Transcription of full tape below.

Q: Joe, who do you play in the film?

A: Well I’m Joe O’Byrne and I play Tommy Morghen the security consultant-come-entrepreneur, as he sees himself.

Q: How would you describe Tommy’s character?

A: I think I’d describe him as a charming psychopath – very dark, very manipulative. Initially he’d be very welcoming when he first met you, very warm and quite open – warm in a rough-edged streetwise sort of way if you know what I mean. But, intellect-wise I’d call him a chess player – a very good chess player – he’s six or seven moves ahead of the game – even ahead of the other person in the film that you might call his boss. So he’s quite a manipulator and he’s ahead of the game.

Q: Could you put Tommy into the context of what the film’s about?

A: I suppose the way I see Tommy is, if I was watching Alice in Wonderland, he’s the Mad Hatter. He’s the guy that’ll lead you down the rabbit hole, and you don’t want to go down that rabbit hole, but that’s where he takes you. Even if you don’t want to go there he’ll make you feel like you do want to go there, and off you go. And like the crew, I suppose, you end up abandoning you morals like so many empty film cans in this fella’s wake.

Q: Tell us about the film in terms of plot.

A: Well, basically it’s a college lecturer who gets together a band of ex-students that he’s worked with and are good at what they’re doing, and basically they try to make a documentary about trying to track down a local business man who the documentary make believes is involved in drugs, pornography, prostitution, etc., and it’s kind of the lengths they go to to get the film made – and there are some extreme lengths that they go to.

Q: How did you come to get involved?

A: I think it was back in 2000 when I first got involved. I’d just completed a film called “I Am Frank Morgan”, directed by Paul Murphy – who’s now directing ‘Grange Hill’, and Michael saw the film and the character I played, Frank Morgan, who is kind of dark – he’s a loan shark, and it was then that he mentioned me to Jon, and Jon approached me with the script. He came round one day, handed me the script, and sat there in a chair at the side of me whilst I just read it. I read it all the way through. I couldn’t stop reading. And I remember thinking all the time I was reading it, I hope they’re going to ask me to play Tommy.

Q: What was it that attracted you about the script?

A: The thing that attracted me about the script was that I’d never read anything like it before. And there was a certain element of danger about it – and I mean in a kind of exploitative way. I didn’t know these people at all, and they were asking me to get involved, and a friend of mine, Donna Henry – I’ve done loads of stuff with Donna – and I remember reading certain sections in the original script saying things like, ‘middle of the moor, middle of the night, rape scene; extras all big set doorman, etc., etc.,’ and I started to get just a couple of alarm bells that started to ring – like, could this be the last feature that I appear in. But it had that element, and I thought, if I’m thinking like that about this script then there must be something about it, and from then I thought, yeah, I’ve got to get involved, and that was it.

Q: You mentioned that you were new to working with Michael and Jon. What was it like getting together with them and working on this feature?

A: It was a long process, but you always found yourself looking forwards to the next time. And once we were together it was very easy to get things going. I found as directors, and acting with Jon, that you’re very free to improvise in certain stages. It was always improvised around the script, the script was there- what was to be said, but you were always free to carve it up into the way you felt the character would speak, and Jon was very free about that, but I thought the script was very clever, very very clever.

Q: How would you sum up life working on the film?

A: I had a great time, a great time. I do remember at times thinking I’m going to have a zimmer frame by the time this is finished. But at the same time I understood fully why that was, having made a little feature myself in the first year at university, when people are all off doing different things, you’re all working for nothing, you’ve all got to pay the rent at the end of the day, you’ve all got to wait for leaves to get on trees and stuff like that for continuity, so it is going to take time. And the biggest thing that I think I’ve learned in the short time I’ve been doing this is patience, that you need the patience of a Jedi knight to get stuff done.

Q: Do you have any memorable moments from the shoot?

A: Yes, definitely. One that really springs to mind is we were doing a shoot at Never Never Land, Margot Grimshaw’s club in Blackburn, and we were doing a shoot during the day and Jon had parked his car outside the club. And there’s a huge sign outside saying vehicles will be clamped; and we were just getting into the scene, and I’m playing Tommy, and someone comes rushing in to Jon and says, “Your car’s being clamped”. So Jon tear-arse out of the place and I follow him out, and it this point they still haven’t got the clamp fully on, and Jon at this moment is in his car with the engine on desperately trying to pull away, but the clever sods have put the van in behind him so he can’t get pull out anyway, and there’s these two guys and they look like they’ve done a bit of weight lifting, they’re rough and ready, and this fellows lying on the floor trying to get the chain over. So I can see he’s still not attached the chain and I, well I must have thought I was still Tommy, so I walked over, pulled the chain off while the guy’s lying there. Anyway, this guy stands up, and he keeps on standing up, I mean he’s huge and he’s absolutely raging. But, because I’m in Tommy mode I start arguing with him as vociferously as he’s arguing with me. So he takes a step back, maybe he thinks I’m some knew muscle guy who’s moving in on the area ‘cos I kind of got an awful lot of respect for just a couple of minutes, and then Margot came out of the club and gave a little signal to these guys and they let Jon go. But I really came pretty close to getting creamed all over this car park in Blackburn.

There’s another one as well, another very memorable incident. We were filming the rape scene on the same car park, which takes place in a van at the back of the club. And I remember us being inside the van acting this rape scene through, and Donna’s full screaming and going for it was well. It was a Wednesday night, which is a club night in Blackburn, and I do remember hearing people going past, and it was obvious there was a rape going on that they couldn’t see and they were cheering me on, “Go on mate! Give her one for me!” and I just thought, that’s scary, that’s just a bit scary.

Q: You didn’t know Michael before this project, what was it like working with him as director?

A: It was great. I mean, most of the time Michael’s quite prepared to watch what’s going on and listen – sometimes you didn’t know he was there but he was getting what he wanted. But when he came in with points they were, bang, right on the nail, really incisive, they made you think about things in a whole new way; and I think, for his age, he’s just amazing, and his knowledge of film is second to none. I can’t wait to work with him again.

Q: What do you think of the finished movie?

A: It’s a ride. It’s a real ride. And it does leave you with this impression at the end…there was even stuff, I’ve got to be blatantly honest, that I’d read the script and there were certain scenes that I wasn’t in that I didn’t fully understand, but when I watched it in the film it was like, ‘Oh my God! That’s what that’s about!” I mean, I’d spoken to Michael about it before, pretending I knew what he was on about, but it was like being hit over the head with a baseball bat a few times, watching it. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Q: That's it from me Mr O'Byrne. Thank you very much.

A: Thankyou.

Q: Your chauffeur is waiting for you, as soon as you're ready.

A: Thankyou. Where's my Bolivian orange juice? Freshly squeezed...

Cameraman: Freshly squeezed Bolivians?

A: Yeah, cos if not I'll have my agent and lawyers onto you guys, okay. (gets up to leave) And I want my cigars rolled on the thighs of Cuban girls... And dipped in the vagina... Gotta be in there for at least a minute.

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