‘Benediction’ star Jack Lowden plays on both sides of the camera

How do you even begin with the research process for this film and this character? Because, we’re talking about someone, somewhere that’s from more or less 100 years ago, during the First World War and the 1920s. It’s another lifetime that’s vastly different from the world that we live in today. 

I mean, yeah, there’s copious amounts of archives on the First World War. There’s his poetry as well, but the thing I found most useful was his memoirs of an infantry officer, his diaries from the front; most incredible, revealing diaries I’ve ever read. It revealed him as an insecure, paranoid, jealous, vain man, you know. Jealous of people winning other medals at war, jealous of poets that he knew were better than him. He was a Great War poet thinking that he’s rubbish (chuckles). I found that really moving, because you’re reading about someone having all these doubts. It takes a lot of humility to do that, and I think he had so much humility, that man. He was a complete hypocrite, which is just fascinating to me; the best people at play are, in my opinion. 

How was he a hypocrite, you think?

I mean, he was a brilliant soldier. He was nicknamed ‘Mad Jack’, he won medals for his bravery, and his men adored him. Then, halfway through the war, for him to turn around and say, this is all bollocks, and it’s a complete waste of youth… which it was, dreadful; it was an absolute human disaster, the First World War. I know that’s an obvious thing to say, but when you look at it, it’s just horrific. Siegfried realized that, and used his position to make a stand about it, which was a very brave thing to do in 1917. He was on the verge of being court-martialed and shot. It takes a hypocrite to change things sometimes, and I think he was certainly that. And his vanity! When he would go home, and sit with his mom, and if his mom had guests over, he would finish his dinner as quick as he could, so he can go outside, shut the door, and listen to the conversation to see if they were talking about him. I think that’s such a wonderful thing to admit, you know? 

How much of your portrayal of Siegfried was based on these archival records you came across, and how much was it just a recreation of how you think Siegfried was as a person in behavior and manner?

It was evidently clear that (Siegfried’s) main motivation was redemption, and being terrified of regretting, even though he probably regretted things on a weekly basis, which is the thing that I could get to grips with quite quickly. My route into playing him was this suffocating regret that the man had. But you know, I’ve played a few real life characters now — I’m playing another one at the moment, and the older I’ve gotten, the less I’ve tried to worry too much about who I’m actually playing; if I’m getting it right, if I’m doing it justice, because I don’t think they exist. The portrayals of the people they’re based on, they don’t exist. When I’m doing it, I don’t think that these people exist, because then suddenly, the weirdness of what I’m doing becomes apparent (chuckles). I just think of them as fictitious characters on the page, and I try to bring things that only I could bring to a part. I still believe in doing your research, and doing your work, trying to be as respectful as possible, but there is still a certain amount of it that is reliant on you putting your costume on, and someone comes in, and calls you Siegfried in a scene. It’s just as valid, and it’s just as helpful, because it’s make-believe at the end of the day. So, I don’t feel any responsibility anymore, playing real people, I really don’t.

So, it’s more of a free-form creative process, in creating your own version of that person, rather than just rigidly following what you’ve known or read about him through the research?

Yeah, in my opinion, you’ve got to play a believable human being first. I remember the brilliant thing someone said to me once; I think it was Peter Mullan. He said, when you’re playing a king, and you have to tie a tie in a scene; a king doesn’t tie his tie in a certain way, he just ties a tie, and someone comes in, and calls him the king. You just focus on playing a human first, ie. tie your tie, and the king part can come after. That’s basically what I do, in this film in particular, because the writing was so good. While it’s based on true events, Terence has imagined scenes that probably never happened, and things (Siegfried) never said. He has worked it out to an absolute tee, and you just had to follow what was on the page. So, it takes the responsibility off you in a certain way, while you focus on playing a human being first. 

Now that you have Arcade Pictures going on, you’re more than an actor now, you’re a producer. Has that changed your personal or professional perspective, when it comes to your experiences with the directors you work with going forward? Do you notice more things or different things when you’re on set as just an actor?

Yeah, I absolutely do. First and foremost, it’s really just given me even more respect for directors (laughs), and what they have to deal with. Also, the producers as well, it‘s really quite remarkable what some producers have to do. They’re very highly skilled people — I’m not speaking about myself there, as I’ve only just begun; but my God, there are some brilliant producers! I’m working on something just now with a brilliant director, who just won an Oscar for a short film; Aneil (Karia) with Riz Ahmed in The Long Goodbye, I think it was called. And so, we’re shooting (The Gold) at the moment, and it’s really fascinating to watch him. He has this real calm, collected air about him, for somebody that’s not shot a lot really, even though he’s won an Oscar; I don’t know if he’s even the same age as me, or maybe, no, he’s a bit older. But, he’s so calm on the outside at least, and how a massive difference that can make. You can have all the skill and vision in the world, but as the leader on set, the calmness is definitely preferable to someone who’s bouncing off the walls. I’ve worked on both of those kinds of sets, and I can tell you that calmness is the way to go. I think it’s incredible, watching his calmness, especially now that I have a fuller picture of the pressures that a director is under; knowing the things that he’s having to deal with constantly as the director, with about 50 questions to answer every day. It’s just given me a different perspective on a mad, mad, mad profession.