UK star Cherie Lunghi on Excalibur and her visit to Cork Film Festival
Nigel Terry and Cherie Lunghi in Excalibur (1981).
Cherie Lunghi has fond memories of coming to Ireland to film her first major movie role. She’s enjoyed an impressive stage and screen career in the years since, but being cast as a young actress as Guinevere in John Boorman’s felt like a major break.
The sword and sorcery epic that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the round table was a critical and commercial hit. Shot at Ardmore Studios and locations in Co Wicklow and beyond, 1981 release is regarded as an early driving force which contributed to the thriving screen industry Ireland has today. It showcased the talents of an emerging generation of Irish and British actors, among them Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Ciarán Hinds and Lunghi.
It was her first major film role, and Lunghi says she will never forget Boorman’s commitment to casting her in the role - and his determination to support her when a potential scheduling clash emerged.
“I was playing Viola in with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and I auditioned for John, and he gave me the part of Guinevere. There were some logistical problems, because I was contracted to the RSC, and we were playing in repertoire, so there were odd days off, but they really bent over backwards at John's behest just to accommodate my career, my commitment to the Royal Shakespeare Company.”
For the first month of Irish production, she would be collected by car from the stage door following Saturday night’s performance and brought to the airport. There, a private plane would bring her to Ireland and the set. “I'd fly across the Irish Sea. I remember moonlight, stars and the sea glimmering below. I'd never been on a private plane before.”
On arrival, she recalls, a kind porter would be there with sandwiches and hot chocolate. “I'd get three hours sleep, and then I'd get picked up at the crack of dawn, driven to the studio, put into costume, makeup, and step onto this amazing film set.”
This week, Lunghi will travel to Cork International Film Festival to accept an award on behalf of the British-born filmmaker who made Ireland his home for more than fifty years. The man who brought such films as and to the big screen will be honoured with CIFF’s Honorary Screen Disruptor Award followed by a screening of his 1974 film, at Triskel. The Disruptor Award is dedicated to the free spirits of the film world. Boorman has recorded an acceptance speech which will be screened at the event, while there will be tributes to the filmmaker from many who worked with him including Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Jamie Lee Curtis and Juliette Binoche.
What is Lunghi most looking forward to in celebrating Boorman’s work in Cork?
“It’s manifold, really. I'm thrilled to be part of paying tribute to John as a great director. But mainly, like a lot of the actors are expressing in their own tributes, tremendous gratitude, from actors on the threshold of our careers, very young, starting out. It's lovely, because it's brought back so many happy memories, and it's just reinforced how grateful I am to John for giving me that opportunity.”
As she accepts the award on Boorman’s behalf, Lunghi is also looking forward to exploring Cork and its film festival. “I have never been, and I've always wanted to go. I'm going to take advantage of the fact I'm at a film festival. The organisers have kindly got me a few films to see while I'm there. But I've got some mornings, and I want to just go walkabout.”
As she came to Ireland in the early 1980s to shoot her first major film, Lunghi recalls a sense of excitement among the cast, crew and many Irish extras who worked on that they could be making something special.
“I knew that I was with this very talented director and very respected director, and he had recruited fabulous young actors who all came on the set, and they all carefully imagined the type of knight that they were. They made the characters their own. I'm thinking of Liam [Neeson], and I'm thinking of Ciarán Hinds, they really found their look. Bob Ringwood, the costume designer, did some fantastic work on the costumes.”
She discovered a passion for horse riding while preparing for the role and recalls Irish people she met during filming being very hospitable, telling her “We’ve got horses, come over”.
On other days off, she took to the road and explored the countryside over the course of the film’s shoot. “I chose the smallest roads and lanes that I could find, I rented a car and I just took off. The word is magic - I was involved in a film that was all about magic, and the whole experience for me was magical.”
She credits Boorman with casting her in the role - and accommodating her schedule - as one of the big turning points in her career. “It was a huge thing for me, a huge confidence boost, a great experience, and looked good on my CV.” Lunghi went on to forge her own successful screen and stage career, combining roles in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Mission and TV series The Manageress along with several West End appearances. She also fronted a high-profile ad campaign for Kenco coffee.
It was a career, she says, originally fostered by her mother, and she remembers the first time she wondered if an acting career could be a possibility for her. “I know exactly the moment. My mum was incredible. She had to go out and work, but she always read, and she had a wonderful English teacher at her school. She was a bright woman, and she was a curious woman, and she used to take me to the cinema. I remember she took me to see Charlie Chaplin in ” she says, adding that her mother also introduced her to a lifelong love of European cinema, particularly French and Italian filmmakers.
“Looking back now I just feel so fortunate,” she says. “I had wonderful opportunities, and they've taken me all over the world, and I've worked with most of the people whom I admired, directors and actors and actresses, and whom I've learned from.
“You start with your foot on the mountain and you think: ‘Oh, I'd love to be up there’. All these wishes and desires and dreams, but you know it's going to be a step at a time if you're going to have a worthwhile career, if you're really going to learn what you need to learn. Then suddenly you're up there and you're looking down, you think: ‘I’ve come all that way and just look how lucky am I, and I didn't fall off!’”
