Tribeca 2019: Interview With COME TO DADDY Director Ant Timpson & Stars Elijah Wood & Stephen McHattie

I was able to sit down with director Ant Timpson, and stars Elijah Wood and Stephen McHattie to discuss their new and wild film Come To Daddy.

Kristy Strouse for Film Inquiry: Wonderful to meet you all. I was at the premiere last night and I thought Come To Daddy was terrific.

Ant Timpson: Oh, you were? Great!

Yes! I enjoyed it very much. The story is loosely based on something you went through, can you tell us a little about that?

Ant Timpson: Yeah, so my dad was very ill for a while and I was with him right at the end when he passed away and it was traumatic. So, it was thought that it was a really good way to grieve, to bring the body back to the house into the house, embalmed. And spend time processing and to work through whatever we needed to do. So, all the siblings spent time there, but I ended up being the one who really stayed there through the nights. It was a very quiet, surreal, alone, strange time, going down visiting him and trying to talk to him, going through his clothes and everything. During the final days people would come and pay their respects and were talking about my father, and it was great because I knew them, but I didn’t know some and they had these stories I hadn’t heard of. It was like this alternate history and I started to question like “Did I really know everything about him?” Then I felt like watching him die, I started to feel very old and that life was very very short and maybe I should do what I had been thinking about for decades now which is go back to directing, so it was this massive shove.

I thought maybe I could use this experience the right way and end up making something that’s a tribute to him but also the type of movie that we used to watch together. It would be fitting… kind of funny in a dark, comedic way making a crazy film like this as a tribute to my dad and he would love that as well. So, I went to a writer that I knew who had the same sensibility, same sense of humor, loved the same type of British thrillers and said, “Here’s a skeleton structure, what do you reckon, can we do something?” He went off and came back and had a really great first draft and it was just a process of honing that and beating it out until we came up with the final thing which I thought was really interesting. It worked in the area of films that I really liked and felt confident in as a director because I was pretty sure I was going to direct it all along.

Elijah Wood: Yeah, yeah.

Ant Timpson: But there was a stage where I thought that this was going to be a bigger film and is anyone going to trust me to do it with more money, and so I thought I am gonna send this to Elijah and pray. [Laughs] Because we talked about Elijah when we were working on the film and thought it would be amazing if Elijah played Norval, not just because you’re also a DJ, but because we were like – what a guy, he would ground the whole film in what we need because it is such a one-man show. You need someone who can go through the ringer and hold it all together, and it worked out beautifully! So, sorry! I’ve been raving… I sent it to him and he loved it!

Elijah, what was your first reaction, your first take on the character when you read the script?

Elijah Wood: I found him funny. [Laughs]

He definitely is.

Elijah Wood: And bizarre and pretentious, but ultimately becomes likable and relatable too because he is this guy that despite where he is coming from and the person he’s grown up to be, which we only sort of get glimpses of from in terms of the way he articulates his life, he’s also vulnerable. And he’s putting himself out there and he has traveled far away to this place to meet his dad, who he has no relationship with and only has vague memories of. Which is a scary thing. The sort of expectations that one attaches to that sort of meeting and the hopes of resurrecting a relationship he never had, all these things…at that point the type of person that he is, the silly artifice that makes up who he is kind of disappears because in the heart of what he is going through he is vulnerable and hoping to have some kind of relationship, but ultimately doesn’t reveal itself to be what he imagined, [Laughs] at all.

No not at all [Laugh], that’s putting it lightly. Your look was very distinct too, did you have anything to do with style/look at all?

Elijah Wood: It was a collaboration, Ant had some really specific ideas and had done a fair amount of research from the fashion angle and also the hairstyle, he had a lot of really strong ideas.

Ant Timpson: We wanted to work with what Elijah had as well and just sort of shape something that fit the character really well and just made him feel like in that environment really alien. When we first see him there is such a juxtaposition like “What is this dude doing here?” [Laughs] Like the suitcase traveling through this really rugged terrain, I just loved that and had that image in my head before we did it, but I really wanted a suitcase that was see through. Ya know, those new ones.

Elijah Wood: The Lucite ones. That was the intent.

Ant Timpson: Yeah, the see-through one, but we couldn’t get one though!

Elijah Wood: It was such a fun wardrobe.

Ant Timpson: And that stuff is so fun once you start building the artifice.

Elijah Wood: That was really a collaboration between Ant, myself, and the hair and makeup department/wardrobe. To me, it was really about finding a happy medium of looking alien, like a fish out of water, but also believable and not too much of a caricature. So, it was fun finding that balance.

Yes. It came out well! And I love the conversations between you, Elijah and you, Stephen. Especially when he’s pushing your buttons and is intimidating. I’ll just say… The Elton John part.

Ant Timpson: Oh yeah, [laughs]

Stephen, what was it like getting into the mindset of that character?  

Stephen McHattie: Yeah, I didn’t really look at it like pushing his buttons. I looked at it more as trying to defend myself against him. It was, it was a great trip. Because, ya know, we all have fathers somewhere. He has this, he’s drinking a lot. He’s always drunk a lot, and he’s kind of at the end of a kind-of wild dream life. Everything is piling up for him, it’s all right there, underneath him, waiting. He’s trying to ward off catastrophe.

Elijah Wood: Oh man, [laughs].

Stephen McHattie: And reignite his relationship with his son.

Right! I love how the movie starts off as sort of a slow burn, and you don’t know what’s going on (you may think you do) and then things sort of… go a little..

Ant Timpson: Cookoo.

Yes! Which was great. There’s a terrific balance of dark humor but also some emotional parts from you specifically [points to Elijah]. Did you find it difficult to find that cohesive combo?

Ant Timpson: Oh, it’s a constant thought process of how easy this could go off the rails, in terms of the balancing act. With the tonal shifts, so we talked a lot about that. Elijah, had to think about it because we shot out of sequence. Where he needed to be, where to go, but what had happened previously. When the shifts did happen, we had to keep an eye on that, about where he had been to bring him to the shift.

Elijah Wood: Which is tricky too, because we were mostly in one location an we had to keep reminding ourselves where we were. We had an incredible script supervisor who helped immensely as far as keeping us on the right track because you can lose yourself very quickly. I’m in a very similar wardrobe and rooms, but in terms of where Norval is emotionally in the moment it can be quite different.

Ant Timpson: The easiest way to do it is to keep things seeming believable. In a way if your shift is fun, but it’s ridiculous you’ll lose everyone. You have to be slightly consistent, even if it is exaggerated. It can be a hybrid type scenario of different beats. When they do things that are completely left of field and don’t make sense at all, there’s no logic to it. So, I think it’s grounded, and we went back and forth. With Toby, I didn’t want anything to make full sense, but there’s mostly we fine-tuned right down to the needle.

Elijah Wood: Yeah, these are extraordinary circumstances, but everybody in them is acting from a place of honesty and reacting in a realistic way. I think.

Ant Timpson: It’s weird because someone did watch it for the second time last night, and they said they really loved watching it again because there are so many small things that now made a lot more sense.

Oh, of course.

Ant Timpson: And in my head I think everyone picks up on things the first time, but they don’t and there’s so much in there that they don’t get the first time. That will make much more sense the second time, not that you need it, but it does hold up. Maybe some layers, some dots they didn’t connect. Which is nice.

I think that happens with most movies the second time around. You know what’s happened already, now you can pay more attention to details. What are you hoping people will take away from the movie?

Ant Timpson: I just want people to have an amazing wild ride, an unexpected ride.  The best thing is that I have been getting feedback from people, so many people, who have parental issues, unresolved issues with their parents. This emotional core stuff resonates with people no matter how wild the scenario is, there’s a purity. It came from a personal place and it’s connecting to people. Which is great to hear, because I think for some, once you get into the exaggerated part…

Elijah Wood: It might distract.

Ant Timpson: Yeah, we might lose them. So, it’s nice to hear that it still works for them.

Thank you so much. Congratulations again!

Elijah Wood: So glad you liked the movie!

We want to thank Ant Timpson, Elijah Wood and Stephen McHattie for taking the time to speak with us!

Come To Daddy had its premiere at Tribeca Film Festival on April 25th.