Peter Morgan and the Politics of Dissent
Posted on February 28, 2007
Screenwriter Peter Morgan, who wrote The Queen, discusses the award-winning film and how he tried to focus on the importance of public dissent. He talks about how 2.2 million people protested in London in 1997.
"In 1997, 2.2 million people went on the streets of London, sleeping rough, bringing the biggest city in Europe to a standstill so that a stubborn 70-year old lady would fly from Aberdeen to London," said Morgan to the crowd of glassy-eyed celebrities assembled for the ceremony. "What are we gonna have to do when it's really important ... You have to believe public protest counts for something."Helen Mirren won the Best Actress Oscar for The Queen, but the film didn't get Best Picture or Best Screenplay. Helen Mirren noted that when the film came out, she didn't feel it was noticed as much in England as in other places (even though it later won the BAFTA for Best Film and Actress in a Leading Role for Mirren). And, alas, it appears that those rumors that Dame Mirren was going to be invited to tea with the real Queen are not true at all, although Buckingham Palace hasn't officially ruled it out yet. It could still happen.*****
"Look at the world we're living in. You can certainly make movies that have nothing to do with anything going on in the world today, but those aren't the types of movies I'm interested in writing," says Morgan.
"I want to write about my world. I don't know the American experience all that well so I don't know how comfortable I'd feel writing something I know little about. By the same token, an American could have never written The Queen. The language is so different... it's not about class or elocution. It's about structure," says Morgan.