It’s not easy to talk about Sir Ben Kingsley’s role in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, a 3D live action adaptation of Brian Selznick’s “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” without spoiling a major turn in the story and that’s because Sir Ben plays…
SPOILER WARNING!!!!
Georges Méiliès.
If you’re at all versed in film history, especially going back to the silent film era, than you’ll know that name. Or you can Google it and find out fairly quickly who he was if you don’t. The important thing to know is that Sir Ben Kingsley’s portrayal of this pioneer in film plays a large part in what makes Scorsese’s latest film so special as we get to see a young boy discover the secrets of Méiliès’ past after first encountering him in his older years working at a toy store in a Paris train station.
We won’t say too much more about it, but if you watch our brief video interview with Sir Ben below, he actually gives quite a lot of the plot away while talking about his character and you’ll probably learn more about Méiliès than you’ll want to know before seeing the movie, so again… SPOILER WARNING!
As we’ve learned many times, the British thespian is amazingly astute and always has interesting anecdotes to share about his experiences as well as an interesting angle on the material and the character he is playing, and that was the case when we spoke to Sir Ben about:
* How he found out about the role
* What he did in terms of preparation
* Playing Méiliès during different times in his life
* Working with the two kids
* Seeing himself for the first time in 3D
Hugo opens nationwide on Wednesday, November 23. You can also read interviews with the film’s producer, Graham King, and screenwriter John Logan here.
