Cold comfort
James Mottram asks PETER MULLAN what he can see On a Clear Day.
rom suffering frostbite for The Claim to roughing it in Croatia for Kiss ()fLi/‘e. there's no questioning the hardships Peter Mullan will endure for the sake of a performance. But the Peterhead-born actor-
director went to new lengths for On a Clear
Day. Gaby Dellal's feelgood film about an unemployed family man named Frank who decides to swim the English Channel. Mullan didn’t even grease up to insulate his body from the cold. 'They don‘t do that any more.‘ he says. ‘Modern swimmers found out that it does nothing for you. It‘s too messy.‘
Swimming a mile a day in a pool. the 45-
year-old Mullan trained for five and a half
months before venturing into open water. The first time was ‘brutal’. he says. ‘When I went in. I hadn‘t anticipated that the cold crushes you. I hadn’t realised that you can’t breathe. Everything shuts down instantly and a guy whacks you in your back to get your lungs working again. I understand how people drown at sea so quickly because of the shock. Your heart tries to keep you alive. so brain. eyes.
46 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 1 1—18 Aug 2005
teeth — they all just go. I hadn't anticipated it would be that brutal. I knew it would be cold but I figured with all the training. it would be OK . . . l was fitter than I had ever been. Then what made it worse was that ahead of me I knew I had another eight days of it.‘
As Mullan points out. for every minute spent filming in the water. it takes two hours to recover. ‘You go through the whole process: the shivering. your body temperature doesn‘t come up for five or six hours. so you can‘t go back in.’ It didn’t help that. due to financing. much of the film had to be shot in and around
‘HE'S SWIMMING THE CHANNEL TO FIGHT THAT WHICH IS WITHIN’
the Isle of Man — meaning the swim was filmed in the Irish Sea rather than the English Channel. Noting that “at that time of the year [the sea] was at its very coldest'. Mullan
estimates the waters were around ten degrees Celsius. l2 degrees colder than ‘a freezing cold swimming pool'. Not that he realised what he'd been pttt through until the production moved down to Dover. to shoot the beginning of Frank‘s epic crossing.
‘I went in. and then my beautiful swimming double [David Feakes] took over.’ recalls Mullan. ‘Beforc he went in. I said. “Is it my imagination or does this feel like a fucking bath compared to where we‘ve been?" He said. “Yeah! I couldn't do 22 miles in the Irish Sea." I went to the director and said. “I've just been informed that this is six degrees fucking warmer than where we've been. Are you seriously telling me that we've just spent two weeks in a location colder than what it's meant to be‘.’ Normally. it‘s the other way around!" She said. “Are you going to be annoyed with me‘.’ We didn't have the money to go anywhere else.”
If the film has a more optimistic tone than many of Mullan’s past projects — be it his work for Ken Loach on My Name Is Joe or his own controversial directorial efforts. ()rp/iuns and
Mullan (centre) with the cast of On a Clear Day and (right) scenes
from the movie. Centre right: Mullan with director Gaby Dellal