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“A small community may be very supportive but it can also be extreme- ly claustrophobic. Also, in a large city these women might never have found each other. The village is a very con- servative society and they feel trapped, so their weekly ritual is very important to each of them.”
When McDowell first saw the script in which her character was an ex-pat American pillar of the community ready for something more exciting, she admits she was “taken aback” by “the rather strong original title.
“But when I read it, the description of how the women referred to their weekly meeting made perfect sense. This is the most complex character I’ve played since sex, lies and video- tape and I feel like it’s the role I’ve been waiting for.”
Two days after hearing she was enthusiastic about the role, McKay and Thomas were on a plane to Los Angeles. Explains McKay: “Andie is one of the few actors who can seem good and virtuous, and yet you enjoy watch- ing her behave in a naughty way.”
Staunton was probably summing up the feelings of her fellow actors when she commented: “I think it was very generous of John, a man in his thirties, to write a script for three women in their forties.”
DP Henry Braham BSC (Shackleton, Waking Ned) hadn’t previously worked with McKay but was hooked as soon as he read the script which he says he found both “hilarious and sad. Everyone was cast by the time I came on board and it’s always helpful to know who the cast is when you read the script.
“As far as my brief was concerned, John was very clear on the need for glamour. He was also going for warmth which was, in a way, why it was specifi- cally set in that warm world of the Cotswolds. I completely connected with John and Lee’s view of it – that we should create an atmosphere without ramming it down the audience’s throat, and shoot the women sympathetically.
“They were keen to give them- selves plenty of time to shoot it. We had ten weeks, which was generous, but they were right about that.”
Nearly two thirds of Crush, which also features Bill Paterson as the other man in McDowell’s life, was made on location near Chipping Camden (the school was, in fact, a stately home) and in London, with some interiors also shot at Shepperton Studios.
Says Braham: “It was nearly all filmed on anamorphic using the Fuji 500 Tungsten. John and Lee were a bit nervous at first about shooting anamorphic but from a technical point of view these fast stocks make it less of a deal because they’re so great. It was also an excellent way of shooting faces and people but keeping the backgrounds in, particularly as the film is, in many ways, a three-hander. You get a natural frame to play those scenes in.”
For such a (mostly) sunny subject, the local weather was, typically, “pret- ty foul,” Braham recalls. “My solution, apart from having plenty of options, is to have locations where you can set stuff against backgrounds rather than wide skies.
“There was not a great deal of weather cover down in the West Country and we had to invent it artifi- cially. For instance, there’s a scene where the women are sat chatting in the garden. We chose that garden because we could control the light come what may. It was very over- grown and had some cover over the top. That way, we could make it look sunny.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Crush, which opens in the UK on June 7, was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photos above centre: Kenny Doughty and Andie McDowell; from top right: Director John McKay; Kenny Doughty and Andie McDowell; Bill Paterson and Andie McDowell; DP Henry Braham BSC