David Haig, star of Four Weddings and a Funeral and acclaimed playwright, has explained why he did not take the lead role in the film adaptation of his WWII drama Pressure. In an exclusive interview with Reach Plc, publisher of the Daily Express, the 71-year-old said: "Well, I haven't got the cinematic status required to play Stagg on film. I might have done it if it had been a telly film, I might have scraped in there."
From stage to screen
Pressure is adapted from Haig's 2014 stage play of the same name. It follows the untold true story of Scottish meteorologist James Stagg, played by Andrew Scott in the film, who is drafted in by General Eisenhower, portrayed by Brendan Fraser, to give the most important weather forecast in history: predicting the optimal conditions for the D-Day landings.
In the stage version, Haig himself took the lead as Stagg. However, for the film, the Fleabag and All of Us Strangers actor Andrew Scott takes on the part. Director Anthony Maras revealed he had wanted to cast Haig in another role, but the actor was "too busy" to appear. Haig was quick to clarify that this was not the reason he did not play Stagg, adding: "Nor do I regret it."
No regrets over casting
Haig elaborated: "I don't regret not playing Stagg when you've got Andrew Scott playing it that brilliantly, because I still have the play and the film there as an achievement."
The film features an all-star cast including Better Call Saul star Kerry Condon, The Newsroom's Chris Messina, and Band of Brothers and Wolf Hall star Damian Lewis. Pressure serves up a tense historical thriller as the Allied Forces have 61 hours in which to decide whether to commence the pivotal D-Day landings in France and remain at the mercy of Mother Nature.
Bringing tension to the big screen
Speaking about transposing the story from the stage to the big screen, Haig said it was "exciting" bringing Pressure to a new medium. The stage version was set in a single room, where all decisions and relationships play out. The main challenge for the movie was to maintain the tension and the pressure cooker nature of the story.
Australian filmmaker Maras, whose previous credits include Hotel Mumbai and Aazadi, revealed how he and Haig came together on the film right at the start of the COVID pandemic and "worked for years to really refine it". He continued: "It's really getting into the subjectivity of the protagonists; the audience knows what happens." Adding: "A lot of the tension rests in getting into the headspace of the protagonist or protagonists, who don't particularly know that everything is going to go well."
Maras said the challenge also rested in trying to "remove the inevitability of D-Day" that audiences were aware of. "In the lead-up to the largest seaborne invasion in history, they had no idea whether it was going to be a success or a dismal failure as the rehearsal exercise [Operation] Tiger was a few weeks earlier." Maras added that the team "tried to use every trick in the book" to keep the momentum and make a "slow weather system a thriller". Pressure is available to buy and rent from digital platforms now.
