“The word ‘f---’ is not being used in its sexual sense,” insisted Tom Hooper in defense of his inspirational new movie, “The King’s Speech.” “It’s being used purely as a taboo-breaker.”
Hooper was talking about his recent dust-up with the MPAA, which slapped the movie with an R-rating in response to a string of expletives emitted by King George VI, played by actor Colin Firth, during a speech therapy session. (Photographs by Jonathan Alcorn.)
“I cannot see how that scene would cause trauma to any kid who watched it,” Hooper told the capacity crowd at Monday night’s showing of the film at the ArcLight Sherman Oaks, part of TheWrap’s ongoing Awards Screening Series. “Yet there are scenes of violence that I, as a 38-year-old director, have seen in PG-13 movies lately that continue to linger in my head.”
In "The King's Speech," George speaks with a stammer, which hardly inspires confidence in his royal subjects. He therefore seeks the services of Lionel Logue, an Australian who specializes in treating his affliction.
Firth, he told TheWrap’s Editor-in-Chief Sharon Waxman, who hosted the post-screening Q&A, was cast on the power of his performance in a little-known piece for the BBC called “Tumble Down,” which he did at the age of 25. In it, he played a Falklands War veteran with brain damage.
Hooper said the key for Firth to get the stammer right was to concentrate on not stammering – just as the key to playing drunk is to focus on playing sober.
“Colin’s ability to play this psychological and physical block was so extraordinary,” Hooper said. “I don’t even think he realizes he’s done it as well as he has. In some shots you can see the musculature of his neck, he’s really working hard.”
In fact, he said, the strain was so great that toward the end of the shoot, Firth complained of numbness in his left arm.
Best known for having directed “John Adams” for HBO and last year’s “Damned United,” Hooper said he saw “The King’s Speech” as his most personal project. Like Lionel Logue, the speech therapist who cures the king’s stammer, and is played by Geoffrey Rush in the film, Hooper’s mother hails from Australia. He was raised in London, however, by her and his British father.
“It gives you a wonderful sense of being an insider and an outsider in your own culture,” Hooper said. “I think part of being a director is being able to be inside and outside culture at the same time.”
In fact, his mother was responsible for calling Hooper’s attention to the material after seeing a reading of “The King’s Speech” put on by a fringe theater group in London. “The moral is listen to your mother,” he quipped to raucous laughter.
Rush, he said, actually saw a script before he did.
