New Interview with Jonny Campbell, Director of “The Casual Vacancy”

J.K. Rowling fansite Always J.K. Rowling had the amazing opportunity to have an exclusive interview with the director of the mini-series adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s The Causal Vacancy, Jonny Campbell. Mr. Campbell gave very detailed answers to the questions proposed–subject matter ranging from his involvement and experiences with making The Casual Vacancy, to advice for those wishing to have a career in directing. Always J.K. Rowling reports:

1. How much creative control did you have when filming “The Causal Vacancy”?

The role of the director is to be responsible for the storytelling as it moves from script to screen, to visualise and breathe life into it and so you are inevitably at the controls of that creative process – not to be a control ‘freak’ (!) – but to coordinate and steer all the departments from the script and cast to locations, production design, make up and costume to cinematography. Obviously, many thousands of decisions constitute this process and many of those are likewise guided and influenced by comments or suggestions from producer and executive producers along the way.

3. What is your favorite scene and character?

Krystal has to be my favourite character. Hard to single out one favourite scene, but would choose the sequence of scenes where she and her Mum Terri are reconnecting. In ep2 sitting eating some soup talking about Fats and then becoming emotionally overwhelmed that they are finally having a normal conversation as mother and daughter. Then in ep3 the moment when Krystal first hands Robbie back over to Terri before going on her date and then later sitting in the garden looking at the stars together.

5. Were there any particularly challenging scenes?

1) Howard’s nightmare – maggots and worms don’t respond to direction and they get everywhere. 2) Robbie scenes – there was a lot of violence and bad language in many of his scenes, but they were never shot while Robbie was there, even though he is in the scenes. This meant a lot of planning to film around him – effectively recording dialogue and shooting action twice over. 3) the river scenes – filming in or near water is always tricky and incredibly time consuming – some sequences were shot over several days too, which necessitated weather continuity. We were very fortunate that we had such a good summer.

8. There are a lot of political and social themes that are particularly relevant today in the UK as we are coming up to a general election. Is this something you were very aware of while filming and did it change any filming decisions?

I think the themes in this story will always be relevant, not just at this time. The fact that there was an election coming up the year after we started the project was never even mentioned as it was totally irrelevant to the story, contrary to what some people have thought. Sarah Phelps, the screenwriter does have an acute social conscience, as does J.K. Rowling, but the story is about how people react to a sudden death in a small community – the minutiae of grief – and how the ripple effect of this death passes through the lives of a host of characters. The election element is merely a side issue and a plot device to explore these peoples’ lives in public and behind closed doors. The real vacancy was not on the council, it was in their lives and their hearts.

The rest of this interesting interview may be read here, on Always J.K. Rowling.