The biographical film on the Tourette Syndrome campaigner is crucial, my dear

Kirk Jones: I went to Galashiels (in Scotland) and we sat and talked. The first thing he said to me when he opened the door was, “Kirk, come in. Let’s have sex.” I made a joke, because that’s my nature. I wanted to take the tension out of the meeting, and the next thing he said was, “Just ignore it…you know, ignore the tics,” — but don’t ignore the person. I said: Is it what is in your head? We all have this little space in our heads that’s double-tapped… things never come out. Does it feel like your door is swinging wide open? He said: No.

One of the things I was most aware of was that the Tourette community had historically been harassed and ridiculed because of the nature of the condition, and it was easy to find someone with Tourette’s on a radio show, or write a character in a movie or TV series with Tourette’s, and I was very aware that John and many other people in the community felt they had been taken advantage of in the past. So, from day one, I promised that this was not my intention. What’s more, I said I would make him an executive producer. I spent a lot of time with John. I just listened to everything he had to say about his life; He told me the whole story.

DEADLINE: The film can be heartbreaking but it also has a lot of humor. How do you walk the scale of maintaining his respect?

Jones: I stayed very close and honest to John’s actual story. This seems like the right place to start. Of course I changed some elements. Beyond that, it’s just a matter of instinct. I’ve always enjoyed mixing humour, emotion and drama together – you’ll have a very dramatic and emotional scene, and I love just taking the audience out of that and laughing, and after a few minutes, diving back in. This offers what people describe as a rollercoaster. They talk about John’s life journey, and the film is full of emotion.

I tried to keep the performances as natural as possible. I knew it from documentaries when John’s story was presented as a straight documentary story that he was very attractive. It was also funny and emotional. You didn’t need to put in much effort above that.

DEADLINE: And in terms of casting, did you ever consider having someone with Tourette’s?‘He plays John‘role?

Jones: Yes, I thought: “Is it possible, on a movie set, which is basically nothing more than a military operation, to put someone with Tourette’s Syndrome in this situation?” And then I thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if John played himself in the last 20 minutes?’ From getting an MBE to the end.

I’ve worked with non-actors before with some success, and I’ve enjoyed the process. I wrote four or five scenes specifically to shoot with John, and that’s what I learned: try to suppress [the condition] Or not to suppress it is incredibly stressful. After about 45 minutes of work each day, John would say, “Are we done now, can I go home?” He was really tired.

The only major thing that made me feel really uncomfortable was that I said, ‘Look, you’re talking to Dottie (Peck), and I want you to say, ‘Fuck the Queen,’ because that’s how it’s going to end up in the script.” [Davidson famously said this as a result of his tics when receiving his MBE in 2019]. “Well, I can’t really move on call,” he said. It comes out of nowhere. So I said, “John, if we’re going to do this for real, and this test is going to be accurate and relevant, you’re going to have to do this.” He felt really uncomfortable acting out or “faking” a tic, and I felt really uncomfortable asking him.

A few weeks later, I edited the material and called John and said, “I don’t feel like this is the right decision for these reasons.” He said: I am very relieved. I was terrified that you would say you wanted me to do that. John has since said publicly that he did not believe someone with Tourette’s syndrome could have worked within the confines of a film set.

DEADLINE: Do you think there is now more awareness of Tourette’s syndrome among the general public?

Jones: We do these market research presentations and then we have a focus group at the end, and one day someone said they were going to Google Tourette. “The only thing I know,” they said, “is that if I came here on the subway tonight and saw someone behaving like John, I would have moved to another car.” If someone [did the same] On my way home, I would smile at them and maybe talk to them if I was sure it was Tourette’s.

DEADLINE: You have some big credits in studio pictures, so why this kind of pivot?

Jones: I was really looking forward to making a low budget British film that I had complete control over. Having made films for 30 years or so at different levels, I realize that this is when I’m happiest – when I’m most creative, when I jump out of bed in the morning and don’t have to answer to dozens of people in the studio.

DEADLINE: However, the independent sector faces some serious challenges in today’s climate.

Jones: Maybe half a dozen people called me just before the film was released and said: “You do realize the British film industry is watching your film perform this weekend, right?” I didn’t quite understand. They said: Then I swear If it doesn’t work, it’s a real problem for the future of the British film industry. It’s a local story. “It’s a British crew.”

We showed it to 2,600 people, and 100% of them said they would recommend it, so it was word of mouth, on paper anyway, when it came out in cinemas. We released Studiocanal on 650 screens – which is unheard of for a low-budget British film – so you can’t blame anything on that. It had great P&A and marketing, and we started screening it three months before release, so, on paper, every box was ticked. People were actually saying that the elements were there, and if British audiences didn’t come to cinemas to see it, any financier going ahead would say of other films, ‘I love this project, but I swear Everything was going well, and look what happened. It is reassuring that the audience is still really interested and willing to go out and go to the cinema to watch local films.

DEADLINE: And were you surprised by the ending? Which UK response?