A Brief Glimpse of Don McKellar

With a career in Canada that includes directing (Last Night, Childstar), acting (Exotica, Monkey Warfare), playwriting (The Drowsy Chaperone), and work in radio and television (Twitch City, Odd-Job Jack), Don McKellar could conceivably lay claim to Howard Stern’s self-proclaimed title of ‘King of All Media.’ His latest project, Fernando Meilleres’ Blindness (opening at the Toronto International Film Festival), is his highest-profile writing and acting venture to date. McKellar spoke to The Varsity about adapting the acclaimed novel by José Saramago.

THE VARSITY: First of all, I liked this movie a lot. But if I hadn’t known you’d written it, I don’t think I would have guessed.

DON MCKELLAR: Really? That’s interesting.

V: Last Night aside, I don’t normally associate you with this sort of bleak material. How did you become involved with this project? Was it brought to you, or did you lobby for it?

DM: I found the project. I read the book, and I guess you’re right, it’s not my ‘normal’ voice, but I definitely responded to it. I read it right after Last Night, and it’s dealing with some of the same themes with a similar storytelling strategy, but way deeper and darker. I guess I was excited about that.

V: Last Night depicted quite a polite apocalypse. Some critics have pointed out that it’s a very Canadian version of the end of time.

DM: That was sort of the strategy, it was more about denial. But this film is sort of the flip side to that. When I first read the book, I thought, ‘Okay, instead of these people being in denial, [they’re trying to] survive.’

V: This movie is definitely interested in the implications of that scenario. When you adapt a book like this, doing it as a major movie with big stars, is there pressure to make a product that will appeal to ‘the marketplace’ while also keeping the somber tone of the book?

DM: Well, there were tons of things in the book that people assumed I was going to cut, and people would always say, ‘Oh, you’re not going to have that big rape scene,’ or, ‘There’s not going to be that shit, is there?’ But I was proud to say that we sort of kept all that stuff. All the toughest stuff from the book is in the film. Actually, it’s the other stuff that I ended up cutting. The issue with the marketplace and whether you can get actors? I mean, not a lot of actresses are going to even want to do the part. So it has to do with the tone. To me, it was more about making the tone effective, and persuading people that the tone of the story wouldn’t be exploitive.

V: If ever there was a tastefully filmed rape-orgy, this movie has it.

DM: [Laughs] Wow, that’s good poster material. Please publish that!

V: I understand that the King of Ward 3 [the self-appointed leader of the third ward at the blindness containment centre, played by Gael Garcia Bernal] is a more villainous character in the book, and [director] Fernando Meirelles said that in the movie, he’s more like a kid with a gun than straight-up evil incarnate.

DM: He’s pretty villainous, but I think it’s more nuanced, for sure. In the movie, he’s more of an opportunist. He’s taking advantage of the situation. He’s a little guy: Gael is not someone who would be that intimidating if you saw him in a bar. But he’s frustrated by his lost eyesight, because he’s obviously got this kind of aggression. Also, I tried to make it so he’s doing [exploitive things] for a purpose: he’s trying to protect his ward. He’s sort of misguided, but he obviously has a sadistic side. In the book he’s just sort of bad, bad, bad.

V: It works with Bernal’s qualities as an actor.

DM: It works completely with Gael. I also always liked the idea that he starts [monopolizing the camp’s food supply] partly on behalf of the ward; he’s trying to keep their spirits up, in a way. But in a weird way.

V: How did you collaborate with Meirelles? Was there a lot of discussion of the material during pre-production and shooting?

DM: Yeah, totally. Fernando and I were very close. I don’t think that’s always the case. It’s certainly not always the case in Hollywood, and it wasn’t the case in Fernando’s last film, The Constant Gardener, where he had problems with the writer. We were in constant communication. It was so important because a lot of the stuff in the script is really visual, and I had to explain what I meant, because it’s hard to describe some of it.

V: The motif of the white light seems like something that was discussed very early on.

DM: Yeah, and a lot of that stuff is in the script, but it needs explaining. As a matter of fact, I think that’s one of the reasons he cast me, [because] he wanted me around.

V: I was curious if the part of the thief was one you wrote with yourself in mind. It’s not exactly the role I’d normally associate with the Don McKellar persona.

DM: I tend not to think of casting when I’m writing because I think it can block a writer, but Fernando saw a lot of Canadian films when he was shooting in Canada, and of course saw a number of mine, so he asked me. So you think it’s very different from my stuff? That’s good to hear.

V: Well, Twitch City?

DM: Yeah, I don’t think he cast me based on Twitch City.