Hollywood star Minnie Driver reveals how the land of her father inspired her on film Hunky Dory
HOLLYWOOD star Minnie Driver has told how shooting her latest film in Swansea helped her “reclaim” her tragic Welsh father.And the Oscar-nominated actress told the Western Mail she might one day swap Los Angeles for South Wales, calling it “one of the most beautiful places in the world”.
The Good Will Hunting and Phantom of the Opera star last night hit the red carpet in Cardiff at the Cineworld premiere of her latest movie, feel-good musical Hunky Dory.
The film, directed by Carmarthen-born Marc Evans, sees the 42-year-old play an unconventional drama teacher putting on an end-of-year show at a Swansea comprehensive school in the sweltering summer of 1976.
The cast spent seven weeks filming in Swansea, Port Talbot and along the coastline of South-West Wales in the summer of 2010, and Driver said she had fallen in love with the area.
“I had a very good time making the film, I loved it,” she said. “I loved Cardiff, I loved Swansea – I know you’re not supposed to love both of them, but I do. It was the best time.”
The project came a year after the star’s Swansea-born father, Ronnie Driver, died following a heart attack.
Driver said visiting the city her father – who became one of the country’s top financial advisers and counted the Queen and Queen Mother among his clients – grew up in had been “very emotional”.
She said: “I actually went to my dad’s house where he was born and knocked on the door – it was lovely.
“And Bishop’s Gore School was literally round the corner from where he had grown up, which is where we filmed a lot of the film, so it was very nostalgic as well.”
She added: “My dad passed away a couple of years ago, so to just come and feel like I had reclaimed a bit of him was really lovely.”
Driver, mother to son Henry, three, stayed in the Cardiff suburb of Pontcanna during filming. And she said they enjoyed visiting landmarks in her breaks from the set.
“We went to St Fagans a lot, which is one of my favourite places on earth now. Henry, I’ve got a great picture of him with the falcon at Cardiff Castle, feeding it bits of meat. This was when he was, you know, two-and-a-half.
“He had a great time there. He ran around and up and down the stairs – we had a great time.”
And it may not be the last the family see of the region, as Driver suggested she could buy a property in the area.
The actress, who appeared on the small screen in BBC drama The Deep last year, said: “I would love to have a place in South Wales – I would, I genuinely would.
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful parts of the world with the loveliest people.
“It rains a lot, but that’s all right.”
Driver had to perfect the tricky South Wales lilt for the role, and described it as “like learning a language”.
Working with dialogue coach William Conacher, Driver studied the accent for three months ahead of filming.
“I worked with a coach for a while and I worked very, very hard on it. I’m very particular about the accents I do, because I think that they’re rubbish when they’re bad.”
During filming, the sometime-musician orchestrated a campaign to save Brynaman lido – featured in the film and one of the last open-air pools in Wales – when it was threatened with closure. The campaign is continuing.
Two weeks before the cast were due to shoot at it, Carmarthenshire County Council drained around one million litres of water from the site.
Driver said: “We shot at a lido and the council had stopped funding it and I think they wanted to turn it into a car park. So I wrote to the newspaper and did some interviews for them.
“I think it’s such a beautiful lido – it’s part of our heritage and you do need to protect them.
“It’s no skin off my nose to tweet about it or do an interview just saying ‘Go on, put your hand in your pocket – you don’t need another car park, you need a lido’.”
But she said she had drawn the line at taking a dip in the pool herself. “God no. No, it was absolutely freezing when we were shooting up there.”
Driver described recreating the sizzling summer of 1976 – the UK’s hottest on record – had been “very challenging”.
“We had nice days, but there was never a scorcher, so they did it all with lights and it was all smoke and mirrors really.”
Hunky Dory opens on March 2
The cast spent seven weeks filming in Swansea, Port Talbot and along the coastline of South-West Wales in the summer of 2010, and Driver said she had fallen in love with the area.
“I had a very good time making the film, I loved it,” she said. “I loved Cardiff, I loved Swansea – I know you’re not supposed to love both of them, but I do. It was the best time.”
The project came a year after the star’s Swansea-born father, Ronnie Driver, died following a heart attack.
Driver said visiting the city her father – who became one of the country’s top financial advisers and counted the Queen and Queen Mother among his clients – grew up in had been “very emotional”.
She said: “I actually went to my dad’s house where he was born and knocked on the door – it was lovely.
“And Bishop’s Gore School was literally round the corner from where he had grown up, which is where we filmed a lot of the film, so it was very nostalgic as well.”
She added: “My dad passed away a couple of years ago, so to just come and feel like I had reclaimed a bit of him was really lovely.”
Driver, mother to son Henry, three, stayed in the Cardiff suburb of Pontcanna during filming. And she said they enjoyed visiting landmarks in her breaks from the set.
“We went to St Fagans a lot, which is one of my favourite places on earth now. Henry, I’ve got a great picture of him with the falcon at Cardiff Castle, feeding it bits of meat. This was when he was, you know, two-and-a-half.
And it may not be the last the family see of the region, as Driver suggested she could buy a property in the area.
The actress, who appeared on the small screen in BBC drama The Deep last year, said: “I would love to have a place in South Wales – I would, I genuinely would.
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful parts of the world with the loveliest people.
“It rains a lot, but that’s all right.”
Driver had to perfect the tricky South Wales lilt for the role, and described it as “like learning a language”.
Working with dialogue coach William Conacher, Driver studied the accent for three months ahead of filming.
“I worked with a coach for a while and I worked very, very hard on it. I’m very particular about the accents I do, because I think that they’re rubbish when they’re bad.”
During filming, the sometime-musician orchestrated a campaign to save Brynaman lido – featured in the film and one of the last open-air pools in Wales – when it was threatened with closure. The campaign is continuing.
Two weeks before the cast were due to shoot at it, Carmarthenshire County Council drained around one million litres of water from the site.
Driver said: “We shot at a lido and the council had stopped funding it and I think they wanted to turn it into a car park. So I wrote to the newspaper and did some interviews for them.
“I think it’s such a beautiful lido – it’s part of our heritage and you do need to protect them.
“It’s no skin off my nose to tweet about it or do an interview just saying ‘Go on, put your hand in your pocket – you don’t need another car park, you need a lido’.”
But she said she had drawn the line at taking a dip in the pool herself. “God no. No, it was absolutely freezing when we were shooting up there.”
Driver described recreating the sizzling summer of 1976 – the UK’s hottest on record – had been “very challenging”.
“We had nice days, but there was never a scorcher, so they did it all with lights and it was all smoke and mirrors really.”
Hunky Dory opens on March 2
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