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Guess who we met at the ‘Orient Express’?
Los Angeles — We went on the set of “Murder on the Orient Express” in London recently and met director-actor Kenneth Branagh and his talented cast: Dame Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Michele Pieffer, Willem Dafoe, Josh Gad, Tom Bateman and Daisy Ridley among others.
We had fun on the set as we checked out the train, where most of the mystery drama film was shot. The movie, which is the fourth adaptation of an Agatha Christie’s novel, is helmed by the amazing Branagh with a screenplay by Michael Green.
Below are excerpts from our interviews with the cast:
Kenneth Branagh (Hercule Poirot)
On how he managed to direct and act in the film at the same time: “In the modern world, we now multitask as a matter of course every single day. In your job, you must have to do it all the time and you have got to be listening for stuff and you have got to be reacting to stuff. Our brain chemistry is changing in the modern world, at a fast pace. I guess the first trick is to try to find a way to enjoy it. I use a phrase someone put to me once that you can be time poor, but moments rich.”
On having a stand-in actor: “Yes I had a fantastic stand-in, Michael Raths, who is a fine actor, and who appears in the movie actually early on, who learned the lines and who was me. He had been in our theater company for the last year, and so we had that. And I confess, literally I suppose I would get up a bit earlier. I like to meditate, and sometimes that goes out the window when you have a busy life. But I did get up earlier to meditate, because that would be the thing that would help me not be overwhelmed.
"What I found with this, was that there was absolutely relentless, remorseless demand every day. Every time you did something difficult, there was something else difficult to come along. Although it’s not brain surgery-difficult, it’s pretty labor intensive. And boy did I feel it.
“We finished up doing some sequences in Malta. For the week after that, I slept like a man who had never slept before. It was like a physical change in my body. I had felt like I had sunk into the bed. Suddenly, you felt like you had been an engine that was revving so high, so consistently and so continually, that this editorial period I have been involved with so far, has been just such a thrill. To not be doing quite so much of that multi-tasking at that pitch, even if you can convince yourself to enjoy the Poirot, enjoy the directing and enjoy the coffee, you can’t do it all the time.”
On the kind of traveler he is: “That’s a good question. Traveling, I wish I was as better traveler in terms of preparation. My wife will get things ready the Saturday before the Saturday we are leaving. She will already start doing that. She will get the outfits out and she will almost work out which days they will be in. She read a great Japanese book recently about folding and clearing things out and I wish I was that. I was very fortunate. I had a lovely weekend last weekend in Portugal. With five minutes to go, I was still throwing things together. As a result, I end up always needing something critical. So I am a man of a certain age. I left my glasses. I need my glasses because I can’t read and I live by reading. I love reading. So I am not a good traveler, but boy do I enjoy it.”
Dame Judi Dench (Princess Dragomiroff)
On how fun it was to make the movie: “It was huge fun to make because after ‘Queen Victoria’ I just have a lot of sitting about in the 'Orient Express' with some quite nice clothes, a lot of jewels, two nice dogs and an actress named Olivia Coleman, who portrays Hildegarde Schmidt. We had the most glorious time. I had very few lines — that was even better. Also, it was my great friend Ken Branagh whom I have worked for the 10th time. So I know him very well indeed. He was not only directing but playing Poirot as you know. He was very busy and a lot of lovely people in it. We had a lovely time.
On whether she has been on the Orient Express: “I have never been on the Orient Express. But I actually gave my daughter and her chap seats to go, tickets to go on the Orient Express this year sometime. I thought after this experience, it might be quite fun to go too, to muscle in on them and travel as well, to Venice hopefully.”
Michelle Pfeiffer (Caroline Hubbard/Linda Arden)
On singing the song “Never Forget” in the movie: “I had a million and one things going on at the time. First of all, I was incredibly flattered that Ken thought of me to sing. I was somewhat stung. I tried to talk him out of using me. But there’s no really talking Ken out of anything. I said ok, well you better have a backup that’s all I’m going to say. I hadn’t trained my voice since ‘Hairspray’; I’m not a natural born singer. I had to work really hard to get my voice in any kind of condition.
"Anyway, I found this wizard voice coach who got my voice into shape in two weeks. I said, so how long do I have? He said, hmmm, two weeks. I loved this song so much. It was so beautiful. The melody and the lyrics were so haunting so I gave it a go.”
On bonding with Dame Judi Dench: “She was just incredible. She’s just hilarious and so warm and so charming. I’m just so in awe of her talent. But after meeting her, I just became more in awe of her grace, her warmth and her ability to disarm people because she’s Judi Dench.”
Penelope Cruz (Pilar Estravados)
On how much fun she had on the set: “A lot. As you can imagine, all of us together in a small space because when we saw the movie, everything is so incredible. All these sets we never saw. We were locked into the little wagon and stuck together there so I was really shocked when I saw it yesterday. I admire a lot all of them, Kenneth and all the rest of the cast so it was really shocking the first few days to walk in there and see all of them together.
“Some of them I knew very well from before and I have worked with them but others, I never even met and Josh, I will never forget him. So fun. I know he has been doing imitations of me and Javier everywhere he goes but he is a great actor. Judi, who I love so much, I worked with her before in ‘Nine’ but it's always such a pleasure to be next to her. It was a great month together in London doing this, learning, very interesting project for all of us.”
Willem Dafoe (Gerhard/Cyrus Hardman)
On his relationship to lying since all the characters in the movie are lying: “I am a terrible liar. If you look at me and just ask me a question and just sift me out, I will confess every time. I will. My wife can tell you, really. I can’t lie. For some reason, I am conditioned deeply to show that I lie. Unless, of course, it’s in a fictional structure and I am given permission to lie. I guess on some level, acting is lying. The other thing is, if you are lying, you have to carry all of this baggage around. Your stories and you have got to remember your lies. I am not so good at that.”
Tom Bateman (Bouc)
On the dynamic on the set: “The dynamic was wonderful. Ken is not only great at amassing a very talented group of people; they’re also the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I know that was true as well in the theater. There were no egos. They’re all wonderful people who I’m honored to call friends now. Learning from them was a joy for me. I got to be in pretty much every scene and watching Willem Dafoe come up with his character and Michelle Pfeiffer come up with hers, and Penelope Cruz…so it was a real honor for me. There was never any sense of hierarchy or anything.
"Ken is just brilliant at making a family and a team. That’s what he did on this. Who was the most fun? Marwan Kenzari (who portrays Pierre Michel). We spent so much time together before the huge ensemble arrived that he holds a very special place in my heart. He’s a wonderful man.”
Josh Gad (Hector MacQueen)
On when he discovered he was witty and funny: “Just now when you asked me the question, I just learned. It’s cliché, but my parents got divorced when I was six years old, and I remember understanding the power of comedy at that point, the power of humor, giving people a distraction during a time of adversity, was an asset. It was something that I saw as an incredible opportunity to relieve the tension, to relieve the stress. So I was about six years old and again, I began to channel it in a way that it would become a profession.
Daisy Ridley (Mary Debenham)
On working with Kenneth Branagh: “I didn't really know what to expect because I've obviously never done that before working with someone who's also directing. But the whole thing actually became very comforting because it was always him.
"He was like as a director he probably would have been there all the time anyway but because he was playing the character too in all the scenes it felt really intimate and very much like we were all part of something together. So it just felt wonderful on both sides and it's weird. I did think oh, imagine if he just acted in it or just directed in it. But for me, I loved it because I never really felt out of it. It was always close. What he was doing was amazing to be able to be in the scene and then be directing. It was nice.” — LA, GMA News
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