Patrick Suskind’s best-selling novel has come to the big
screen after more than twenty years of trying to acquire the film rights. Perfume:
The Story of a Murderer has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide,
inspired the Nirvana song “Scentless Apprentics” and is the most successful
German language novel since Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front.
British newcomer Ben Whishaw is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an
orphan born with a remarkably heightened sense of smell. It is both a gift and
a curse in that it becomes Grenouille’s only purpose in life. The world only
makes sense to him through its many scents, so he seeks to understand
everything about them. His understanding evolves into obsession, wherein
Grenouille embarks on a most disturbing and deadly quest.
Laced with suspense, black humor and “metaphycical mystery,”
the film is directed by Tom Tykwer (“Run, Lola, Run”) and features
heavy-hitters Alan Rickman and two-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman.
Recently we had the chance to talk with the young star about
this mesmerizing film and his appalling, yet inexplicably likable character.
Had you ever paid particular attention to how things
smell this much?
Ben Whishaw: No, I
really hadn’t. Like a lot of people, I didn’t really think about it all that
much. I guess you can’t help but stop to think about it more deeply if you’re
making a film about smell, so it has changed a bit, I guess.
What was your center of characterization?
Ben Whishaw: Well,
the thing that wasn’t that helpful actually, I think the press notes say I took
some perfume course or something. I didn’t, Tom [Tykwer] did, but that didn’t
take me very far into the character. The most important thing, I felt, was to
try and understand there’s some kind of absence inside of him, some kind of
emptiness, something’s lacking, something’s missing, and to try to understand
what it is he wants to fill that. We discussed lots of different things, but
that was the core. We never perceived it as a position of labeling him as a
sociopath or psychopath, it didn’t feel like that would really open up the
character. We just tried to see him as a human being as far as possible.
Did you have to visualize the time period to conjure up
those old smells? Or was it enough just being there?
Ben Whishaw: Yeah.
It felt very vivid anyway because the set was so incredible and detailed. It
didn’t leave me much imagining to do because it was all there and often it did
really smell bad, so that helped, I guess.
Did you have any trepidations about taking on a character
who kills women?
Ben Whishaw: Not
trepidations in that sense. I had trepidations because the character is so
uncommunicative, there’s not much to go on from the page, from the screenplay.
I had questions about that and also, we all felt the pressure of adapting, as
anyone would, a very well-loved novel. That was what I felt most intensely.
Strangely, I don’t know what that says about me, I didn’t really worry too much
that killing women would be a bad way to make a debut in a big film, it didn’t
occur to me.
How does this character compare to others you’ve played,
like Hamlet?
Ben Whishaw: Interestingly,
it felt quite similar as a role because Tom is a director that likes to strip
actors down, he has a certain taste in the way he directs actors. I certainly
imagined, when I first read the script, that it would be more of a case of
putting things on, like something more extreme in terms of body shape. Tom
wanted it a bit more naked and wanted to go inside the character so it felt
very similar to working on a part like Hamlet. There are certain parallels
anyway, in terms of the sort of territory they both enter into - the obsessive
quest that they’re on and this kind of introspective path of their natures. I
can see a connection between the two.
A few people have compared your performance to that of
Anthony Perkins; that you have that same level of intensity he put into
‘Psycho.’
Ben Whishaw: I love
that film. I’ve not really seen much else he’s done. I love Hitchcock and
another film that I didn’t see before making Perfume, but I saw subsequently, a
film called ‘Peeping Tom’ which I think there’s something similar, there’s a
connection.
What was it like working with Dustin Hoffman in the sense
that his role was big and boisterous, and you had to play so small?
Ben Whishaw: It
never felt like it was some kind of battle to hold my own against him because
that’s the nature of their relationship. You have one character who is
extremely flamboyant and aware of his position in a social sense and then another
character who’s totally inward and totally had no understanding of society and
human interaction. That just had to be that way. The fact that Dustin is a
Hollywood legend and I’m sort of nobody, actually was helpful. We let that feed
into the performances. It felt very smooth and very playful.
How is he to work with, in general?
Ben Whishaw: He’s
really friendly. He’s the center of attention, which again is helpful for the
character and what we’re trying to achieve. He’s really quite nurturing in a
way, he gave me some really good advice and was generous.
What advice did he give you?
Ben Whishaw: He told
me lots of things. The very first day I shot with him, I was totally freaking
out, seeing him in his full regalia and I couldn’t get something and I was
getting frustrated, Tom was shouting directions at me and I started to lose it
and then sort of quit and dropped the ball and they said ‘Cut.’ And Dustin
said, ‘That moment is when it really came alive. You should have kept going!
It’s all about the accidents, it’s all about the accidents.’ I totally
understand what he means, I think it’s a confidence thing, really. There is
something exciting when what you’d planned or preconceived goes out the window
and something else happens, might be accidental or a mistake, but it takes you
somewhere new.
What distinguishes Tom from other directors you’ve worked
with?
Ben Whishaw: I
haven’t really had a big enough part to have a relationship with a director in
film. It’s always been a day here, a day there. In my limited experience, what
seems really special about Tom is that he really wants to have a collaboration,
he’ll listen and will take on what you have to say, even if it’s critical or if
you’re raising difficult questions. He wants to hear it and that, to me, seems
quite rare.
What kind of questions did you raise with him?
Ben Whishaw: I can’t
remember precisely because in my mind it’s slightly blurred as to who decided
what. It was usually stuff about the balance of the character – how much we needed
to worry about him being sympathetic, how much we needed not to worry about it,
the contradictions in him. Also how he talks, because at first Tom wanted to
change the script and I had to tell him, ‘It doesn’t make sense that he’s
talking like this, he wasn’t educated’ little changes like that. We discussed
everything, it’s not like he sat in a room and did it all himself and I was
just a puppet, he really shared everything with me.
What was the most challenging for you?
Ben Whishaw: The
final climactic scene on the scaffold was tricky because the whole film really
hangs upon that moment and you’re just looking at a face and a body. It’s quite
an interesting little arc, that happens in that sequence, I guess I found that
quite difficult.
Did you have any trouble sustaining the character or
leaving it behind when you weren’t filming?
Ben Whishaw: I never
tried to not let go of the character but the character wouldn’t let go of me in
some way because he’s so alone much of the time and I had so few scenes with
somebody else to play off. I did start to take that home after awhile but I
think Tom managed to dig me out of that little black hole.
This character is a serial killer and yet, there are
places where people might cheer him on. How can you explain his likeability, if
there is any?
Ben Whishaw: I think
it’s something to do with the fact that there’s something innocent about him,
even though what he’s doing is obviously wrong, even evil. There’s a kind of
lack of awareness and a lack of understanding. The thing I find interesting is
that what he’s done, psychologically, is that he’s whittled the world down to
one thing; the world is nothing but smell. It’s a way of controlling and
understanding the world that terrifies him. I think there’s something about
that that is quite human and something we can connect with. Fundamentally, I
suppose, he’s someone who wants to be loved. He goes about it in a very
peculiar way, but that’s what he wants and who doesn’t want that? That’s
probably what makes him, for me, sympathetic.
How do you develop your characters? Is it more of an
inward thing or do you draw from other actors?
Ben Whishaw: It’s a
mixture and it really depends on the character. This character really felt like
it had to come within. Some characters are really social characters and they’re
all about the surface details and then there are characters who exist on a
different plane. They’re emotional characters and they’re all about internal
stuff. This character, Hamlet the same, they’re inward-looking. Certainly
sometimes you have to turn your attention outward and you have to sort of steal
in a magpie-like fashion, certainly, sometimes.
What is the best thing to have come out of making this
film for you?
Ben Whishaw: I think
it’s working with Tom, just generally. He’s somebody I really feel now is a
really dear friend. Somebody I’d like to work with again and somebody who I
share things with, we look at things in a similar way and have similar tastes
and interests. I found working with him very satisfying on a creative level and
personal level as well.
What do you think of the film, now that you’ve seen it in
full?
Ben Whishaw: I found
it very brave… it unfolded in a much slower way than I expected. I love the way
Tom allowed certain sequences to really breathe in a way I hadn’t expected. I
watched it with an audience in Basil, the premiere there and it was really
interesting to see all the stuff about what we’d been talking about – would
people just be repelled, would they give a sh*t about him. You can’t tell
what’s going on inside of people, but people wanted to stay. The film clearly
had sort of cast a spell over them so that was quite gratifying.
Were you able to enjoy any of the beautiful locations
where you filmed?
Ben Whishaw: I
didn’t have a whole lot of time off, but I did sometimes go sit on the beach in
Barcelona. I went to the coast as well, to just get away. I didn’t see as much
as I would have liked and I didn’t really get to hang out with the cast because
there weren’t many. If I wasn’t filming, they were so again, the loneliness
insued. They were beautiful places, it was a wonderful way to spend the summer.
That orgy scene had a lot of people around…
Ben Whishaw: That’s
true, except again, I wasn’t involved.
How would you describe your character?
Ben Whishaw: I would
describe him as…
No, your character.
Ben Whishaw: Oh, my
character. Fu*k! God. That’s a hard question to answer because I can be
anything, it depends what day you catch me. Some days I find this situation
[press interviews] unbearable, I want to disappear into the floor, and other
days it feels really nice so I’m shy and extroverted.
How about today?
Ben Whishaw: It
feels very nice today. Good vibes.
What part did you play in the stage version of ‘His Dark Materials?’
Ben Whishaw: I
played small parts. My biggest part was a character that wasn’t in the novel, a
clerk they wrote for the stage.
Would you be interested in doing the movie version?
Ben Whishaw: Yeah,
I’d love to. It’s another incredible book, trilogy of books.
Did you read this book before filming?
Ben Whishaw: I read
it about four times. I was reading it a fifth and Tom said, ‘Put the book away.
We’re making the film.’ So I tried to get as much as I could out of it.
Are you doing another film right away?
Ben Whishaw: No.
I’ve been so busy doing the publicity for this. I finished this Bob Dylan thing
about a month ago. I play one of the Bobs, even though none of us are really
Bob, we’re aspects… I’m the poet. I play around ’65, ’66. I’m dressed a bit
like Bob Dylan crossed with Arthur Lambot the French poet.
