Up until now, Dean-Charles Chapman has probably been best known for playing Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones, but that could be about to change. The 22-year-old from Romford landed the co-lead in Sir Sam Mendes’s WWI drama 1917, which has already picked up Golden Globes for Best Picture and Best Director, and according to the bookies is joint favourite with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood for the Best Picture Oscar on 9 February.
Chapman plays Lance Corporal Blake, who is tasked with a perilous mission through No Man’s Land carrying a message which, if delivered in time, could save 1,600 fellow soldiers from a German trap. And as an extra incentive to move quickly, Blake’s own brother is in the doomed battalion, which is why General Erinmore (Colin Firth) kindly selected him for the job. George MacKay’s Schofield joins him for the apparently suicidal journey.
With the clock ticking, the film follows these two as they plot and blunder their way through the ravaged landscape. It’s a story that would be visceral enough without the decision taken by Mendes, alongside cinematographer Roger Deakins, to film the pair through a single camera and viewpoint in real-time and in one apparently continuous take, ramping the immersion levels up to almost PTSD-inducing proportions.
It’s a spectacular and unrelenting watch but as a technical feat of filmmaking it’s even more impressive. So how was it to be a key player on such an ambitious shoot? We sat down with Chapman to get the details.
Dreamworks
When did you first actually see the film and what was your reaction?
Sam [Mendes] showed me and George a rough cut, which still needed the score and a few tweaks but was basically edited into that one shot. Even though I knew the ins and outs of it completely, it still got me emotional. There are a lot of upsetting moments in the film and it’s a lot to take in. I didn’t quite understand the effect it would have watching it. You’re there. There’s no rest. Two hours, real time, in a warzone.
What did the decision to shoot in one shot give to the story?
Well, it would just be a completely different film. That’s why Sam wanted to do it in that way: not for the sake of making it a one-shot film, but because it was genuinely the best way of telling the story. It’s not an educational film about the war, it’s just a human story about two ordinary kids. And that one continuous take allows you to feel every breath that they take. Everything you see is what they’re seeing.
Rehearsals lasted six months. Tell us more about what that involved.
As an actor you don’t normally get that privilege. Sometimes you don’t rehearse at all. We filmed it in Salisbury plains near Stonehenge and it’s acres and acres of green land similar to the landscape in France. The six months was pretty much me, George, Sam and Roger Deakins. The first week we were walking and talking with the script in our hands at the pace that it would be trying to figure out the journey of the men and the speed of everything and as we were going along stabbing stakes in the floor to mark out here’s the start point, here’s the wall, here’s the bomb crater to slow the men down and allow the camera to come around. [As actors] it wasn’t ever handed to us on a piece of paper that these are the steps. We were a part of that.
So it felt like you weren’t just in the film, you were making it?
It really did. And that was true with every department. The makeup, the sound. We were the ones you see moving across No Man’s Land but there was a whole camera crew behind us as well, in sync with us. It really was a choreographed dance, all of it between the camera and the actors for scene that could last eight-and-a-half minutes long. It really was about bouncing off each other.
Did that level of collaboration make winning the Golden Globes last week even sweeter?
I was kind of shocked that we won Best Picture because the film hadn’t even come out yet. All these other films from Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino – really good films – and our film hadn’t come out yet. It’s nice because I hope it helps get people to come out and see it in the cinema because it needs to be seen on the big screen.
How did all these technical requirements affect what you needed to do as an actor?
Well, we didn’t get a break either. On a normal film set you’d get a 20-minute break when they’re setting up the next shot. We had no lighting rigs and no shots to set up other than the one take so we were, “Go, go, go”. We’d do 20 rehearsals in the morning and then do 30-40 takes that day and one of them would be the one. That was hard. Especially when the scenes are hard anyway. And you never really stepped out of character. And it was quite hard to wrap my head around after filming.
François Duhamel / Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures
Because it was so choreographed, was there even more pressure on you and George to get it right?
Hats off to Sam, because he is the one that leads the ship and never once did I feel an ounce of stress or an ounce of pressure. He took the pressure on, it was his thing and he made me and George so comfortable and so a part of the collaboration and even though it seemed impossible in my head I just knew we were being led in the right direction. He is the best, Sam. He is a genius, that man. Proper.
Any particular advice you got from him?
There was a scene near the beginning when Blake gets sent on the mission and he is walking through the trench to get to the front line and it’s the first time you see his reaction to all of it. It was a really long scene and his emotions are really up and down and I had a lot to think about movement wise. Blake’s such a warm character and he’s the soul of the film and I really wanted to get that right so I kept asking Sam after every take, “Am I doing it right, am I doing it right?” and kept asking and asking and asking. In the end he said: “Is it interesting to watch? Yes. Was it real? Yes.” It’s not about whether there’s a ‘right’ way to do it. And that made me think about everything completely differently.
Dreamworks
You’ve spent a long, long time with George Mackay in some tough conditions, I hope you get on.
I swear he is the nicest kid – well he’s not a kid, he’s 28 – but he’s so well-mannered and so polite and easy to work with. His performance in the film is so beautiful, so subtle and the research he did and everything he put into his character, he really gives a physical performance.
You’re only 22 but your IMDb page is longer than most actors twice your age. How did you start?
I started doing TV commercials at four. My sister joined a local theatre school which had an agency and they asked my mum if she wanted to put me into it and I just said, “Yeah”. I did Casualty at six and played Billy Elliot in London between 10 and 14. I didn’t dance at all, they taught me from scratch. It was such a good starting ground. You’re performing in front of people and they’re paying money to see you. It was only after Billy that I wanted to take it seriously. I get a kick out of playing very different characters but it’s rare, it’s hard to find. Even just getting the opportunity. As an actor it’s bloody hard work just to get a job.
We reckon your performance in 1917 should help.
Hopefully, we’ll see.
Then came Game of Thrones. What’s your abiding memory of working on such a huge show?
When I stepped on set, I compare it to walking round Disneyland, seeing all the characters, seeing all the sets because I was a genuine fan. They were such good actors and I was only a kid, so I was a bit intimidated. I didn’t realise at the time how good I had it. I always wanted more from the character. I was a bit like, “Let me do something!” but I look back now and see it as one of the best things I’ve done.
Who’s your all-time acting idol?
De Niro. Goodfellas, Taxi Driver. Mean Streets. Oh mate, Robert De Niro. Love him so much, he’s unbelievable.
1917 is in cinemas nationwide
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