-A World Exclusive from The Gadflyista. Inspired by the success of The Iron Lady, actor-turned-director Nell Gibbon met us in London to talk to us about his latest project, The Vegetarian Chancellor.
I'm sitting in a cafe in Soho, waiting patiently for arrival of the man I'm due to interview. Actually that's a lie- I may as well admit it, since he's safely back in California by now. He's in fact been standing in clear view of my window-side seat for some minutes now, raging obscenities at the cab driver who brought him here. I wonder again whether to intervene, what with him no doubt being unused to the pricklier variety of London cabby, but think better of it. It would be presumptuous indeed to think that the all-action star of such movies as Deadly Killer Machine parts I, II, III and IV would have any need of my help should it come to a scrap.
Eventually he comes in, looking grizzled. Everyone turns around as he approaches my table, recognising immediately the good looks and the lustrous mane of big name Hollywood actor-turned-director, Nell Gibbon. Though looks aside, his opening mumblings of the words 'worse than', 'Yids' and 'New York' could have given the game away too. I choose to ignore these mumblings, and after introducing myself, quickly offer an opening sally on the movie billboard now passing by up on the bus outside. I note again how out-of-kilter the phrase 'The Iron Lady' looks with the pale but sensual, very-human face of actress Meryl Street looking down at us, so I ask Nell what he makes of it. His point is clear: 'she knows what she's doing, Meryl'. 'So do the studio'. 'Cut out the crap' about her being the 'Butcher-of-the-Belgrano', the 'smasher of communities', and focus on 'the good stuff'- on a 'chick' 'wading her way through shit, all guns blazing' so as to be 'the first chick to make it to the top. Now there's a story!'It seemed strange to me to hear him echo the sentiments of the liberal feminists discussing the film in this morning's papers- well, the stuff about 'chicks', 'shit' and 'guns' excepted- since Nell's notorious misogynistic remarks in the past seem about as likely to make him praise a feminist triumph, as the liberal feminist's 'leftist' remarks of the past seemed likely to see them praise a neo-liberal triumph. But perhaps Nell's own respect for the film has something to do with the fact that its success undoubtedly helped to make his latest project possible- a pet project that no studio would back as little ago as last year. But box office receipts don't lie. And such are the projected returns on The Iron Lady that rival studio, Revisomax, has commissioned Nell to make a similar resuscitation of a formerly loathed leader, again on the basis that they were the first leader of a group formerly excluded from holding power. Hence The Vegetarian Chancellor project was born, aimed to be be released next year so as to mark the 80-year anniversary of the coming to power of the first ever non-meat-eating leader of a Western nation.
So what's it about? Well Nell paints the following picture: of a sensitive young boy growing up in Imperial Austria, one of the world's most notorious fleisch-guzzling lands, only to find his conscience will no longer allow him to eat as his family eats. Nay!- what his whole culture eats. Dish after dish of schnitzel and sausage are set before him, but in spite of all the parental threats made, all the sibling mockery he has to endure, each time he refuses everything but sauerkraut. No innocent little animals would suffer on his account, no matter what the problems it caused him!
