There’s something special about Roy, written and directed by filmmaking duo Tom Berkeley and Ross White. The film is heartbreaking and tender, intimate and warm, definitively putting in the spotlight the human desire for conversation and connection. It touches on what was arguably the universal experience of being locked down and isolated from loved ones as a result of the current pandemic. And yet, with an emotionally raw performance from BAFTA winner David Bradley (Game of Thrones, Broadchurch) as the titular aging widower, Roy can rightfully be classified as a timeless narrative of a population that society so easily, and too often, forgets.
Roy sees its titular character cold-calling strangers in the phone book in search of conversation and connection. Indeed, an unexpected friendship blossoms between him and Cara (Rachel Shenton), the adult hotline worker he inadvertently calls one night. The two talk for nights on end, sharing personal stories, comparing shepherd’s pie recipes, and engaging in friendly rounds of Battleship.
In our interview with Berkeley and White below, the filmmakers talk about the birth of their creative partnership, the emotional parallels between the film and real life, and the challenges the pandemic posed while filming Roy. The film, in fact, marks the directorial debut for Berkeley and White, who were previously actors and writers. A need to create and complete a project, mixed with an attachment to Roy’s story, ultimately compelled them to helm the project. The result is a work of art that is, at once, an emotionally arresting and deeply hopeful meditation on what it means to be one human, among billions, in search of another.
Before we get into Roy, I wondered if you might talk about your collective filmmaking journey? I understand that this is your debut film. Where did it all start for you?
RW: So, Tom and I met at university in London. We were acting and also writing for theatre, individually. And we sort of, when we would write, would help each other with our scripts and stuff. And that was kind of a relationship we’d built up. And then, we were producing a little bit of theatre, so it was all kind of stage-based at the start. And then, yeah, we’d been wanting to kind of try our hands [at] screenwriting for a good while. We kind of started that, I would say tentatively about like 2018/2019, and then we were writing specs and stuff for TV. But then we just really wanted to see something through production and kind of get on set with something. So, we wrote Roy and originally didn’t intend to direct it ourselves—that wasn’t kind of the plan straightaway—but then as we kind of fell in love a bit as well, we wanted to see it the whole way through, you know? We love the character and wanted to just kind of look after it right through production.
Immediately, what was most present for me in Roy was this desire for connection amidst isolation, which I think is poignant for the last couple of years that we’ve all had. Did the story idea come to you before or during the pandemic, and how did your own experiences through this crisis inform or affect your approach to making the film?
TB: Yeah, that’s a great point. So, we wrote the script, I would say, probably about six months before the pandemic became a thing. We wanted to write something that was kind of achievable as a first film (just logistically within the sort of structure of the narrative). So: limited characters, sort of small space, etc. And so we gave ourselves some of those kinds of parameters when we started, and then we kind of settled on a story about an unlikely friendship and that was kind of the original kernel that sort of, then, became the film.
And you’re right: when the initial sort of murmurings of the pandemic began, it was more that we were worried about whether we’d even be able to go into production, whether it was going to knock stuff back, and obviously there were lots of ramifications that came from that, but we didn’t actually stop to think about how the pandemic was going to make it so much more poignant, both in the playing of it for the actors as well as how [the feelings would be] incredibly fresh for everyone whilst we filmed it.
We were so kind of overwhelmed with the logistics of getting it done and keeping everyone safe that it was only kind of afterwards when we were in post-production for it that we were thinking it couldn’t have come at a better time to tell this story because it’s, you know, going to elevate—I think—people’s immediate connection with it because we’ve got this shared experience. We thought we were sort of spotlighting a kind of, you know, character that often gets sort of forgotten and sort of extradited from the narrative of just day-to-day life. But, actually, looking at it now, I think everybody can relate to that experience in a new way that they probably wouldn’t have done before.
Yeah, I’ve seen different films so far at HollyShorts this year that have felt like a collective exploration of stories about the aging population and how modern society and newer generations sort of forget about them. I’m curious to know if, from the start, you knew Roy was always going to be from an aging widower’s perspective?
RW: Yeah. We often would start with an image, a strong idea, a setting, or a character, and I think right from the get-go, that was who I was [thinking of] and we spoke a lot, then, about our grandparents and, you know, other people we were close to in our lives. But, yeah, that was our intention straight away. We had this idea of Roy as a kind of a “whatever” who’s been left behind by the rest of the world. And I think we’re a society that wants immediacy and new things all the time, and sometimes we forget the kind of the quality and the depth of character the older people have in our society, you know?
David Bradley is such an acting treasure. I grew up watching him in the Boy Wizard films and then, more recently, in Game of Thrones. I knew his capabilities as an actor, but coming from those two franchises, in which he plays very rough and gruff characters, to Roy, whom you just want to be okay, it was a performance that blew my mind. What was it like to work with him, and did you always know that he was going to be Roy?
TB: We knew that the character would need an element of stubbornness but also the ability for great empathy and sympathy, really, from an audience. David won a BAFTA for his performance in a show called Broadchurch, where he played just that. We were used to as well, as you were saying, kind of seeing these more curmudgeonly characters that he had been playing more prominently, but it was that particular role [in Broadchurch] wherein we saw both sides of the coin and found that really interesting.
And he is infamously so lovely. He is just one of the nicest, nicest chaps around, so we kind of always had that at the back of our minds. And then, to be honest with you, when we had conversations early on about casting, it was more pie in the sky, you know? In an ideal world, who and what kind of actor would play Roy? I don’t think we ever really considered the possibility that David would actually agree to come onboard and like the script and the character, so that was just good luck.
And he was just very generous with his time. The camera doesn’t really leave him. It is literally him on screen for the whole thing, so it’s a very sort of invasive and personal performance. But he’s just so, so very good that he made [shooting] incredibly fast-flowing and easy.
Can you place yourselves back in that first meeting or first take? Like, you’re first-time filmmakers and there’s David Bradley—what was that moment or feeling like for you?
RW: Yeah, well, the first meeting he met us, before we shot, was outside the Royal Shakespeare Company. He lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, so we went and met him there. It was as Tom says; he’s just such a kind man. He just sort of really puts you at ease. And it was so cool sitting beside the theatre that he has played in numerous times. That was one kind of relief: sort of having that moment, before we shot, just to touch base. And then, on set, you know, especially when it’s your first film, there’s a lot of unknown, there’s a lot of stress, there’s a lot of noise around it. And we were both running a bit crazy trying to get things sorted. And I remember in the morning, there was a tech glitch with, like, one of our lenses was broken, and it was like, Oh, it’s all gonna be awful…and then we turned over and we rolled, and David did his first take. And I think our shoulders just both kind of relaxed.
TB: You know what it actually was? It was before that. Obviously, there’s no time for rehearsal, so David arrived and he was getting into costume. We went into say hello because we hadn’t actually seen him since we met him that one time. He had his sides for the day, and he was very nonchalantly like: “Should we just run this here?” And [Ross and I] just sat as he delivered this sensational performance, just to us in the room, completely ad hoc. And I think that was the point where we were like, this is gonna be fine.
The scene that broke my heart was the one in which Roy finds out that Cara has moved on from the telephone job and it’s sort of like this redux of grief. My first question about that is: how dare you? And my second question is: was this a plot point that you always knew would be in there? Is there an alternate universe in which Roy and Cara stay phone friends?
RW: It was heartbreaking to write because, you know, we knew, for Roy, that he has kind of lived his whole life with his wife, his partner, and then she’s passed on. And he sort of lost himself within that [grief]. When Cara comes along, he rediscovers a bit of that kind of joy in his life, but he doesn’t progress. He just goes back into the happiness that he had. Cara, as a character, we spoke about how she sort of spots that he needs to [move on]. This over-the-phone relationship is a placeholder. It’s nice, but it can’t be everything for him. So, it was a bit devastating. And we also spoke about how Cara also feels like she’s at a place where maybe, you know, she needed to move on in her own life as well. It’s a painful [moment] for both characters, but, at the same time, beneficial for [them as well].
Did your acting backgrounds inform your approach to directing? And now that you’ve directed a film, does it change how you see acting?
TB: Yeah, definitely. To answer that last [question] first, it definitely does. We’ve both—since we started directing—gone back onto sets as actors with a completely revitalized [understanding]. I think understanding elements—just technical elements—about shots and shot sizes, and how that relates to what you need to deliver as an actor, is very important. I never had fully appreciated it before because a set can be quite a difficult thing, and I think that the hardest task, really, as an actor, is to drown that [technical] stuff out. When you’re on stage, it’s dark, you can’t see the audience, it literally is just you and another actor, and it’s easier to kind of get into that headspace of: alright, I’m in my character, I’m in my zone. But when you’ve got a camera and a boom mic in your personal space, the real skill is kind of drowning all that stuff out. So, I think when you have an understanding of what everything is doing, you can block it out a bit a bit easier.
It’s also difficult because, as an actor, the day-to-day lifestyle of an actor is quite difficult. You spend quite a lot of time not acting and and sort of waiting around for auditions. And it can be a very heartbreaking process, and you need a very thick skin to get through it. I think what we enjoy about filmmaking is it gives us a bit more autonomy over things. We’re two people that like to be working, we like to be busy, and we like to sort of be in the thick of it. That’s what filmmaking gives us when we’re involved in the production side of things as well.
RW: Yeah, I think it’s the kind of gun-for-hire mentality of like, when you’re an actor, or you’re a crew member even, you sort of bounce about productions, you know, unless you’re really gonna lead up a massive thing. You’re bouncing about productions, maybe like a day player for a couple of days a week. And there’s something really great about that, but there’s also—for me, at least—there’s something really enjoyable about [being directors], where you’re there for the prep of the thing, you’re there for the shooting of the thing, you’re there for the post-production. You sort of see the whole process and you get to work with, you know, every department across the film. And I think having that holistic kind of view of things makes it, I don’t know, for me, a bit more rewarding.
HollyShorts is an incredible platform for indie filmmakers. What does it mean for you to have Roy screen here, and how will you be celebrating?
TB: Yeah, no, it’s amazing. It’s fantastic. We were jumping around the room, really, when we find out. Before we began writing scripts, we really got into the short film world in quite a big way, and we were, you know, trying to watch as much as we could. We learned about HollyShorts and what was going on there quite a while ago. And the quality of the [films] there is amazing. And the film marketplace, especially, as well all the supplementary events and the Q&A’s and the roundtables and stuff—to be a part of all of that, especially as early-career filmmakers, and to have the access to that kind of stuff is incredibly important. And then to just know that your film and your work is regarded to be of quality to play a festival of this kind of calibre is very encouraging. Yeah, we’re chuffed. We’re chuffed to be a part of it.
What’s next for both of you? And where can our readers follow you and your work?
RW: Yeah, so we wrapped on a second short film in May, and we’ve just sort of been through post-production with it. And it’s a short film called An Irish Goodbye. And we filmed that in Northern Ireland where I’m from and it will be starting its festival run, I’d say, probably just before the New Year. But yeah: you can follow us @floodlightpictures.
