“We originally wanted an unknown and an American, but we just couldn’t find anybody,” he ponders. “Eventually I was persuaded to let her read and I immediately realised what an idiot I’d been. I was blown away. She’s the finest actor I have ever worked with: old, young, male, female.”
Steady on there. In the years since he established himself with the documentaries One Day in September and Touching the Void, Macdonald has worked with Helen Mirren, Russell Crowe, Jamie Bell and Donald Sutherland. Heck, he directed Forest Whitaker to an Oscar in The Last King of Scotland.
“She has something quite unique,” he continues. “She can express emotion nonverbally in an amazing way. She is also a delightfully mature person who has grown up in the industry and knows how to behave. She is a laugh on set. But she can always turn on that emotion when required.”
