally.
So a lot of people climb Everest to find themselves. To most of us, that’s a rather extreme way of dealing with your demons — and he’s one of those guys. He’s swimming the channel to fight that which is within. His journey is one of the soul.
There’s a beautiful twist at the end that makes the swim... not about the record books. It’s not about whether he swum the channel or ran a 10k marathon. It’s what he and his friends come to understand about themselves.
How long did you train for?
I trained for five-and-a-half months — but it was swimming pool training. So I was doing a mile a day.
One day, I did the Loch. I had the wetsuit on. But I took it off and it wasn’t too bad. It was pretty brutal but not too bad. Then we went to the Irish Sea, which at that time of the year was at its very coldest. It was just over 10 degrees Celsius — and a freezing cold swimming pool would be 22 — so this was 12 degrees colder than that.
So when I went in, I hadn’t anticipated that it crushes you. I hadn’t realised. You can’t breathe. A guy whacks you in your back to get your lungs working again; everything shuts down instantly. I understand how people drown at sea so quickly because of the shock. Your heart tries to keep you alive, so brain, eyes, teeth — they all just go.
I hadn’t anticipated it would be that brutal. I knew it would be cold but I figured with all the training, it would be OK. And I was fitter than I had ever been. Then what made it worse was that ahead of me I knew I had another eight days of it.
So how did you cope?
It was beyond anything I had ever experienced. Then we did one day in the actual Channel for the beginning of the swim. So I went in, and then my beautiful swimming double took over. Before he went in, I said: “Is it my imagination or does this feel like a bath compared to where we’ve been?”
He said: “Yeah! I couldn’t do 22 miles in the Irish Sea.”
I said to the director: “I’ve just been informed that this is six degrees warmer than where we’ve been. Are you seriously telling me that we’ve just spent two weeks in a location colder than what it’s meant to be?”
She said: “Are you going to be annoyed with me? We didn’t have the money to go anywhere else.”
Has there ever been any film like this before?
I kept waiting for someone to tell me: “Ah, you must’ve seen the 1952 blah-blah...”
It’s strange no-one has ever thought of this before. Apparently, there has never been a film of it before. As far as I’m aware, this is the first. To my knowledge, there has been no other film.
How long would you stay in the water for at any given time?
For every minute you’re in the water, it’s two hours recovery.
You go through the whole process — the shivering, your cold body temperature doesn’t come up for five or six hours, so you can’t go back in. So that’s when the swimming double came in — he saved us. Without him, we wouldn’t have a film.
Are you thinking about directing again?
I’m getting the itch, I am. I love directing. You have to be really committed, because it’s 24/7 for the best part of 11 months. Whereas acting, you can step in and step out again. But I’m feeling it just now. Time to do my own stuff again and see where it leads me.
So you have no problem generating ideas?
Each week, you should be able to come up with an idea for a film — and you can, it’s not difficult. Now, coming up with a good idea for a film, that’s difficult.
Since The Magdalene Sisters, they’ve had a gestation period. I like walking, and I don’t drive, so I use buses, taxis and trains, and I like my own company — and I make up stories in my head.
The idea I choose will be the one I feel I have to tell. It has to intrigue you, it has to scare you. If it’s too familiar, you’ll get lazy. You need something that frightens you. The Magdalene Sisters terrified me — but you have to find omething that worries you a little bit. |
