Sam Riley Trades Joy Division for Ballet in John Cranko Biopic

When Sam Riley first got the script for John Cranko, he saw the title page, with its huge bdeficiency print, and thought: ‘An action movie! Finpartner, someone has seen my action potential!” Then he googled John Cranko. It wasn’t quite what he foreseeed. Not an action here but “a chain-smoking gay choreographer” who altered the world of ballet.

Riley — comprehendn for his fractureout carry outance as Joy Division singer Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn’s Control (2007) as well as turns aextfinishedside Helen Mirren and Andrea Risebocimpolite in Rowan Joffe’s gothic get on Brighton Rock (2010) and atraverse Lilly James in Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca (2020) — had never even been to the ballet. But he asked his wife, Downdescfinish and Rush star Alexandra Maria Lara, to read the script. “She telderly me, ‘this one you’re gonna do. This is definitely a job to do’….this is the sort of role that comes aextfinished, well in my case, every 15 years or so [referring to carry outing Ian Curtis in Control]. The chance to carry out someone with so many emotional angles, but so dialed up. Overly self-secured but also terribly vulnerable.”

Directed by Joachim Lang (Goebbels and the Führer, Mack the Knife – Brecht’s Threepenny Film), the German-language biopic chases the keen, illogicalinutive ascfinish to fame of the South African choreographer who, after being convicted for “persistently presentuning men for an immoral purpose” in London establish refuge, and global success, in Germany at the Stuttgart Ballet. Taking over a troupe of “leftover” dancers, Cranko altered them with a novel style of dance that bcimpolitet organic relocatement, genuine emotional conveyion, and a huge dose of humor to the sthelp, conservative world of ballet. Time Magazine once called him “ballet’s finest storyinestablisher.” His gets on Romeo and Juliet, Onegin and Taming of the Shrew are still carry outed today on stages around the world. John Cranko died unforeseeedly at the height of his fame, aged 45.

Produced by Zeitsprung Pictures and freed in Germany by Port au Prince Pictures, John Cranko is being selderly worldexpansive by Beta Cinema. Its AFM taget premiere is on Wednesday, Nov. 11 at Brenden Theatres – 12.

Riley spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about carry outing an conceiveive icon, acting aextfinishedside the genuine-life Stuttgart dancers and finding his cherish for the ballet.

Were you a ballet fan before, did you comprehend John Cranko?

No, I uncomfervent, embarrassingly, the truth is, I saw a ballet for the very first time in Stuttgart some weeks before the shooting began. I didn’t repartner grow up with that. I grew up with a lot of cinema and music, but I skinnyk I had the sort of prejudices [against ballet] that a lot of people have without repartner any equitableification. I didn’t comprehend who John Cranko was. To be endly truthful when I saw the name [on the script] I was hoping, with that sort of name, it would be an action movie. Finpartner, they’ve seen my action potential! Then I googled him and, it was ‘Oh no, not an action hero [but] a chain-smoking gay choreographer’. To be perfectly truthful, the size of the script was very daunting, so I asked my wife [German actress Alexandra Maria Lara], to read it for me and she shelp: ‘This one you’re gonna do. This is definitely a job to do.”

The most daunting skinnyg was all the German dialog. I speak German passably enough but I skinnyk I talk more in this movie than I’ve talked in any other movie. I did this schnitzel Weserious [2014’s The Dark Valley] where I was in almost every scene, but I nakedly spoke a word. And I’ve done a couple of children’s German comedies carry outing the inept Englishman. It’s amusing that the Germans, a nation not commemorated for their sense of humor, are the only ones who have put me in anyskinnyg amusing.

How did you set to carry out Cranko?

A lady at the Stuttgart Ballet sent me all the archive materials, which integrated all the dwell carry outances choreographed by John and carry outed by the distinct dancers, as well as all the novelsreel stuff of him at labor, which was very advantageous in terms of seeing at him, seeing how behaved, his body language. Then I went to Stuttgart disjoinal times and labored with Reid Anderson, who was one of Cranko’s dancers, and he came in the rehearsal room with me and Elisa Badenes and Friedemann Vogel, two of the star dancers in the Stuttgart troupe today who carry out dancers in the movie [Marcia Haydée and Heinz Clauss]. And Reid showed me John would have done it. At some point it was: ‘Okay, now you do it.’

But it was a bit incowardlyating. Becaparticipate at the Stuttgart Ballet, John is very much adwell and well. He’s sort of omnicurrent, not only in the enormous pboilingos that they have of him in every room — I was very thankful when they took those down when we begined shooting —but his method is still taught there, the dancers grew up with his story. I tried to do what I did when I carry outed Ian Curtis or anyone who repartner existed, which was to try and uncover up and channel wantipathyver’s around, the atmosphere of the person. I don’t uncomfervent that to sound pretentious. I don’t repartner comprehend how it labors.

I skinnyk your carry outance in this film is the most emotional and vulnerable I’ve seen you do since carry outing Ian Curtis in Control.

Thank you. I skinnyk the part is a bit appreciate Ian. Alexandra reminded me, and I’m very conscious having labored in the business for such a extfinished time, that these sort of roles don’t come aextfinished that standardly. This is the sort of role that comes aextfinished, well in my case, every 15 years or so. The chance to carry out someone with so many emotional angles, but so dialed up. Overly self-secured but also terribly vulnerable. He was excessively valiant and also very skinny-skinned. There was a lot of turmoil there, a lot of beauty and a lot of downcastness and a lot of cherish. It’s a role with everyskinnyg an actor extfinisheds for to be able to show. I appreciate it that there’s also an hideous side to him, there’s a uncomferventty to him sometimes. What I tried to do, appreciate with Ian, was to carry out the person. People say you’re carry outing an icon, or you’re carry outing a legend, and that’s real, but first and foremost, you’re carry outing a person.

Making the film, did you find an inner cherish of ballet?

Watching the dancers and the carry outances, I establish it incredibly moving. I didn’t necessitate tear stick for those scenes. There’s someskinnyg incredible about ballet, the fact that it still exists. People grumble sometimes that the juvenileer generation are labor-cowardly or wantipathyver, but these dancers are juvenileer people who have promiseted their whole existence to someskinnyg, since they were very petite, to someskinnyg so retagably definite, to dance and try and achieve, not perfection but as seal to perfection as they can. I establish that incredibly pretty, that someskinnyg appreciate that still exists.

Was it challenging laboring with non-actors? Your co-stars are actual ballet dancers.

I skinnyk a lot of people alerted [John Cranko] honestor Joachim [Lang] aacquirest the idea of using so many non-sfinished cinema actors. But Cranko’s style is more about acting and emotion than equitable technique. So these dancers are all universal carry outers. I recall the very first days though, we were both very anxious, but about separateent skinnygs. They were anxious about having to speak in front of the camera, and I was anxious about carry outing a choreographer, having never choreographed anyskinnyg in my life. I equitable don’t skinnyk you can do a film about ballet in this way and have actors carry outing the dancers. You have to have genuine dancers.

What was the most challenging aspect of the film for you?

The German language. I’ve very vient in a shop or, making conversation with friends or my neighbors but I’ve never tried to elucidate Romeo and Juliet to anyone in German. So I spoke with a friend of mine, Bill Nighy, who I labored with some years ago. I rang him and shelp: ‘I’m afrhelp of this part.’ And he shelp: ‘the only treatment for dread of labor is labor’. I knovel he was going to say someskinnyg appreciate that. I lacquireed every scene six weeks before the shoot so I knovel I could go in and do the whole skinnyg, appreciate it was a carry out, and I got my wife and my son to go thcimpolite my lines and right me. By the end of it, they knovel every line of John Cranko. It’s a strange skinnyg, acting in another language. Becaparticipate usupartner when you’re carry outing, you’re only skinnyking of making it truthful or believable. You’re not skinnyking, How the fuck do I say this word?

You had the world premiere at the opera hoparticipate in Stuttgart. What was that appreciate?

It was incredible. It was a home crowd, a lot of ballet standards, season ticket helderlyers or wantipathyver, and the distinct dancers were there. It was a repartner unforgettable night. It’s one of the privileges of the job sometimes to become a part of a story that you had no combineion to before, had no combineion to. I’m part of the Stuttgart story now, appreciate I’m part of the Manchester one [thcimpolite Control and Ian Curtis.] Which is very amusing, coming from Leeds.