GEOFF Thompson, author of Watch My Back, the book upon which the film Clubbed is based, and director Neil Thompson, talk about some of the many challenges of bringing the novel to the screen – and why it’s been a dream come true.

Q. Does it seem like a dream come true to finally get your autobiographical novel, Watch My Back, turned into a film?
Geoff Thompson: Absolutely, yeah. We’re doing a premiere in Leicester Square, a premiere in Paris… it’s very weird. I’ve just found myself in this strange new reality, which is great, and I’m very excited about it.

Q. Do you have lots of pinch me moments?
Geoff Thompson: Yeah, my life has been like that since I first published the book 15 years ago. My background is very working class, kind of factory based, where you’ve got to be grateful for that kind of job and don’t get above yourself. So, for me even publishing a book… the odds were so small, they didn’t even attract odds. We were told that it didn’t happen for people like us and it was a reality that didn’t exist. So, the last 15 years has been full of pinch me moments. But to finally see it at the cinema, in Leicester Square, really is a dream come true. It’s fantastic. But that’s the whole message of the film, really… that anybody can become anything. I’m the embodiment of that.

Q. How challenging was it to turn into a film?
Neil Thompson: It was challenging. It’s quite a difficult script to turn into a film in a way because it didn’t have a sort of traditional structure. So, we kind of collaborated hugely on the script and worked a lot on that. But because it’s based on Geoff’s life and it is a true story, where everything comes from the book or his life, it’s quite challenging to mould into a film story.

Geoff Thompson: What to leave in, what to leave out – that’s always difficult.

Q. Were there any embellishments made for dramatic effect?
Neil Thompson: Yeah, there’s a fiction in there and a few little tweaks. But it’s very much based on what happened to Geoff, or someone he knows.

Geoff Thompson: All the things happened – not necessarily in that order. But the story about the guy that was depressed and divorced and who desperately wanted to write and be an artist, but who was too frightened to live, let alone do anything that dangerous, was all very true. But then becoming a writer… I wrote my first book in a toilet in a factory where I was a floor sweeper – so the main thrust of the film is very true and all the other stuff is true but just in a different order. We fictionalised where we needed to, of course.

Q. The violence is shocking in places. Did you have any problems with the censors?
Neil Thompson: With the censors? Well, it’s an 18 rating, so we didn’t get 15. It’s mainly the language that caused a problem, although we have had – not problems – but we’ve had to put warnings over everything on certain kinds of websites and certain publicity we’ve done. And that’s weird, because a lot of Hollywood movies have people being splattered with machine guns and they’re hugely more violent. In our film, it seems to be more frightening to people.

Geoff Thompson: There’s no violent intent in our film. There’s violent content, but no violent intentions. We wanted to show the violence so that it made you recoil. We didn’t want you to look at it and make you aspire to it. So, you have to be very brave to capture that – so, when there is violence it is quite shocking because it’s done in front of the kids and quite visceral. But there’s not a lot of it. As for the language, I think it’s poetry. There’s a big thing about swearing but in that world it’s done with a poetry. I love the way it’s done. It’s like The Sopranos or Deadwood – it’s like Shakespeare.

Q. You have also mentioned that you envisaged Clubbed as a kind of British Goodfellas. So that’s obviously the kind of movie that inspires you?
Neil Thompson: Definitely. They’re the sort of things that hugely influenced us – Mean Streets, Goodfellas and those kind of New York-style movies. They were definitely something we were aspiring to – to have a nice sort of pumping soundtrack on it, and try and make it a bit more glossy. To try and take it somewhere really, and invent a kind of world that, although it’s still a gritty British movie, it’s also elevated a little bit beyond that and give it a kind of sheen.

Q. How easy was it to bring the cast together?
Neil Thompson: It’s always a problem casting low budget British films because inevitably dates move around and some of your actors are going to get offered bigger gigs. So, you’re always up against that problem where people drop out. We went through that route. Colin [Salmon] was one of the actors we went to right from the beginning and couldn’t get – but because our dates moved and his dates moved, we ended up getting him just a few days before we shot. Literally, he came to meet myself and Geoff about three days before the cameras rolled. So, that was weird.

With Mel Raido, we had looked at a lot of so-called leading men, but they tend to be sort of quite cocky, confident, arrogant and very good looking young men and they weren’t right for the part really. Mel did a fantastic audition but he also got me to come down in a fringe play he was doing, where he had to do a lot of things that were very similar to the Clubbed script, and that was something that sealed it for us. We really thought he was right for the part of Danny.

Q. Have you ever considered directing, Geoff?
Geoff Thomspon: Not really. I have a passion for words. I love words. And I’m just learning and developing my skills for words. I do books and I do journalism and plays. I have a broad palette. I don’t have a great eye for direction. I love working with actors and I work very well with them because I appreciate what they bring to the table. I’d never say never, of course, but I look at it and don’t really fancy it. I want to try and master the word side of it first.

Q. You’re obviously going to continue writing?
Geoff Thompson: Yeah, this is my fifth film now. I’ve done a lot of shorts and I’m doing another feature with Neil at the moment. I also have half a dozen other projects in different places, so I’m always juggling stuff. I’ve been writing professionally for 15 years now. I’m doing a six-parter at the moment for the BBC and I’ve just done a stage play for a London theatre.

Q. Do you find you have a short-hand between the two of you now?
Neil Thompson: Yeah, we work really well together. On Clubbed, we really bonded because we had to work really, really closely together. But we had a completely shared vision and that’s the only way to work on films. You’re going to be together for three years, so it’s important to trust each other and learn as you went along. It’s been a great experience.

Geoff Thompson: It has been challenging at times but that’s where all the growth is. There’s no growth in comfort is there? I know I’m in the right place if it’s difficult. Something a British writer said to me once was: “If the project doesn’t make him wobble, he doesn’t take it.” You have to be uncomfortable to grow.

Read our review of Clubbed

• Delicious
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• Stumbleupon