The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of The Penguin Lessons.
When you were first pitched this story, what really clicked for you? Was there a moment or scene that really convinced you that you wanted to make this?
Peter Cattaneo: Well, it’s based on a memoir, and I think what felt really exciting was that you would never dream up this set of facts. It’s a real story in a particular time and place, and there’s this friendship with a penguin: it’s interesting what animals can do to humanize human beings. And then there is this idea of this kind of walled piece of Britain sort of landing like an alien spaceship in the middle of Argentina! It just felt like a really heady mixture to dig into as a filmmaker.
Steve Coogan: When Jeff [Pope] first described the project to me, my initial reaction was, “I don’t want to be in a cute penguin movie. It sounds horrific.” But I talked to him more and more about it. I thought, “well… maybe.” And I thought about how if you don’t want to do something, sometimes that’s a sign that you should do it. And I thought, well, I’m kind of a little cynical, so let’s make him super cynical, a bit more cynical than the real Tom Michelle. Let’s make him someone who doesn’t like penguins or animals and is cynical about his own existence, basically. And then we’ve got a little journey to go on and with the penguin. So at that point I was like, “okay, this sounds like it could be fun.”
What is really brave is to feel the fear and still do the right thing
I understand that the story changed a little bit from the book?
PC: Yes, that’s correct. The Michell in the book was in his mid to late twenties. But the story of the penguin coming to the school as kind of a catalyst for good and hope was very much in the book. There was only a little bit of the political situation, but of course the truth is that wall around the school did keep it quite protected from what was going on outside. So the key things that developed from the book to the screen were making him older, and making the political element more prominent. The politics felt like they were sort of underserved in the book, and it felt very difficult to do a film set in Argentina in 1976 without building that out more. Like, we either needed to change the time period, or we had to deal with it. And then of course we’re not saying it’s an in-depth study of all sides of that conflict. Of course it’s not. We just felt we couldn’t make a film which didn’t at least deal with it in some way.
Did having so much professional experience with the screenwriter allow you to have conversations with him that you wouldn’t normally be able to have as you were preparing the role?
SC: Yes, absolutely. Because I’ve written several films with Jeff, and I always meddle with what he’s done. I mean, I’m going to be saying the stuff that he’s written, and so we just… by our very nature, we sort of collaborate that way.
PC: It was kind of exciting because I love the work those guys had done together before, and it was funny just to overhear them saying stuff that you wouldn’t normally hear between an actor and a writer, like, “no, that’s shit.” Things like that!
SC: Well, the thing is when, when you know someone really well… I know Jeff well enough that I don’t… it can save a lot of time. Because normally, when you’re trying to tell someone that you don’t like something that they’ve done, you have to do a dance around the politics of it so you don’t get canceled for bullying them. Whereas Jeff and I just say, “that’s crap.” And, and we know each other so well that we don’t take it personally. We just sort of say, “that’s terrible. I don’t like that.” “Why?” “Because of this.”
Did you anticipate how relevant this story would be to the time it’s being released?
PC: No, not at all. We were just talking about that. I think being European, and having my parents who lived through… my dad left Italy to get away from fascism. So I think we are very aware. Personally, my fascism radar is very, very hot. Um, so suddenly, yeah, it feels quite relevant to what’s going on, and not just here, it’s globally. But yes, that’s coincidence, really.
SC: I think the thing that resonates with me right now is the importance of not being cynical. It’s so easy to feel this cynicism in the face of a nihilistic world… it’s quite an easy place to live in, to wash your hands of it all and just not engage. I mean, I’m, I’m as guilty of it as anyone else: I’m just going to check out, which is what my character is doing in the film, when we first meet him. But then he is humbled by young people who have a conscience. That was key, I think. Just the notion of, you know, that you can’t save the world, but you can be nice to the people you meet. You can try and make a difference within your vicinity, within your immediate world. You can make a difference. You can choose to be cruel or kind at certain times in your life. And that will have some sort of ripple effect. We usually think of bravery as being bullish and not feeling fear. But to me, that doesn’t seem to be real strength of character. What is really brave is to feel the fear and still do the right thing. That is the noblest thing I think a human being can do is do – the right thing, even though it might seem futile.