Iwan Rheon stars in the forthcoming feature film adaptation of Owen Sheers’ Resistance which comes to the cinema on Fri 25 Nov.

questions: LLLOYD GRIFFITHS

What was it like being involved in such an intense and heavy project for your first feature film?

Well I spent a lot of time filming on my own just because of the situation my character is in, which informed and helped me play it, but it was just  a  great project to be involved in. Especially to get work with Michael [Sheen] because of our characters being close on screen. That was amazing, like a dream come true and just a lesson, a brilliant and big lesson for me.

As a Welsh actor in Resistance, did you bring any personal experience or ideas of Welshness to bear on your performance?

Yeah, well I guess I would’ve, as I think you can kind of just tell if someone is Welsh quite easily [laughs]. I think lots of my character running around in the trees and amongst the hills felt quite enclosed in something Welsh – their feeling that they are defending their country and the idea of the nation. Also, I think we’ve always kinda had that passion and the sense that we won’t give up so I guess that’s what I thought about in my character.

Had you read the novel before you made the film?

Yeah, not before I auditioned or got the part, but I think it’s a really beautiful novel – all [Owen Sheers’] work is good actually. So yeah, I went off and read it in preparation and it helped me massively with getting to know the characters. But the great thing with having a novel to read is Owen has already written really in-depth character descriptions and he writes very clearly, so there were those hints in there to what I could take out of it to create my own character. And the underlying tension of a series of invasions that mean some of the Resistance know they’re probably going to die soon, so the things like that: the background of the novel which isn’t necessarily directly present in the screenplay, and his relationship with Atkins all really helped me form my idea of the character.

How did your experience compare with that of your other work, such as Misfits?

It was a very different set to be on. Misfits was a bit of a madhouse, with everyone kinda running around crazily getting things done. But we were on location, bigger locations with Resistance and there was a lot more natural space to work in and some of the scenes were made where it actually would’ve happened. I was staying up there, so I really absorbed the area and I was also on my own quite a lot, climbing trees which was part of my character – I think they didn’t really let me work with the other actors that much!

How Welsh a film do you think it is? Is it an integral part of the story and film?

I think the story could be set anywhere really. It’s all about the characters and how they overcome their families and their husbands have just left, you could probably relate that to anywhere in Britain for the film really; as long as it’s agricultural you’d still get an idea of how intense and difficult life was for the women suffering and still trying to run these farms alone. Maybe at some depth it’s intrinsically Welsh but I think it would work apart from that otherwise.

It seems like such an intense film to act in, were you keen to watch it afterward?

Yeah, well I have seen it, but to be honest I really had no idea what it was going to be like so it was a bit worrying, but I knew how well it had been shot and how beautiful it looked. And I knew how brave Amit was in putting it together in just letting the depth of the performance by Andrea and Tom do the storytelling as opposed to lots of action which was unusual for a war film- so yeah, I was really pleased when I saw it.

How do you feel about Welsh cinema in general? Do you think the acclaim it’s been getting for film’s like Resistance, Submarine and Patagonia is good or a little bit shallow?

It is wonderful when you get to see stuff about Wales on screen, when they are as interesting and revealing as Patagonia; so you learn about how inventive people were to go live out in Argentina and keep the language going. But, as with this film, I’d rather people enjoying the story and the characters for the situation they were in and the acting rather than reducing it to just being a Welsh film because that just belittles it really, as I think the situation may be in Wales but it’s also more universal.