Eric Cantona and Ken Loach Face the Press
Eric Cantona and Ken Loach answered question from the journalists
Corresponding with the Competition screening of Looking For Eric, director Ken Loach and actor Eric Cantona were present to answer questions from the journalists. Highlights follow.
Ken Loach on if he was compelled to make a comedy:
“We thought it might be nice to do a film with smiles on our faces. You could say that a comedy is a tragedy with a happy ending. We felt that what we had to do was to play the story with truth. And I think that was a tribute to the actors we worked with. They played it with truth and sometimes that’s funny and sometimes that’s sad. But if you play the truth then that’s OK…”
Eric Cantona on playing himself in the film:
“Some say it’s not easy to play oneself… This is fiction with a screenplay beautifully written by Paul Laverty. You also have to remain natural and spontaneous… I felt there was always quite a lot of pressure before the shooting and I hadn’t experienced that pressure when working on another character. I talked things over at length with Ken; I asked myself a lot of questions. I thought it was important to build up my trust, to find pleasure during the shooting…I had to get to that point through different pathways.”
Ken Loach on soccer:
“It does have a function in one or two aspects; it does bring people together. A team is the representation of a community. I think it’s probably the only occasion when it’s permissible to be nationalistic, the few hours when your national team is playing. Apart from that, nationalism is not a terribly attractive thing politically. I think also it’s a time when people let their feelings be expressed…But at a game you go from despair to hope, triumph, to sadness, to elation in an hour and three-quarters. I mean if a film could achieve that, it would be some film.”
Eric Cantona on how Sir Alex Ferguson compares to Ken Loach:
“They’re very similar, these two activities that are totally different, but the way they go about getting 100% out of these actors or out of the players is very similar. The great difficulty is to be good from match to match, film to film… And if both Ferguson and Ken Loach are here, it’s because they’re very humble as well…They are two people who really get me to give every bit of myself. Alex Ferguson before being a great coach and Ken Loach before being a great director are just wonderful people and that is an essential quality for me.”
