What was your inspiration for "The Criminal"?
Film noir, more than anything else. As well as liking noir stories and characters, it was as much for practical reasons, as those movies were traditionally made on a very low budget. Films like "North by Northwest", too - the idea of the person who's completely innocent and has done nothing to deserve what's happened to him.
Was the script written with the cast in mind? Steven Mackintosh is particularly good.
I'm glad you think that, because reviews-wise, he seems to get overshadowed by Bernard Hill, perhaps because Bernard's character is more interesting. In films like this, the central character should be a bit of a blank canvas to allow things to happen to him. I didn't have anyone in mind when I wrote it. When I write, the characters tend to be faceless. It's almost like when you have one of those dreams where there's someone there but you can't see their face.
Writers starting out are sometimes told "Write what you know." Have you been conspired against?
That's probably the most famous axiom for film writers, but there's another one that Paul Schrader said, which is that if you have an idea for a film based on your own life, don't write it about yourself - find a parallel metaphor, otherwise it won't be interesting to anyone else. My metaphor was the feeling of being powerless and persecuted that you get from being on the dole for four or five years. People are always checking up on you. It's a total invasion of privacy. So it's taking that feeling of being persecuted and putting it into the parallel metaphor of an innocent on the run from the authorities.
What are you doing next?
I'm doing a documentary this month and then I'm shooting a feature film in May, which I'm not talking about - not because it's an industry secret or anything, but because I'm a bit superstitious. If I start seeing the title and plot printed, it makes me feel it'll never happen.
Find out what Julian Simpson thinks of the British film industry.
Read an interview Natasha Little, star of "The Criminal".
Read a review of the film.
