DOMINIC MONAGHAN | INTERVIEW
British thesp, mainstay of the blockbusters and possessor of the secret of eternal youth, DomMon’s latest step into the cinematic breach is Edge Of The World: a mid-19th-century military romp, set in Borneo where he plays one Colonel Arthur Crookshank. Carl Marsh fired up Zoom and heard more.
Filming Edge Of The World in Borneo must have been like an Aladdin’s cave for you due to your fascination with creepy crawlies! Did this help you choose to take the role? Or was it that you knew the story of James Brooke, the film’s protagonist who Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays?
I didn’t know the story. I’d obviously seen [1975 movie] The Man Who Would Be King, but didn’t realise it was based on this Sir James Brooke guy. Most projects for me start in the same way: I get a phone call from my agent saying this thing has come through. “It’s a go project, it’s been greenlit, let’s have a look at it.”
I read the script, and I thought, well there’s enough for my character to do here actually to affect change, have an opinion and have a voice in it. I’ve not played a kind of old British military regalia, harking-back-to-the-Victorian Empire guy. What can I do with that? How can I make him human? Instead of being these archetypes of the stiff upper lip, where no one shows any emotion, I thought, well, how can I make it so that the trials and tribulations that he goes through are something that you care about?
Then, speaking to the producers, they said, “you know it’s in Borneo, and we’re going to be here for two months? We’d like you to come out as soon as you can so that you can get used to stuff … we want you to be sweating, we want you to be struggling. We want you to be wet and sleeping in the jungle.” With all these kinds of things, that’s music to my ears. I love the food over there, I love the people over there, I love the vibe over there. It’s a fantastic part of the world – and, yes, the animals too. It is a great film to be involved in, and I loved it.
Your portrayal of Arthur Crookshank was humanised, as you say. It wasn’t just some arsehole stiff upper lip type.
They’re all humans, aren’t they, at the end of the day. If you see a guy, a military guy who looks like he’s tough or he’s been in some scrapes, initially you have some ideas about him. But ultimately, that’s someone’s son or daughter, and they have feelings and stuff.
My thing with Crookshank, once I got in there, was, “why did he go to Borneo? What is his reasoning behind it, his motivation?” He just wants to keep Brooke alive. He knows that it’s a very dangerous part of the world; he knows his friend is probably beautifully naive about what’s going to happen, and he wants to keep him alive.
So he’s between two worlds, you know: he’s representing the British Empire, the British military, the cup of tea at 11 o’clock, and things being done in the right way. He gets charmed by Borneo as well, not as much as Brooke, but you find himself kind of stuck. He wants to go back to England, but he wants his friend to come with him – if he leaves, what’s going to happen? He’s in a tough situation.
You were sporting a very lovely beard in the film, but I can see on this video call that you didn’t keep it!
[Laughing] That was a fucking nightmare. [Demonstrating across his face] It was down here, across here, and so cleanly shaven here. I mean, it worked OK on set, but when you’re out and about having dinner at night or trying to meet a girl or going for a drink, you just look like a fool, you know. So that was a challenge. But hey ho.
One of the later scenes in the movie required a prosthetic model of your head to be made. Did you get to keep it after the shoot?
It’s downstairs in my dining room. When the art department was done with it, we only used it for a couple of days. I said, “what are you going to do with this head?” and they said they’ll just put it in a cupboard. “Well,” I said, “can I take it, as it’s my head?” I could, so I took it on as hand luggage, which was great going through security. “What do you have in your bag?” “It’s my head!” And I pulled it out, in bubblewrap. So that was a lot of fun. And yeah, it just sits on my dining room table. It’s all burnt and craggy – at some point I want to put it on a spike in my garden, but the LA sun would melt it!
Edge Of The World is out now via digital platforms, and on Mon 21 June on DVD.
words CARL MARSH