Writer and Director Andrew Haigh introduces his screen adaptation of , which comes to 大象传媒 Two and 大象传媒 iPlayer from Friday 10th September. The story is mainly set (and was mainly filmed) north of the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Sea and stars Jack O鈥機onnell, Colin Farrell and Stephen Graham.
What is The North Water about?
The story is about 鈥楶atrick Sumner鈥� (Jack O'Connell) a disgraced ex-army surgeon who sets sail on a whaling ship, essentially to forget his past. On the voyage he is tested to the limits both by nature but also by the nature of man.
Why did you want to be a part of the project of adapting and creating The North Water?
I was working on another project when , sent me the book. On reading the first 20 pages, I was like, "I want to do this, I have to do this". There was something incredibly special about it, in that it鈥檚 a historical drama, a thriller, but really it seems to say something very important about the nature of what drives us as human beings, as individuals, as people.
How did you go about adapting the book?
As with any adaptation, you want to approach it with care and consideration, and try to understand what the author was trying to say. Then it is about articulating that in a way that makes sense for the screen.
How did you develop the characters?
You have to try and understand all the characters, which for me is always trying to understand what makes people work, how they see the world, how they understand the world, how they exist in the world. Trying to understand them is an in-depth process. Once you feel that you can understand them, then you can start to write them, but the truth is, the novel was so well written and so well set up, and the characters feel so vivid and real, and the things that are driving them forward, their motivations, fears, desires and secrets, are all so well expressed in the novel, that it made my job infinitely easier.
What is the difference between Drax (Colin Farrell) and Sumner (Jack O鈥機onnell)?
I feel that Drax and Sumner are essentially two sides of the same coin. One is a person who lives through instinct (Drax) and the other lives through using his intellect. I certainly see Drax as the shadow of Sumner in many respects; he is what Sumner is trying to repress and hide and keep secret.
Why did you decide to shoot in the Arctic?
When I first read the book, I knew that I wanted to shoot it in the real environment. Most people do not shoot these kinds of things in the real environment, but for me it was fundamentally important. I didn鈥檛 really want to do it if I couldn鈥檛 do that. I wanted it to feel authentic and real, and to do that, I needed to shoot in the Arctic.
We were up to 81 degrees north, 24 hours away from land at some points, locked in the sea ice. It was not an easy experience. It was very cold, sometimes terrifying, and really challenging, but to me that was what was so exciting about it. Luckily, we had a bunch of crew and actors who also thought this was exciting, so we could all do it together.
I was terrified. I think we all were. None of us really knew what to expect. I鈥檇 been on some scouts up there, so I had seen the environment already, but it was nerve-wracking to know that we were going to be on a boat for a month, all the crew, all the cast, in very close quarters. It was a big cast and I wanted to ensure that everyone got on, that it was an enjoyable experience, and in the end, what made me very happy was that it was such an incredible experience for all of us.
You feel very privileged to be in that environment and that part of the world. We had very few days off in the Arctic, but you鈥檇 go on to the deck and see a family of polar bears climbing across the ice - that doesn鈥檛 happen every day. And I like a challenge I suppose, I knew that it would be challenging, and that brings an energy to what you鈥檙e filming.
How did you cast The North Water?
What I found really fascinating about the novel is that this is not a story about explorers, it鈥檚 not naval officers heading off to search for the North-West Passage, it is working men (not upper-class men, who these stories are usually about) on a whaling ship, which is, essentially, a floating factory. These are men leaving their homes and going out to search for whale blubber. It is their way of making money, it鈥檚 their income but it is also their purpose, they take pride in their work. I thought that was really interesting. All of the actors, who felt right for that world, these are what these characters are. They are tough, strong men, and in many ways, this is a story about men. It was interesting to me to see a dynamic of all these men together. They are brutal and violent but they are also compassionate and kind, they are all of those things.
How was the working environment?
To be honest, the actors felt like the men on the ship. They were in close quarters, everyone had dinner and breakfast together, everyone was there together and there was no escape. By the end everyone was desperate to get off that ship, let鈥檚 face it. No internet, no phones, nothing. To have none of that for a month was actually quite special, and I think the actors loved it. It was great that we shot all the Arctic scenes first. That allowed those actors to bond and they are amazing actors. Despite all the stress and anxiety, I was really happy. It was a pretty incredible experience.
The actors astounded me in how they took to the environment, how they embraced it. I am throwing Colin Farrell on to a rowboat in the sea as huge chunks of ice crash against him. Or Jack O'Connell is running across an ice floe jumping over a crack. This was a really difficult environment to work in, and it was very very cold.
What were the challenges?
It was difficult. There were some really challenging moments. You鈥檙e with a Steadicam trying to follow someone across the ice. At one point later on we were on this island in the middle of this glacial inlet and they were really hard conditions to work in. It was very difficult, but the crew completely embraced it. Every morning you were up at five o鈥檆lock, you were on tiny speedboats going across the ice to join the main ship that we were filming on, climbing aboard in these immersion suits.
What did the background research involve?
It was a long process. is very well written so it has so much detail, and I did a lot of research on whaling, on sealing, on the whaling industry as a whole, but also, all your departments, your production designer, your costume designer, the amount of work that they put in to really nail down the detail. Obviously, the sets, we built the inside of some of the ship, we built Hull, we did all these things and the detail was fundamentally important to me. It takes a lot of time and a lot of energy. It is quite hard to do period well, I鈥檝e never done period before, a lot of energy goes into it.
How did the actors become the characters?
I am always looking for complexity in the actors. I want my characters to be complex. I don鈥檛 want them to be clear-cut or for the audience to always understand what that character is going through at every moment along the way. Jack and Colin are really interesting actors. Putting them together was a really good combination.
How did Colin Farrell approach the role of Drax?
Colin did a lot of bulking up. He ate so much food and he worked out for ages to create 鈥楧rax鈥檚鈥� physicality, which is very clear in the book. Drax is this huge beast of a man. It鈥檚 not about having lots of muscles or being strong, he鈥檚 just this animal. Colin spent a long time trying to physically become that person.
How is the show unique?
What sets this apart is that it doesn鈥檛 exist within one genre. It is a historical drama, a thriller, an adventure story, it is a lot of things in one, which is why I find it so interesting.
Also shooting in that environment sets it apart. We are not relying on special effects or visual effects. We are really there. It is a challenging piece of work, the book is very challenging to read, if anyone鈥檚 read the book. It鈥檚 not an easy subject matter. It is brutal, it鈥檚 terrifying, it鈥檚 also filled with moments of compassion.
The North Water is unlike anything else that I have seen on television. It is a different version of stories that have been told before, a more complex version, and it says a lot about where we are right now, how we exist in the world, how we live in the world, how we are destroying the world around us, how we are letting greed overtake us. This is a story about the few and the privileged exerting their power and dominance over everyone else for their own gain. It is a very contemporary story as well as being a thriller and a drama and a character study. Those things together, something that has a political resonance and has something to say about the way we live today, but also is still a fantastic story, are what sets it apart.
Watch The North Water on 大象传媒 Two and 大象传媒 iPlayer from Friday 10th September 2021 at 9.30pm
Read more interviews with the cast and crew on the 大象传媒's Media Centre