Casting Burke & Hare initially proved problematic confesses Landis. “Yes, I needed to find people who were good actors, but they had to make their lethal amorality sympathetic because it was essentially a double Charles Manson affair. Finding actors who didn’t have to accent sympathy but exuded it anyway was incredibly hard. Once I had Simon Pegg for Burke though, who has a very likeable quality in everything he does, it felt like the other parts would rapidly fall into place.”
If onlyâ¦Landis’ original choice for Hare was Doctor Who star David Tennant, “but his agent wanted David to go to Hollywood to make a pilot TV show and it clashed with our schedule,” Landis recalls. “NBC then declined to release him for Burke & Hare in case the pilot was picked up. Which it wasn’t, so David’s double booking by his agent was a terrible mistake for his client. Happily Andy Serkis stepped in very quickly to replace him without any change to the basic core relationship dynamic between the two characters.” Another cast list no-show was Pierce Brosnan whose agent asked for too much money.
“It’s no secret I replaced David Tennant,” chimes in Serkis. “I was out promoting Sex&Drugs&Rock’nRoll [where he plays ’70s Brit singer Ian Dury] when I got the call, and ten days later I was in front of the camera. Simon Pegg lives just down the street from me in South London and we had just both worked on The Adventures of TinTin: The Secret of the Unicorn even though we didn’t have many scenes together. So I knew we would be a good fit. I had no time to watch any of the other Burke and Hare movies â I just read up about the pair on Wikipedia – and met John for a quick read-through of the script. At first I couldn’t work out the tone at all, despite John calling it âCarry on Bodysnatching’, and allying it to His Girl Friday in the way it twisted from social issues to dark humor to slapstick and back again. Was I the straight man to Burke even? Burke had a love interest and a conscience about what he was doing, Hare had no such thing â and a wife! And while he wasn’t sadistic, he did set in motion all the murderous aspects to their relationship. Hare thinks it’s every man’s right to scratch out a living, even if it is from death. Especially as everyone is going to die anyway, so why not help them along a bit and make some cash.”
For Serkis it was the scriptwriters’ canny understanding of how well placed Burke and Hare were in the scheme of progress that sparked his interest in the movie. “In the furthering of medicine comes the rise of the serial killer. And both men are seen as inventing the capitalist phrases that remain with us, like âThe Industrial Revolution’, âMarket Forces’ and âSupply and Demand’. When we get threatened by an Italian mafia gang for being so successful Burke basically says, âSo we’re paying you for protection?’ One of my favorite scenes is with my wife Lucky [played by Jessica Hynes]. We’re having a shag and she comes up with the idea of sex as a business transaction and also for funeral parlors. It’s been hard to keep a straight face on set because of all the great lines and the amazing cast of comedians delivering them.” That roster of British comedians includes Tim Curry, Stephen Merchant, Bill Bailey, Reece Shearsmith and Ronnie Corbett.
And Simon Pegg. The Shaun of the Dead and Star Trek headliner was attached to Burke & Hare the longest of any other actor as he explains. “John Landis got in touch last year when I was in America and asked if I wanted to take in a movie and go out to dinner. I had met him before â at screenings of my âSpaced’ sit-com – but what sounded suspiciously like a hot date turned out to be a request to be in Burke & Hare. John was the draw for me as long as he was involved I was in. John is very au fait with British culture anyway and I felt he was the perfect director. His degree of separation meant he would give the subject an interesting angle while that divide was wide enough to afford him some objectivity. Andy and I only had one real fight with John, over our accents. He wanted us to be âIrish’ whereas we wanted their dialects to be specific to their authentic southern Tyrone and Donegal homes. In the end he gave in after giving us a DVD of Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People saying, âJust don’t be like this!'”
For a comedy horror though Pegg found Burke & Hare an interesting exercise as he explains. “The script wasn’t gag led at all. The humor came from the situations. A lot of the time it was all about not playing the comedy aspects and allowing the situation to develop with our reactions helping it along. There is some clowning around, like today’s scenes, but the funnier it gets the grislier it becomes. Very interesting. It’s all there in the script but it’s not one that survives from joke to joke as there is so much more going on in the story regarding people and social issues. The script never justifies what Burke and Hare do either, which is very clever, and that encourages you to see them as fallible humans not all-out monsters. And because you are always on their side, the humor becomes more embedded in their outrageous deeds.”
In Spaced, Pegg’s wife was played by Jessica Hynes. Here the award-winning comedienne plays Andy Serkis’ partner. “But there was no jealousy on either side,” laughs Hynes, on set today with her two children. “I was told John Landis wanted me for the part from the beginning and then found out that was true. Frankly I would have played third hag from the left in the pub to be directed by him and be with this amazing ensemble cast. I said yes before reading the script, and then when I did, was even more delighted because it was just so terrific. I felt lucky, and Lucky turned out to be my character name.”
She continues, “Lucky was actually a really nasty piece of work in reality, an evil drunk, and she eventually murdered her own baby. Those grisly details are left out here, but I’ve been able to put across her fiery nature and the fact she comes from such similar venal stock as Hare. You had to survive whichever way you could in those days and I’ve made Lucky playfully hardy while always seeing the funny side to their murders, a bit like the meat-pie making Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. Andy and I got on like a house on fire, and it was a thrill working out the funny business between us.”
Apart form her costume corset causing untold discomfort â “It’s authentic and grips like a vice,” she grimaces â Hynes found working on Burke & Hare a surprising learning experience. “I thought it was going to be really creepy and atmospherically menacing. But John has learned his Ealing Comedy lessons well and the sinister edge to the comedy is brilliantly evoked. We’ve been able to play around on set to locate the gag position and that environment has been very creative for all of us. I’ve also met many of my heroes thanks to John. There’s always someone visiting him you are dying to be introduced to. The other day Ray Andrews, the steadicam operator on The Shining, who worked with John on American Werewolf, arrived and chatted with us. Absolute respect and a real thrill, especially when those two films are perhaps my genre favorites.”
Rounding out the other key cast members are Tom Wilkinson as Dr Knox and Isla Fisher as Burke’s actress lover. Landis has also drafted in friends to play cameo roles, like his American Werewolf leading lady Jenny Agutter (“She called insisting to be in it although there really wasn’t anything appropriate,” laughs Landis), stop-motion special effects veteran Ray Harryhausen and British director Michael Winner. Plus, of course, Christopher Lee. “I’m doing this for John,” states the scream screen icon. “We’ve been friends for thirty years, we were both in Steven Spielberg’s 1941 and then I made The Stupids with him. When he asked me to do a day’s work, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Then, when I heard the title of the film I thought, Oh god, not again, what am I expected to do? Then John assured me it was a comedy and when I read it I had to agree wholeheartedly. The cast is extraordinary â I was in a trilogy of films with Andy Serkis that didn’t do too badly! – and I’m delighted to be a part of it.”
Lee adds, “Boris Karloff was a dear friend and he starred in The Body Snatcher, which in effect is the same story we’re telling in Burke & Hare. I play a very sick old man who has a very funny scene with Simon and Andy. No, I’m not âburked’, but it’s a marvelous moment. I’ve got to the point in my life where I don’t want to do more than six days on any movie. Nor will I travel vast distances again, although I did do that for The Resident. For me there are no such things as large or small parts anymore. As long as you make a big impression in what you chose to do. Anyone with vast acting experience and film technique can make even the tiniest part count. Because I’m now known to so many generations I make that work for me.”
Watching Lee’s brilliantly timed scenes with Serkis and Pegg is clearly cracking co-scripter Nick Moorcroft up as he looks on from the cramped sick bed set sidelines. “Don’t Andy and Simon look like they’ve been digging graves all their lives?” he giggles. “Had this been a Hollywood production we’d be looking at Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio! These two look genuine and their chemistry literally leaps off the screen with that all-important Ealing vibe. As far as I’m concerned John Landis is a legend because of the way he has interpreted our script and the personality he has brought to the table. The Landis stamp has made each scene come alive more than it was on the page. He saw something in it and has highlighted the inherent comedy more. While Ealing wanted script changes John insisted our work be more or less kept intact â I think 20 lines in all were tweaked, but nothing was ever taken away. How rare is that? Landis is back in the territory he knows well and we love him to be in. He may argue otherwise but Burke & Hare is definitely in the vein of An American Werewolf in London. It has the darkness, the humor and the sophistication. And I think without really knowing it, Landis has brought together a new ensemble of actors that could populate the next wave of Ealing productions. For sure, Serkis and Pegg are a double act people will want to see together again real soon.”
Source: Alan Jones
