Geekscape Interview With Griff the Invisible Director Leon Ford
Griff the Invisible is a an Australian film coming to US screens this month. The movie is about a young professional who is anti-social and borderline ocd, who fancies himself a superhero when he returns home at night. His world is turned upside down when his brother’s girlfriend enters his world and understands him better than anyone ever has. The film is fine balance of superhero movie, fantasy, idiosynchratic comedy and drama. At Comic Con I got the opportunity to sit down with the film’s director Leon Ford about the movie, the films stars, and his native country’s cinema.
Brian Walton: Griff the Invisible, It’s an Australian film, and you’re australian right?
Leon Ford: Yes, yeah yeah, I’m Australian.
BW: It stars Ryan Kwanten.
LF: Who’s also Australian.
BW: Which surprises so many people in the states who know him mostly through True Blood. Where did the idea for Griff the Invisible come from?
LF: The character came to me about five years ago I saw this kid playing by himself, his parents were having dinner at a restaurant. He was having a great time, I don’t know what he was or who he was, a judo master or something. He was having a great time and I thought “That looks like a great world to be in.” You know if I do that I’d probably be arrested or lose my friends. I just thought it was interesting as a grown up you can’t keep living out other realities and those are other realities are just as real in a child’s mind as to almost compete with what we call the real world. I wanted to tell a story about a guy who doesn’t care about being judged or growing up and just wanted to keep living that reality, so much so, that reality takes over and becomes real. So to me, he is a superhero and to the girl he falls in love with he is a superhero and always will be.
BW: How long from starting the script to finishing the movie, how long did it take?
LF: First draft?
BW: Sure.
LF: First draft was five years before turn over on set and then the film took six weeks to shoot and then we were editing for months. So shooting to release in toronto was a year and now it’s coming to the America a few months after that.
BW: We know Ryan Kwanten mostly from True Blood and he’s very brash, and very outgoing. You got a very intense, personal, almost introspective and even claustrophobic performance from him. What is his personality like and how much guidance did he need to find the character?
LF: He’s the first to say he’s very close to the character of Griff.He does have a very sociophobic kind of side, Ryan. He’s very out there when he wants to be and needs to be. I would say Jason Stackhouse is more of a stretch for him from his own self than Griff is.I didn’t have to do anything he just is brilliant.He’s an incredible technical and emotional actor. His balance of everything you need as an actor is better than anyone I’ve ever seen. He didn’t have to prove anything because I actually hadn’t seen True blood before his tests came through. For me it was quite a surprise, though my friends had [seen True Blood] when I said, “Oh this guy Ryan Kwanten is amazing and he’s perfect.” My friends who knew the script couldn’t believe I was thinking about Jason Stackhouse for the role because he is so different, but for me he was just this amazing actor on my screen testing for the film.
BW: Here in the States when we get an Australian film that does well over here, generally it’s something in the Outback or it’s something like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. But you’ve made a very Urban and inner city view of Australia alot of Americans don’t ever really get. Was that something you did intentionally to provide a different perspective?
LF: First, it’s my area of Sydney, where I live, Surry Hills. It’s strange that most films are set in the outback, because as far as i know Australia is one of the most urbanized countries in the world. There is this massive, empty desert, but the cities are where almost 99% of people live in Australia along the fringes of the country. So it is very much for me, my version of Australia.I absolutely felt like there’s a little bit too much of the outback and farms and that sort of stuff in what we present to the world.I really wanted to show something refreshing.
BW: So you saw Australia, the movie that has your county’s name on it and thought, “Fuck that!”?
LF: Yeah Yeah exactly. I love Baz Lurhman but who would call their film by an entire country? Would you see a film called “The United States of America?”
BW: No, we named that one “Far and Away”
LF: Yeah that’s right. Yeah Yeah. Or “CANADA!”
BW: I don’t think anyone thought to call that “The United States”
LF: Yeah, exactly. No one would dare to.
BW: Did that get released in Australia as Australia?
LF: It Did! It Did! so as it was coming up to the release I was expecting it to be very confusing for people to know whether it was actually a film or just a concept, it’s a country for god’s sake. But it did extremely well. The home grown audiences love Nicole and Hugh.
BW: It starred Nicole and she is Australian, but she played a Brit, in a movie called Australia?
LF: I know! It’s incredible isn’t it.
BW: With what we get here it’s almost shocking to find Australia has cities. And when we do get it, it’s like Mission Impossible..
LF: Most people wouldn’t notice that’s Australia anyway.It could’ve been Toronto or New york or anywhere.
BW: I love to hear Australian accents.
LF: Are you kidding? Every time I hear our accent I cringe.It’s fun isn’t it.
BW: How did you bring Maeve [Dermody] come on bored? Was Ryan already in place when you found Maeve?
LF: They have amazing chemistry. We had Ryan first because I wanted to find Griff and cast the rest of the film around him. Maeve was already at the top of the list when we secured Ryan. I really wanted their chemistry to be… Funny how it ended, they didn’t meet either until rehearsal. When I set out on casting the film my number one goal was to make sure their chemistry was right. You can have two brilliant actors who are perfect for the roles but if they don’t “zing” on screen then it’s not going to work. I went with my gut on that one and I just thought these two look good together, I cut their tests together and thought, hopefully it will work in the room. And it did.
Thanks to Leon for the fun interview and definitely check out the film in it’s limited release when it comes to your city.
August 19th – LA, Berkley, San Francisco and New York
August 26th – Boston, Seattle, San Diego, and Denver
Sept 2nd – Washington DC and Philadelphia
Sept 9th – Atlanta and Minneapolis
Sept 16th – St. Louis
