Roy
Trapped in a lonely existence, reclusive widower Roy (BAFTA Winner David Bradley) passes the days by cold calling strangers from the phone book, looking for brief moments of companionship. But when he accidentally calls adult hotline worker Cara (Oscar® Winner Rachel Shenton), an unlikely friendship is born that will help them both rediscover the joy of life. Roy, written and directed by duo Tom Berkeley & Ross White is a funny, heart-warming tale of two lost souls who find companionship just when they need it most.
Roy’s festival journey started with its World Premiere at the 36th Santa Barbara International Film Festival where it played early 2021.
One year later ‘Roy’ found itself on the BAFTA longlist alongside some incredible films.
The initial inspiration for Roy began as an exploration of grief in later life and the world-changing experience of what it must be like to lose a soulmate. The duo spoke about their own families and the experiences of their respective grandparents (who the film is dedicated to) as they moved toward this stage in their lives.
“Spending your life with someone, you sort of merge into this shared being- literally ‘my other half’. So the question of what happens when we lose our other half later in life felt like one that we’d not seen explored very much on screen”. Ross White added “Of course, this kind of heavy subject matter could easily become a very depressing fifteen minutes, so from the outset, we knew it needed a lightness in the telling and a sense of hope at its core. As writers, we often like to undercut these big, poignant ideas with humour and that’s what we’ve (hopefully) done here. So while David’s beautiful performance may bring a tear to your eye, we hope that it’ll make you laugh as well. I think that’s something that often gets left out of on-screen portrayals of grief: no matter how deep the sorrow, there are flecks of joy, but in the pleasure there is a sadness there, too”.
Tom Berkeley told us what it was like directing his (and Ross’s) debut short film:
“The words ‘baptism’ and ‘fire’ spring to mind. To be honest, I don’t think either of us underestimated the challenge of transitioning from a writing partnership to a directing partnership, but it’s one of those crafts that you can’t really practice unless you’re on set doing it. We were blessed with a fantastic crew who were all incredibly diligent and collaborative; in fast-moving environments like film sets you need to be surrounded by problem-solvers, and even though we had to work with a skeleton crew, everyone was so quick and willing to help put out fires (not literal fires, thankfully) throughout the shoot. Having written the script and being fairly meticulous during the storyboarding meant we had a good understanding of what was required to tell the story in the best way. We’re used to working with actors and we both understand the process of creating enough of a playground for the scenes to germinate within. Aside from being surrounded by BAFTA and Oscar winners on the set, the most daunting aspect to adjust to was the pace at which we had to operate in order to shoot the required number of pages per day. I think we had to get through about eight pages a day; luckily our fantastic 1st AD, Ash Gardiner, kept us on track and, actually, there’s something quite invigorating about working under pressure – when you’re not able to indulge in any particular moments, you develop an economy to your working rhythms that brings out the purest creativity within you”.
Maybe we all know a character like Roy. This was certainly the case for first time producer, West Midlands based, Bryony Pulizzi:
“I sat down with a cup of tea and gave the script a read and instantly connected with the story. It broke my heart and at the same time it was so heart- warming. It hit me how relevant this story was in the current times.Everyone knows a Roy. I know a Roy…in the form of ‘Mary’ who lives down the street. A widower, a mother, a grandmother, with a wicked sense of humour. Mary lives alone and has done for the past 10 years since her husband Jack passed, during the start of lockdown I had gone down to check on her and give her my mobile number should she ever need me. Well…turns out I needed Mary more than she needed me.
Every day she would text me with an elaborate story that she had made up about roller skating with the Kidsgrove athletic swimming team or riding on the back of a motorcycle with Cliff Richard. She would call to sing to me down the phone and text me goodnight with three kisses every evening without fail. It was simple, Mary just needed someone to talk to, I was just lucky enough too had been that person. Mary was my Roy and the script fell on my lap just at the right time. I knew there would be so many people out there who would relate to this story. It was written so beautifully, with all the humour that I had experienced with Mary. I spoke with Tom and Ross and we teamed up on the project. I couldn’t be prouder with what we have achieved”.
The events of the pandemic have given everyone a very palpable sense of the effects that loneliness can have on our lives. But Roy’s story represents the silent voice of millions across the world who were already living in solitude long before the virus came along. We don’t forget about those who won’t be able to break out of it so readily.
The duo developed the idea for this film, they knew they wanted to bring as much humour and playfulness into the story to offset the more tender themes of grief and isolation. It was important for them to capture the nuances within the complex type of grief that Roy is going through, but ultimately leave an audience with an overwhelming sense of hope. This is a story about two strangers, both of them stuck in their own particular groundhog days, who’s unlikely friendship helps them rediscover the joy in life. Because that’s the thing about grief – it’s really just love in disguise, and though we never get through life without experiencing that kind of sadness, the same can be said for happiness, and laughter, and hope. It’s all just around the corner.
It would be impossible to talk about Roy without asking it’s director’s what it was like to work with David Bradley.
“As well as being a remarkable actor and very much at the height of his powers, David is an extremely kind and generous man. We’ve mentioned before that we wrote the script with him in mind, but we never seriously considered the possibility that we would be lucky enough to secure him for the titular role. We so often found ourselves saying to each other ‘we need to find someone like David Bradley’ to play Roy, that eventually we decided to send him the script via his agent. It says a lot about David that he would receive a script from a pair of unknown writer/directors and treat it with the same respect as the many others he no doubt is sent. He seemed to immediately resonate with the character and the style of story we wanted to tell, and we were delighted to be able to have him on board.
Working with David on set was a joy. It’s a dialogue-heavy film and, being that it all takes place within one man’s house, the camera is pretty much glued to David for the entirety. That, coupled with the fact that we wanted the scenes to play out in fairly long takes, meant that the weight of the story would rest solely on David’s shoulders. Luckily, David seems incapable of turning in a bad take, or a bad line, even. Everything he does is full of such nuance, humanity and intelligence. Obviously, you don’t get to have a career like David’s without being a master of your craft, and that’s what it was like for us – working with someone who is a master of their craft.
Shame he’s a Villa fan, though”.
