The Best Film I Was Almost In

This is the best film I was almost in.

It was the best British film for a decade either side of its production.

Esta Charkham, who cast the film and discovered so many of its actors, had put me up for it when they started casting. I, however, told Hugh Hudson that I was not suitable for whatever part I went for. I can't remember which now. He did laugh. Esta was really, really cross with me. I could be a dick back then.

Needless to say, I did not get the role.

Well into the production, Beth Zoe Charkham called me to say that Hugh H had written a scene, and either he wanted me or Esta had suggested I be in it. There was no interview.

When I got to Eton College, which stood in for Cambridge, I discovered that Colin Welland, the screenwriter, did not know about this scene. Awkward.

Myself and another actor, Peter, I think was his name, had this vile Antisemitic dialogue. We did feel very uncomfortable saying it, as it was way over the top. The Charkhams are Jewish.

We filmed the first take.

Ben Cross, who the scene was with, disliked the characters we played. However, this carried on when the camera was not running.

It was hard to know whether he did not like us, or rather me, as I had most of the lines personally, or whether he was method acting and thus keeping in character.

Whatever it was, it was the most uncomfortable filming I ever did. Ben relentlessly attacked me off-camera, which was a deciding factor in why I stopped. I was already trying to produce and had an option on Tom Sharpe's PORTERHOUSE BLUE. After one more production for the BBC with Charles Dance and Charles Grant, that was it.

Beth had told me before I started that she and Esta did not think it would be in the final film as it was not actually in the script.

Thus, when it was released, I was not disappointed. That said, James Crawford and the production team invited me to a big official screening, which I did not attend.

I knew so many people on that film, and they knew I filmed it. No matter what anyone tells any actor, when you are not in the final film, you always default to " They thought I was bad" mode.

Peter Bradshaw has reviewed it this week to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the Paris Olympics, the film's backdrop.

Today, the Olympics come full circle.

Gordon Hammersley, who was in both CHARIOTS and the Charles Dance production I mentioned, was the sweetest, kindest, and most likeable young man and I thought, an outstanding actor.

He took his own life around the time the Oscar-winning film opened.


David Nicholas Wilkinson