Coogan’s latest film Greed is a sharp satire.
But now Coogan says hes mostly attracted to difficult, meaty and controversial topics.
The film has played at various festivals, how have audience reactions been?
People seem to like it.
But if people go on the journey with them, theyre quite enjoyable.
You certainly cant predict where theyre going to go or whats going to happen.
So yeah, people are responding really well to it.
And also, I think because its put something on the agenda that you wouldnt expect.
It was a novel way of talking about something thats important.
Was that a big part of the appeal?
Did you have any hesitation?
Because the film is a more eloquent expression of whats wrong than any pontification I can engage in.
Its just about moving pieces on the chessboard.
So a lot of his wealth is not through this idea of hard sweat and slog.
Its through just a bit of nifty footwork.
And of course, its not.
They dont want to talk about that because that even to most people it would seem inherently unfair.
Everyone understands working very hard and being rewarded.
Everyone understands and identifies with that they dont understand people using the system.
I mean, thats a generalisation.
But thats something that bothers me.
Youve collaborated often with Michael Winterbottom.
Do you remember when you first met him?
It was 19 years ago.
It was24 Hour Party People.
I think I met him in Soho somewhere.
I dont have this seared impression on me about how amazingly charismatic he was.
Hes quite a quietly spoken man.
And he said, Oh, yeah, we forgot to ask you.
We were gonna get around to asking you.
But throughout the years, hes become part of my life.
Hes part of the fabric of life.
When you work with someone for a long time you dont think about it, hes just always there.
Hes always there in the background or the foreground.
And were always doing something from time to time.
I think the most time thats gone by between us working together is maybe three years.
Weve done eight films together.
So, yeah, theres always something going on.
Tell us a bit about how you work together?
He works very quickly.
Theres almost no time to think about things when you work with him sometimes.
Youre just constantly on the move.
Michael is intuitive, and when you work with him, its not overly technical.
You should be thinking about being in the scene.
Was it any different onGreedbecause your character Richard McCreadie is so much based on Phllip Green?
We had to be careful.
A lot of quotes are directly quoted from [Green] so we havent corrupted those.
Anything that was conjecture or things said, theyre not things which are negative.
The only things that can reflect potentially negatively are the things that he literally did say.
Was that part of the appeal and did you find him sympathetic?
So you have to be mindful of that when youre playing him, and I think I was.
you might understand how people get sucked into the vortex of the pursuit of wealth.
Ultimately we are all, or should be, in some way morally culpable and accountable for our actions.
How do you think youve changed as a performer since24 Hour Party People?
Do you find yourself drawn to more political roles now?
And I like to do anything which has meat on the bone, if you like.
I get older I like to do things that just encourage discussion about things that arent normally discussed.
And Im in a position where I can sort of pick and choose things.
Theres plenty of people who will line up to endorse something because it reflects well on them almost entirely.
Id rather get my hands dirty with something that some people might not like.
Theres something that attracts me more to contentiousness.
I feel quite comfortable with some people having their noses put out of joint.
Is it important to you to tell British stories?
And thats also important to me.
But not necessarily things that make many people proud to be British.
I cant bear the St Georges flag.
America tends to dominate us more and more, especially now were out of Europe.
And I see myself as European.
Greek philosophy and Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance are more useful than Donald Trumps semi literate musings.
But we often find ourselves subsumed by American stories and not British stories.
Its important that we talk about our nation in a nuanced way.
And a grown up way.
So any story thats viable, that is about this country is a good thing.
And it shouldnt just be stories about the privileged British people.
There tends to be a lot of that at the moment.
Just ordinary lives because that can be made extraordinary and interesting.
And they tried to whiten my teeth but you might only get so far.
They said well have a go at whiten your teeth and well get some false teeth made.
The teeth they make these days are very very good.
So you wouldnt know.
That and the spray tan that you have to top up every week.
Does that help you get into character?
You look in the mirror and you think oh my god, whos that?
Those are the real Emperors of today.
Theyre the new Emperors, that they wield more power than heads of governments often.
The film has elements of Greek tragedy.
Is that something that you talked about?
We wanted it to have that idea of hubris being someones undoing.
Which is a perennial story isnt it?
We wanted it to have that although, of course morality stories have satisfying conclusions.
Reality often doesnt have a satisfying conclusion, because things dont happen the way they ought to.
Which we know isnt reality, but its cathartic for the viewer.
Youve got The Trip To Greece coming up.
Theres a reference to Greed in there, I understand…
Oh, yeah.
And one of the actors I meet in Greed, I meet again.
Hes a paternal figure, and looked after their welfare and he played himself inGreed.
The film and the garment workers inGreedare real garment workers.
So when we didThe TripYeah.
So we go to a real refugee camp.
Its just where life intersects with art.
Although really theyre both fictions.
What else do you have coming up?
Its a middle aged man and a slightly younger woman who have strong views.
Its not like theyre kind of in opposition, but they are navigating it together.
You see where their priorities and sympathies lie.
The jungle of sexual politics you might call it.
We see them journeying through that.
And theres a Partridge podcast coming out.
The podcast is all finished we did 18 of them and they come out next month.
I jump between projects, but Im not doing that much acting for a while.
But I love writing.
I love being able to do all these different things.
Greed is out in cinemas 21 February.
