Steve McQueen Touches History in “Hunger”

Just don't confuse him with the star of "Bullitt."

Were there any practical or technical differences between your installation work and your first theatrical feature?

The wonderful thing about that is all these people who help you shoot your movie — all these experts in their fields or whatever — they help you make your film. There’s even some guy there to give you a cup of tea, and before you finish, some guy’s taking it away from you. It’s fantastic. There’s nothing to complain about. All these people help you make your film, so in effect, it was luxury. It was really wonderful.

What was your biggest surprise about working with actors?

That I love actors. I had [thought] of them as overtrained racehorses in a way, and the fact that I loved working with actors was… again, I would hope so, but it was wonderful to work with actors. For example, Liam Cunningham and Michael Fassbender, you notice they’re wonderful. They risk as much as you. I think it’s the honesty and integrity and trying to get to a place where it’s not acting and it’s not performing, it’s actually being. That was the best thing about this process for me: the pleasure of working hard with actors, and getting there. It’s a dream.

Do you think you might now use actors in your video work?

Not particularly, no. Horses for courses, you know.

People are suckers for any kind of stunt casting. Were you ever concerned that Fassbender’s severe weight loss in the film’s second half was going to publically overshadow the rest of the film?

No, far from it. This isn’t a vanity situation. The name “Hunger” is because that’s what happened in the film. It’s the means, the cause to ends. The situation is that in order for this guy to be heard, he lost weight. He unfortunately died from a lack of eating. So it was intertwined with the film. The [farther] the movie got, the thinner he got. It wasn’t a thinner trip like “The Machinist” for example. This is a necessary situation for the film. It’s all about that.

The strike itself is such a small part of a bigger whole. Could you discuss how you wanted to approach the actual fasting in relation to the storytelling?

The film is almost a sphere in a way. It’s not a long-winded story. It’s lean because that’s the necessity for this film. No fat. Let’s get to the essentials. Like I said, the smell, the touch, the texture, the sound. Let’s take the audience seriously, and let’s get going. What I mean by that is the situation… I’m pointing to my forehead now. I want to get to that. It’s one of those situations where the film itself as a medium, as a tool, as a thing to play with. I’m going on a bit. It has to weave itself within the context of the film. So basically the form of the film is the context. It’s just one thing.

With walls smeared with feces, prison beatings and Bobby’s explicitly deteriorating body, was the on-set mood somber, or was there any levity to counterbalance such an intense subject?

It was a blessing that we didn’t shoot in the actual Maze. We wanted to, but we were turned down by the authorities. It was a blessing that we shot in a studio, for example. No, it wasn’t [somber] at all. It was great being on set. We had people who had direct relationships to people who were on the blanket in the hunger strike, people who were prison officers. What was interesting is that the past and present were in the same room.

Some critics feel that modern British drama has been flagging overall. Do you sense this?

I’m interested in naturalism. I’m not interested in British, American or Korean whatever. I don’t see things in that way, where my land ends and your land begins, there’s a difference. People make films. I don’t think about myself as a British filmmaker, just a filmmaker per se. So I don’t really get involved in that. There are good films and bad films, and I don’t care where they came from. Who makes them?

I’m too curious to not ask, but when you began making films, did you ever thinking of adding a middle initial to your name, or going by Steven?

[long pause] What’s your next question?

“Hunger” opens in limited release on March 20th.

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