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A&E: Who is Captain Sawyer?
DAVID WARNER: Captain Sawyer is the captain
of the ship that Hornblower joins in this particular miniseries. A man who has
been a hero. A man who is highly regarded. But that's all before the story
starts. Even Hornblower and all his friends say what a wonderful and great
commander this man was. What happens is, he's starting to fall apart, and he's
starting to make the wrong decisions. He's starting to get paranoid. He's
starting to make everybody very uncomfortable. (Laughs)
A&E: What was the most difficult part to
play? I mean, he does really go off the deep end.
DW: Once it's there in the script, you know, it
sort of comes quite naturally. I really didn't like having to order the flogging
of a young mid-shipman. (Laughs) When I read the script, I said "Oh, it's plenty
of flogging," you know? I mean, he's not a cruel man, or anything like that.
He's, as I say, falling apart. That was the most difficult thing for me to do,
because the man isn't a villain as such. Although he is a heavy, because our
heroes have got to try and find out how to deal with this man. Over the course
of the four hours of the two episodes, they do.
The character I play makes some bad decisions. It hasn't been difficult, because
the script has been so well written, and because the rest of the cast is so
wonderful. I mean this quite sincerely. I've never really come across a group of
people to work with that I've so really, really enjoyed being with. That's made
it so much easier, as I am playing a kind of ... you know, hard man.
A&E: When we first meet him, we don't
have the benefit of knowing his past. So he's just a villain.
DW: But then it's explained by Hornblower and
everybody. How could this have happened? And there's no real explanation as to
why. It's just a kind of an illness, a paranoia, or whatever. I mean, he's ill.
Don't forget, in those days, captains were quite likely to be screaming and
shouting and ordering and doing things. I don't think that's particularly out of
the ordinary. It's just when he goes a little bit too far you start to question.
They were quite ruthless in those days.
A&E: How do you reveal these slight
aspects of that sensitivity?
DW: Well, I can't explain it technically.
You’ve just got to get those little kind of things in. Not necessarily in the
writing or the dialogue, but just in little moments on his own. Little looks he
has. And then he has to snap out of it and be the Captain. Then you realize that
he's got a vulnerability. He's also got two characters who have served with him
for a long, long time before this, who are really dedicated to him. That
couldn't happen unless he did have some really decent qualities, which
unfortunately, you don't actually get to see too much in this. Maybe later on,
you understand.
A&E: Tell me about the Captain’s
relationship with the ship doctor, Dr. Clive.
DW: Well, he served with him, he's a friend.
Because he’s ill, Dr. Clive has been looking after him medically as well as
serving with him on the ships. And then we have Hobbs, who's a gunner, who's
been with him too.
You know, this Captain Sawyer prefers really the men to the officers. So,
without getting into some kind of deep character thing, he may have had problems
when he was a lieutenant that's made him this way. Because with ordinary seamen,
he's absolutely fine. It's the officers he has a problem with. Which is quite
interesting.
A&E: There's a scene where Captain Sawyer
actually confronts Dr. Clive. He says something like, "What are you doing? Why
are you doing this?"
DW: Well, by then, I am ill. By then I am in a
straight jacket, and I've been confined to my cabin. There's a kind of mutiny
there. So you know, he says, "Why are you doing this to me? Why aren't you
helping me?" And of course everybody's doing it for the good of the ship, and
the good of him too. I mean nobody's trying to kill him or anything like that.
But he doesn't know. So Clive, his doctor and friend, is doing it for his own
good. He can't understand that.
A&E: And Hobbs remains extremely
dedicated to his Captain. He's ready to execute his every wish in keeping things
out of control.
DW: I think this is what's so wonderful about
this particular script. There are about 10 major characters, all of whom have
interesting character developments. Apart from the battles, which are very
exciting, and all the sword fighting, and all that’s going on, we also have
human stories, which is absolutely wonderful. You mention Hobbs, who you think
is a bit devious and all that. As you realize, at the end of the script,
whatever he's been doing, he is heroic. It's about honor as well as adventure
and character development and people changing. Even the most unlikely people
turn up to have honor. I think even maybe Captain Sawyer, has a bit of honor.
(Laughter)
A&E: What about Wellard?
DW: Captain Sawyer, you see, he's using Wellard
as an example to keep the officers in line. Because he can't have the lieutenant
flogged. That's just not allowed. But midshipmen can be. I assumed Sawyer was
flogged when he was a midshipman. I mean, I'm sure they all were. I think that's
the way of keeping the other officers in line -- saying, “I have the power of
this young man.” It's terrible. I really feel bad having to do that.
A&E: It seems like every character goes
through these incredible changes over the course of the story. No one is
strictly villainous.
DW: Absolutely. Hobbs, as I say, turns out to
be a hero, but you wouldn't have expected that right at the beginning. We know
our regulars are going to be heroes, sort of. Oh, I must emphasize, English
heroes. It's a very rare commodity nowadays. (Laughs)
A&E: These stories are seafaring
adventures, classic English pictures. Why do you think they still so popular?
DW: Well, they're really popular in the States.
Which is quite all right. I tell you why there's an audience for them. It's
quite simple. There's an audience for this, because somebody has taken the
challenge, of making them, and putting them on A&E. That's why there's an
audience. If people are given quality stuff to watch, they'll watch it.
A&E: Buckland is another interesting
character. He's a threat to your character, but then you sort of turn him into
an ally.
DW: I'm at him all the time. But then, I'm at
all of them all the time, except Mr. Bush and Kennedy. Hornblower and Buckland
are the ones I go after. Buckland's development is a whole other wonderful art
for the character. I mean he goes everywhere, that character. And Nicholas
Jones, he's wonderful in it. They're all great. And I mean that. They're all
wonderful.
A&E: Here’s a loaded one: Is there a real
Captain Sawyer on the set?
DW: Oh, not to my knowledge. (Laughs) No, no,
no. No, I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the
set.
A&E: We didn't talk about your relationship with
Hornblower? What do you think about that?
DW: Hornblower and Sawyer hardly have any
scenes together one on one. We have about two or three scenes where we're on our
own. And those tend to be more gentle scenes, believe it or not. We have a scene
where he's on watch, and it's in the middle of the night, and I'm slightly
crazy. But that's a kind of low-key. There's another scene where he comes in and
says, "You were a great man once." That's a low-key scene. The others, when I'm
kind of at him, are when there are a lot of people there. So it's really a
question of trying to put people down in front of other people, do you
understand?
A&E: Captain Sawyer does seem to recognize
that Hornblower is his adversary, or potential adversary.
DW: Oh, absolutely, because he taunts Buckland
in saying, “This boy is just fantastic.” He can admire qualities in other
people. So he's not blind to all the qualities that Hornblower has. But he does
put him down in public a lot, which a lot of people do. You know? On film sets,
people get put down in public a lot.
A&E: Talking about film sets, you've been in
more than 30 films, Star Trek included. How does this fit into such a truly
illustrious career?
DW: How does it
fit in? It's another kind of a different genre, you know? Two Star Trek films,
and then two of the episodes with Patrick Stewart. I've done a couple of sea
pictures, you know, The Titanic, was a sort of sea picture. So, this is my sea
picture genre. (Laughs) I've been in horror movies, I've been in silly comedies.
Actually did a musical years ago. Kids' films....
A&E: You know, the last ship you
were on -- The Titanic -- didn't fare too well at sea.
DW: No, it didn't, did it. Did well at the box
office, though. (Laughs)
A&E: Would you consider doing more of
these sea faring pictures?
DW: As long as I didn't have to go to sea.
(Laughs) Let the camera do the rocking.
A&E: One more question about Titanic. What was
it like meeting up again with Ioan Gruffudd, who was in Titanic with you? And,
here you two are again at sea....
DW: Well, in Titanic, I only saw Ioan as we
were waiting endless hours through endless nights to do our bits. And Ioan was
of course charming and lovely, because all the girls were just sort of standing
there looking at him, you know, because he was just so beautiful, and gentle and
charming and lovely. Didn't talk much to Ioan then. We were all sort of in our
own little kind of boxes waiting to go on. But it's just so wonderful to see him
now, having seen him there, which was a relatively small but memorable role. The
guy who saved Kate, doing so well. He's a wonderful actor. A smashing young man.
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