Loading

MUSE

'gregson on mary selway'

A Cast of Thousands: The Life of Mary Selway

Isabelle Gregson is a name you'll be hearing a lot more of in the next few months. Not content with being an actress (Law & Order: UK, Wire in the Blood), playwright and novelist (look out for her book 'As the Actress said to the Bishop', out next summer), she is putting her multifaceted talents to filming a biographical documentary on the late Mary Selway, the uber casting director of films like Indiana Jones, Aliens, Notting Hill and Gosford Park. Glass catches up with Isabelle during a brief gap in her hectic schedule to ask the whys, hows and whats of her latest creative endeavour..

Hello Isabelle, how are you this rainy afternoon?
I just got back from Dorset and feel re-energised and raring to go!

So, tell us about your project on Mary Selway - could you tell us more about her?
I'm doing a documentary called A Cast of Thousands: The Life of Mary Selway, celebrating the life and work of the legendary Mary Selway, the "Great British Dame of Casting."

Mary Selway's career is modern cinema. Among many other films, she cast Gosford Park, Alien, Notting Hill, Master and Commander, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Victor/Victoria.

Mary worked extensively on both sides of the Pond and in Europe, helping to realise the vision of some of the most celebrated directors of Western cinema, including Clint Eastwood, Roger Michell, Bertrand Tavernier, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Blake Edwards, Sydney Pollack and Robert Altman, to name a few.

Mary didn't just weave her magic on blockbusters and established talent, she also collaborated on Indie films and was a tireless champion of new acting talent, whom she discovered and nurtured.

What made you want to do a documentary on Mary Selway?
As an actress, I found her dedication to the art of casting really inspiring and I just wish I'd had a chance to meet her. (She died from cancer in 2004.)

My accent coach worked with her on the films Gosford Park and Vanity Fair and simply adored the whole experience. Mary Selway was very hands-on and stayed in touch with the cast throughout the shooting process. Everyone who knew her seems to have had the same reaction. That's really unusual and rather extraordinary in the movie business!

‘A Cast of Thousands: The Life of Mary Selway’ hopes in its own small way to give those who didn't have the pleasure of knowing her a taste for her enormous contribution to Cinema through the eyes and words of those who knew and loved her.

What has been the greatest challenge in doing your documentary so far?
"How do you eat an elephant? One small piece at a time..."
It's my first documentary (I like to do something new every year... last year I produced and performed my first one woman show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe) so in the beginning everything seems a big challenge: what kind of equipment should I use? Should I get a small crew or shoot it all on my own? How should I conduct the interviews? Should I budget for some interviews in the US? How am I going to tell the story? The list goes on and on... The thing is, as you start working through it all, talking to people, asking for advice, asking for help, asking for favours, it all becomes a lot more clear and then it's just a matter of breaking it down into manageable pieces and doing it!

When are you going to debut it?
Once it's all shot and edited (and I'm happy with it!), the plan is to enter the documentary into Film Festivals around the world. There's Toronto, Berlin, Australia, Edinburgh, Sundance, NZ...

Could you give us a choice quote from it?
Here's a quote from director Roger Michell (he directed the film Notting Hill) who wrote her obituary in The Independent. It's what made me decide to do the documentary:

"Although she was always perfectly turned out and supremely elegant, the chic didn't hide (or didn't for long) the mischievous and subversive woman who had marched for the miners, camped at Greenham and supported the ANC before most of us had heard of Nelson Mandela. She was irreverent and couldn't care less what people thought of her. She hated the posturing and bullsh*t that abounds in show business and would not put up with it. She filled any room she was in with her laughter and curiosity and she contributed far, far more than just actors to the films she worked on."

What else have you done in film (in terms of directing/reportage) - will you be doing more biographical films?
This is my first time directing. I think I enjoy being an actress too much to give it up and focus exclusively on directing, but if the right opportunity comes up to direct something else, I will definitely consider it. But I'm getting ahead of myself here! I need to finish this project first...

What would you use to measure its success?
On a personal level, completing the documentary will be a very satisfying experience in and of itself. In terms of artistic recognition, it would be lovely to get selected as an official entry into some the Film Festivals. Commercial success would come from getting a deal with distributors both abroad and in the UK.

And what will you do if it achieves this?
I will treat myself to a red velvet cupcake from Magnolia Bakery in New York!

More seriously, critical and/or commercial success would give me a concrete base from which to leverage my skills as a director and producer. As an actor, I think it's important to have as many skills as possible to draw from, it increases your chances of getting involved with some really interesting projects.
Share on Facebook

More features from the MUSE section