You
won’t see Niall Greig Fulton’s face in the trailer for The Turning, Canadian
maverick Floria Sigismondi’s new Steven Spielberg produced contemporary reboot of
Henry James’ gothic thriller, The Turning of the Screw. Sigismondi’s film goes
on general release next week after receiving its world premiere at legendary
movie emporium the TLC Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Only then will Fulton will be revealed both onscreen and in person. Keen film
and TV watchers will recognise Fulton already, however, whether from a few
episodes of Outlander and an appearance in Terence Davies’ version of Sunset
Song, to more culty stuff and low-budget horror flicks.
More
recently Fulton appeared in David Mackenzie’s Scottish history romp, Outlaw
King, and in Muscle, directed by Gerard Johnson. He makes a very special cameo as
Satan in Good Omens, Douglas Mackinnon’s mini-series based on Neil Gaiman and
Terry Pratchett’s apocalyptic comedy. Given that his CGI-constructed appearance
is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, Fulton’s presence again might not be
immediately apparent.
Others
might know Fulton from him presenting screenings of lovingly put together
retrospectives of some of the world’s lesser known auteurs in his other role as
senior programmer of Edinburgh International Film Festival. The likes of Shirley
Clarke and Tom McGrath have both been given wider exposure care of Fulton. This
year he will be curating The Big Score, a season of soundtrack-based works,
with the focus on Ennio Morricone, BBC Radiophonic Workshop pioneer Delia
Derbyshire and contemporary composer of Jonathan Glazer’s film version of
Michel Faber’s novel, Under the Skin, Mica Levi. There will also be a programme
of films with jazz-based soundtracks.
Jazz features
again in Planet Wave, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s three-date revival
of saxophonist Tommy Smith’s collaboration with poet, the late Edwin Morgan.
With Fulton appearing in the flesh as narrator, Morgan and Smith’s combination
of music, verse and theatre takes an epic voyage through time, from 20 billion
years B.C. to the dawn of creation and beyond.
As he
swoops into the Filmhouse bar in Edinburgh, it’s not hard to see why Fulton was
cast in The Turning. Black-clad from head to toe, hair sweeping and casually
bearded, he resembles an arcane and dangerously hip raven in human form. Such
presence is ideal for Peter Quint, a part that sounds like the embodiment of toxic
masculinity at its brutal worst
in
James’ already chilling story.
“He’s a
very, very dark character to inhabit,” Fulton says of Quint, a character
previously played by Marlon Brando in Michael Winner’s prequel to James’ story,
The Nightcomers. The other one Fulton mentions is Peter Wyngarde, the groovy
star of Jason King who played Quint in Jack Clayton’s 1961 version, released as
The Innocents. “I think we’ve created a new Peter Quint, which is fitting,
because Floria really has remixed the original into something that’s saying a
lot of things that are pertinent today.”
Fulton
talks in a measured and gentle voice, contemplating every word as his face
frequently lights up with the sense of wonder he clearly feels at his lot. He
punctuates sentences with words like ‘extraordinary’ and astonishing’, and his
generosity to his many cast-mates, who include child stars Finn Wolfhard from
Stranger Things and Brooklyyn Prince who appear alongside Terminator and Black
Mirror star Mackenzie Davis, sounds positively paternal. When he speaks of
Sigismondi, it is with the breathy, wide-eyed ardour of a fan-boy who takes his
calling seriously, devoted to his craft.
Peter
Quint, he says, “is probably the darkest thing I’ve attempted to do, and the
chance to work with an artist such as Floria Sigismondi is a once in a lifetime
opportunity. It’s incredible. Floria is, I think an absolutely extraordinary
visual technician. Extraordinary. But she is also a very deep director in terms
of the journey that her actors are going on. She’ll sit and talk to you for a
long time about how you feel about the character, your ideas about the
character, her ideas about the character, and that was just a joy. It was
fantastic.”
Sigismondi
has an almost thirty-year pedigree as fashion photographer, music video
director of songs by Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Sigur Ros, Rihanna and more,
as well as director of her first feature, The Runaways, a biopic of Joan Jett’s
all-girl band, and episodes of Daredevil, The Handmaid’s Tale and American
Gods. Given Sigismondi’s background in music video, it should come as no
surprise that the film’s soundtrack is already making waves. A lead-off single
by Courtney Love, Mother, is trailing an album that also features contributions
from Kim Gordon and Warpaint.
The
Turning was shot in Kilruddy House in County Wicklow, Ireland over several
months. Fulton describes the place as “breathtaking. And once Floria had kind
of imposed her vision on it in terms of the art department and the way it was
dressed, it was quite a feeling to walk into that set. And the more dark life
we all poured into it as we started to film it, the energy in the place grew,
and I can’t imagine a better haunted house.”
Fulton
was born in Glasgow, just off Byres Road, but moved to Edinburgh with his
family when he was still a baby. At high school, he dabbled in music and art,
knowing he wanted to be creative, but not sure how. He ended up at the
Stockbridge-based Theatre Workshop when the now closed community-based venue
was run by Adrian Harris. Fulton became part of the company, appearing in shows
and became “a kind of drama teacher, at the same time learning from experts in
their field.”
It was a
time that shaped his artistic outlook.
“It was
hands on theatre. There was an element there to it that was about the actual
community with that venue, and it was about real people coming in and
experiencing drama. I often look back at that and think to myself that that was
one of the most valuable times ever for me, because it was seriously about
taking people by the hand into a world of imagination.”
Fulton
was approached by film director Morag McKinnon, who cast him in her 1995
feature film, 3. Since then, “It’s been a long and fascinating journey. I’ve
had some wonderful good fortune along the way.”
A game
changer came when he played Scottish Beat novelist Alexander Trocchi onstage in
a one-man theatre show.
“It is a
role and an experience I’ll never ever forget,” says Fulton. “To have been
playing somebody who was real and very well-known in certain circles, and
incredibly distinct in every way, from his intellect to his physicality, what
an amazing challenge.”
Fulton met
Tom McGrath, the poet, playwright and contemporary of Trocchi in ‘60s London. Later,
in a booth in the Traverse Theatre bar across the street, Fulton gestures to
the corner. It was here, he says, where he sang in public for the first time
with a version of Al Wilson’s northern soul classic, The Snake. It wasn’t the
devil that made him do it, but McGrath, who backed him up on piano.
“To have Tom by my side as somebody who’d
known Trocchi, and who’d also known the Beat scene in this country so well, was
just so magical and special. He had me listening to specific Ravi Shankar
albums, and would assign me specific books to read, like Colin Wilson’s The
Outsider. That experience changed my life”
The
Turning might do something similar. In the meantime, after L.A., Fulton flies
straight out to Sundance Film Festival to seek out cinematic gold for Edinburgh.
Beyond that, he isn’t sure. What happens with The Turning remains a mystery,
though whatever doors it opens for Fulton, one suspects there’ll be a darkness
beyond.
“There
are some heights of emotion reached in The Turning at points,” he says, “and
it’s very interesting to see younger actors being introduced into a slightly
darker environment than perhaps the other things they’ve played, but they were
all just amazing.”
Fulton
sighs, contemplating the magnitude of it all as he praises his cast-mates in a
way that others might soon be praising him.
“You
have to be good to be able to do that and ring true,” he says.
The
Turning is released on January 24. Countdown to The Big Score begins at
Filmhouse, Edinburgh on January 31. Planet Wave, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, February
21; City Halls, Glasgow, February 22; The Sanctuary, Queen’s Cross Church,
Aberdeen, February 23. The Big Score runs as part of Edinburgh International
Film Festival 2020, June 17-28. www.theturningmovie.com
The Herald, January 18th 2020
Ends
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