As writer and actor, My Boy Jack has been a labour of love for you, hasn’t it?
Someone once gave me a biography of Rudyard Kipling and when I opened it and looked at the photograph, I had this uncanny experience of looking at myself. Since then I’ve shown that picture of Rudyard to my children and they’ve thought it was me. The resemblance is extraordinary, almost unnerving. And so, gradually, I started researching the life of Rudyard Kipling.
As you started researching his story, what else did you find?
Well, on one side you had the magical, inventive father, creator of the Just So Stories and The Jungle Books, providing a wonderful environment for a child to grow up in. And on the other side you had the apologist for the British Empire who tyrannically pursued his son’s joining of the army and his involvement in the fighting of the First World War. That clash, I thought, was a fascinating combination.
Taking on the writing and directing must have been exhausting...
It was a point in my acting career when I suddenly felt frustrated by always being a piece of the picture rather than having more artistic control over it. I decided to start writing Rudyard’s story myself. What came out of that was the stage play, My Boy Jack, which I completed 13 years ago. That played in London to some critical acclaim and, on the back of that, the first screenplay was commissioned. The film version of My Boy Jack was written 11 years ago, 11 years after I was handed the biography of Rudyard Kipling. It’s taken 22 years to effectively realise this dream.
Was it worth the wait?
I think maybe the climate is better now than ever for My Boy Jack. For a start, Daniel Radcliffe is now 18, whereas he was seven when I began writing the screenplay and could never have played Jack.
Do you find it strange that Kipling was eager to send his son off to war?
Rudyard was publicly criticised for securing his severely myopic son John, or “Jack” as he was better known, a commission with the Irish Guards. Jack was repeatedly turned down by medical boards yet both Rudyard and his strong-willed 17-year-old son refused to admit defeat when the rest of Britain’s boys were proud to be fighting on the front line. The poem, My Boy Jack, written after Jack’s death, revealed a father tortured - in hindsight - by the part he played in his son’s fate.
Do you think Jack himself was equally eager to go?
Yes. One of the vital things to realise about Rudyard and Jack’s relationship is that it wasn’t just Rudyard who wanted him to fight. Every boy of Jack’s age wanted to fight at the beginning of that war. It was the last war really in which an entire generation felt it their duty to fight for king and country, and Jack was no exception.
And finally, how was working with Daniel Radcliffe?
It was great. He’s the most extraordinarily grounded, down to earth, passionate, committed and intelligent young man, and brings all of those ingredients to the part of Jack.
