Amazing Grace Trailer - Amazing Grace Movie

"Amazing Grace"
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"Amazing Grace" - In Theaters February 23, 2007

"You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know." That was William Wilberforce's conclusion to his three hour debate in the Houses of Parliament before Members of Parliament voted on his Abolition Bill in 1789. And this is how "Amazing Grace" became a song no one will ever forget.

William Wilberforce was born into the age of the Great British Empire, when the country's influence around the globe was at its most powerful. It was, however, an age when the rumblings of social discontent were emerging and a time when reformers faced an uphill struggle to be heard.

A good friend and staunch colleague of England's youngest ever Prime Minister, Pitt the Younger, Wilberforce was entrusted with the policy for the Abolition of Slavery. Torn between a life of spirituality and a career in politics, he was inspired to take his desire for the equality of all mankind into the House of Commons. Seeking the advice of John Newton, a former slave trader who turned to the Church in order to atone for his earlier life, Wilberforce became the rallying voice in Parliament for a fragmented group of like-minded people to fight for the cause and make the people of Britain, and ultimately the world, acknowledge the horror of the Slave Trade.

The sugar trade was at the heart of the British economy, and it depended entirely on slave labour. With the majority of MPs representing the sugar and slave trades opposing Wilberforce in the House of Commons, he faced a mammoth task in attempting to persuade them to abolish slavery. His prowess as an orator, coupled with his firm belief that abolition was his vocation, made Wilberforce a formidable opponent. Throughout his turbulent career, he was keenly supported and inspired by his wife Barbara's love and commitment to the cause.

"Amazing Grace" follows Wilberforce's career through his 20's and 30's, when he and his fellow humanitarians made the issue of slavery a talking point, not only in political circles, but also throughout the country. They waged the first modern political campaign, using petitions, boycotts, mass meetings and even badges with slogans to take their message to the country at large. Wilberforce steered this cause through the corridors of power and ultimately opened the way for the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. His success came after decades of fighting when Parliament finally passed the first anti-slavery bill in 1807 - "Amazing Grace."

STARRING: Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Gambon, Romola Garai
DIRECTOR: Michael Apted
STUDIO: IDP
RATING: PG (For thematic material involving slavery, and some mild language)

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"Amazing Grace"
Behind The Scenes

William Wilberforce and William Pitt were both very young men, under thirty, when they took on the British establishment to bring about the abolition of the slave trade," says Director Michael Apted. "This is a great moment in British history, and I wanted to portray it as a generational battle—the young men taking on the older generation—like the Kennedys and their Camelot court were to America in the early sixties."

Michael Apted, a British director based in LA, was approached by Bristol Bay Productions to direct a film about William Wilberforce to coincide with the 200th anniversary (in 2007) of the passing of the bill that outlawed the slave trade in Britain and its Empire. "But," says Apted, "I wasn't interested in making a dull biopic. This is a great period in British politics. I wanted to make a film that showed how heroic and relevant politics can be, and that's impossible to do in a contemporary setting now that politics is so discredited. We have to make politics relevant to our lives—we ignore it at our peril. The only way to do this on screen was to make a film about a topic that no-one could argue was anything but a great and wonderful thing—the abolition of slavery. Nowadays we tend to see politics used for self-interest, but Wilberforce and his associates were able to maneuver their way through that self-interest in their opponents and form alliances to help them reach their goal."

William Wilberforce was a man of faith who considered retreating from the world to devote himself to religion. Apted explains, "He had a very strong moral drive, based on his religious beliefs, but Wilberforce moved in the real world and could form alliances with people he didn't totally approve of in order to get closer to his goal. He proved that although he was driven by a divine purpose to rid the world of this iniquitous slave trade, to execute this mission he needed to be strong, worldly, smart and political. A combination of Christian visionary and skilled politician, his overwhelming tenacity eventually let him reach his goal."

By coincidence, Apted had arranged to meet with screenwriter Steven Knight, whose work he admired, the day after he had agreed to direct the film. Knight was a fan of the director's work and had a particular interest in the period of history surrounding Wilberforce's life. They quickly agreed to work together and Knight tackled the screenplay. "When I'm writing an original screenplay I usually think of a scene and see where that leads me, but with a commissioned script based on actual events, the plot is already there; you know what is going to happen. So I decided to find the protagonist, Wilberforce, at his lowest ebb and see how he deals with it. His struggle took place over many years—he devoted twenty years to the Bill, bringing it back to Parliament over and over again. Europe and America were in turmoil, so we had to find a way to get from the beginning of his story to the end without turning it into a history lesson and without using the characters' dialogue to explain it all. Certain events had to be telescoped by finding a key scene and watching how Wilberforce reacts to what is going on." Knight's research into Wilberforce gave him many interesting details with which to furnish the man's everyday life. "He was a single-minded man who kept pursuing his goal and plucked success from the jaws of defeat. To most people at the time, the idea of abolishing the slave trade was ludicrous—like someone today suggesting that we abandon the internal combustion engine right now! At the same time he was an eccentric. He had a house full of sick animals and could never bring himself to fire any of his staff, so that by the time he was fifty, he had a house full of old servants, most of whom did nothing. And he would come home to find his house full of people he didn't know sleeping there."

Apted was determined to cast the film with British actors. "I'm a British director, the screenplay writer is British, and it's a huge moment in British history, so the cast had to be British." His search for a young actor brought him to Ioan Gruffudd. "Ioan has the intellect to take on the role of William Wilberforce and also luckily had the international appeal and financial muscle to convince the producers that they could sell the film to audiences. This allowed us to surround him with other choice British actors of every generation—Rufus Sewell, Benedict Cumberbatch, Romola Garai, Ciaran Hinds, Albert Finney and Michael Gambon."

Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour is cast in the pivotal role of Oloudah Equiano, an African slave who bought his freedom and settled in London, writing a book about his extraordinary life, which became a best seller at the time. Campaigning for the abolition of slavery for his people, he joined Wilberforce's abolitionist movement at a crucial time. Said Apted, "Youssou was suggested to me by [the production company]. One of their people has connections with his music career. The role of Equiano is crucial and complicated in the film. He doesn't have much to do in terms of action or dialogue, but at the same time he casts his shadow over the whole thing—it's all about him. I've always had good experiences working with singers as actors—the two performances are similar—so I wanted to meet him. At the time, I had seen many British/African and American/African actors, but only Youssou had that pure presence; he brings a richness and dignity to his scenes, which makes him more than just a cipher."

Actor Ioan Gruffudd, fresh from playing Mr. Fantastic in the blockbuster Marvel Comics adaptation The Fantastic Four, was attracted by the combination of director, script and story. "It's very rare to find all three of such a high standard in the same project. I was convinced that I could play this role and that I'd be guided skilfully by Michael Apted. He is one of the best directors I've worked with, well prepared, with confidence in the actors, the script and the crew. Every day we knew exactly what we were doing and that inspires actors and gives them confidence to do their best work," enthuses Gruffudd. While he knew a little about William Wilberforce and his place in history, he admits," I was naïve about his many achievements. Reading about his struggle against the world of his time—it was likened to trying to take away the defence budget or ban the use of oil in the UK today. I did a lot of background reading to immerse myself in the period. I found William Wilberforce to be a likeable man, constantly conflicted between his faith and his work in Parliament, but at his core he was a humanitarian, filled with compassion and courage. At only 5'4", he had a towering presence and an incredible voice."

Gruffudd cites two scenes as his main challenges during filming. "Wilberforce sings 'Amazing Grace' in a gentleman's club in a very aggressive manner to show his peers who he is and what he stands for. It's a very startling image and an arresting moment in the film. Luckily I had my singing teacher from drama college, who I hadn't seen for ten years, there to guide me." As Wilberforce presents his bill again and again to Parliament over the years, he makes impassioned speeches at various ages and in several states of health. "It was very daunting to be confronted, suddenly, with the set full of extras playing Members of Parliament. It was like having a theatre audience and I had to be careful not to perform."

Gruffudd was delighted to be working with the stellar cast of British actors. "Unusually for a film, we had a two week period of rehearsal, as if we were working in theatre. Often you turn up on a film set to work with someone you've never looked in the eye before. The rehearsal gave us the chance to get to know each other and to be ready to take on the challenges of filming. And working with such a concentration of renowned actors, many of whom I've watched on film, television and theatre, was great. It really bolsters up a project when every role is cast so brilliantly."

Benedict Cumberbatch, in the role of William Pitt the Younger, is a relative newcomer to film and relished the role of Britain's youngest ever Prime Minister. "It is initially daunting to take on the role of someone with such iconic stature in British history. I was vaguely aware of the history and had seen some portraits and gained some useful insights from a recent biography of Pitt written by William Hague, former leader of the Conservative Party. He invited us to the Houses of Parliament, and it's a potent and powerful place, which gave me an idea of Pitt's passion for politics and how intoxicating it would have been for him. His father was Prime Minister before him, and it seemed natural to Pitt to channel all his energy into his Parliamentary career. In the film, Pitt starts out as Prime Minister in his twenties and we follow his relationship with Wilberforce to his deathbed, so I wanted to understand the whole stretch of the man's life. He also suffered from ill health and had been told by doctors to drink 2-3 bottles of port a day, which obviously took a terrible toll on his health and made him an alcoholic. He was incredibly intense and fiercely intelligent, but physically awkward, tall and gangly. His body suffered the ravages of a peptic ulcer, which eventually killed him."

Romola Garai plays Barbara Spooner, the woman who Wilberforce marries after only a few weeks of courtship. "Michael was keen that we had background material on the period, but little is known of Barbara's life before she married William Wilberforce," says Garai. "In those days women were still regarded as someone's daughter, wife or mother, rather than noteworthy in their own right." But as soon as she married Wilberforce she became part of his movement for Abolition, and they remained married for 35 years, till Wilberforce's death in 1833. They had six children.

Working with costume designer Jenny Beaven, Garai used Barbara's fashionable clothes to establish the character's personality. "Because the subject matter is politics, we could have gone the dowdy route, but we all decided that she was a stylish woman with a strong personality and should wear her clothes accordingly."

Garai describes Apted as a "very strong director. He knows what he wants, which gives you confidence and lets you try interesting alternatives on the day."

Rufus Sewell takes the role of Thomas Clarkson. "I love his character. He's a bit of an oddball and a real life force. He had so much energy, devoted to the power of good, but, like many people working for the good of humanity, proved not to be that able at individual relationships." Clarkson was a contemporary of Wilberforce who began to work on his own against slavery. Says Sewell, "As a student he won an essay competition on the subject of slavery and he became interested in the subject. Then he travelled the length and breadth of the country, canvassing against the slave trade and gathering information. He joined up with Wilberforce and became the man in the field. He was a religious man, but hung out with the wrong types because they would give him proof of the iniquities of the trade."

Clarkson was a big man with flaming red hair. "I remembered from trying to dye my own hair red at the age of thirteen that it didn't work on me. It gave me too much of a comedic appearance for the film. But we wanted an arresting look, so we came up with the long grey hair. And we aged Clarkson very quickly, more so than the others, because he invests so much of himself in the cause and gets into scrapes, so that would have taken its toll on his appearance."

Sewell emphasises the relevance of the story for today's audiences, "People who do good are not necessarily all totally clean-cut and wholesome. The Abolitionists were a very mixed bunch of individuals. There is good and bad in everyone, so it's worth appealing to the good in people. This is a film about real human beings doing something good."

Albert Finney plays John Newton. He explains, "Newton was a sea captain who profited from the slave trade until, aged 45, he suffered a crisis of conscience and left the sea to enter the Church. There he remained and wrote over 200 hymns, including Amazing Grace." Newton was a mentor to Wilberforce who turned to him at a time of personal conflict. Newton advised Wilberforce to pursue his dream of the abolition of slavery. Finney admits to knowing little of the history of the period before reading the script. "I was a bad scholar and gave up on history after Henry VIII passed on." He says working with Michael Apted was a pleasure. "He is very well organized—everything moves quickly. Often as an actor you are paid to hang about, but there's none of that with Michael." Finney also enjoyed his reunion with other actors with whom he had previously worked. "I did a film about ten years ago with Michael Gambon and with Rufus Sewell, and I'd not seen Rufus since."

Michael Gambon, another veteran of stage, screen and television, plays Lord Fox. "He's an MP and a member of the British aristocracy who initially opposes the abolition of slavery, but then changes his views and backs Wilberforce." Gambon praises director Apted, "He's the best film director I've ever worked with. He films at an alarming rate, and he does very few takes because he knows exactly what he wants. He's charming, talented and positive." He also relished working with Gruffudd and meeting up with Finney again. "I knew Ioan's work. He's young, intelligent and handsome and I enjoy working with him. I've known Albert for over forty years and have done a couple of plays and a film with him, so it was good to see him on set. I've loved every minute of my time on the film."

Director and cast think that the film will prove relevant to today's audiences. Says Gruffudd, "I'd like the film to show that standing up for your rights takes courage and will reap rewards in the long run." Michael Apted adds, "I hope we open people's eyes to an interesting story that not many people will know about, and that, while being entertained, they learn something about the human condition: that principles exist in the world, and that things can be changed."