Interview: Christopher Hampton (Atonement)

Known mostly for adapting Dangerous Liaisons for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Christopher Hampton has  also directed and adapted three films to date including Carrington, based on Michael Holroyd’s book, for which Mr. Hampton was awarded Special Jury Prize at the 1995 Cannes International Film Festival, The Secret Agent, based on the Joseph Conrad novel and more recently Imagining Argentina, based on Lawrence Thornton’s novel.

I might with Hampton during media day for Atonement in Beverly Hills, CA.

Christopher Hampton

Yama Rahimi: “Dangerous Liaisons” is one my favorite films of all time…
Christopher Hampton: Good.

YR: Now you are back with another brilliant adaptation with “Atonement” but you have been directing as well. Since you are such a brilliant writer, what was the reason to direct? How's one medium different than the other?
CH: Well I started directing my first film “Carrington” because the designated director disappeared in the last minute, so the French producer called me and told me that in France it's normal for writers to direct their own films. I said that I would never do that. He said why won't you do it since the money and actors are in place since you have been waiting 17 years to make this film. I did it and really enjoyed it. Then I did two other films but if your films don't make money it's hard to get financial backing. Specially the subjects I like are commercially questionable. So it has been quite hard to resume directing which I like to do in due cause.

YR: So do you find directing more enjoyable than writing?
CH: It's more fun than writing. I mean I really didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Specially the group of people I have been working with. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. Primarily I consider myself a writer since directing takes a year out of your life and you don't get to write much. So you don't want to do it all the time.

YR: How difficult was to adapt the book?
CH: Well it was actually very difficult but we made it more difficult for ourself by making it more linear. We had a framing device and voice over that we got rid off. So it become more difficult to tell the story without voice over and what Joe (Wright) wanted.

YR: How did this project come to you?
CH: I read the book on vacation in 2001 and thought it would make a great film. So when I got back to England I contacted my agent that I would like to adapt it and she said there's a quiet long line for it. Ian McEwan, the writer of Atonement, retained rights to consultation and who should do the script. So I met him and told him how I felt the book and what we should do in the course of adaptating it. So I got the job through him.

YR: At one point you were attached to adapt Edith Wharton's “The Custom of Country”. What happened to it?
CH: I did it. It's actually one of two or three best scripts I have ever written. My publisher's actually published it which is quiet nice of them. I did it for Sony and I wrote it Michelle Pfeiffer but she called me and told me that Scorsese asked her to do “The Age of Innocence”. I said to her that should wouldn't wanna do two Edith Wharton books but she said that they are different. But what happened was that “The Age of Innocence” which I thought was a great piece of work was not very successful and lost everybody concerned money. So it was put aside till “Sense and Sensibility” came out. Then it looked like period films were back in fashion. So we were on again with meetings and so on. Then another  picture came out. It may have been “Portrait of a Lady” that wasn't successful, so were off again.