Matt Smith chats with British writer-director Kieron Hawkes about his debut feature, Piggy…
Piggy, set in modern day London, follows Joe (Martin Compston) as he attempts to get revenge against those who murdered his brother. He’s helped by the titular character Piggy (Paul Anderson), in a violence-fuelled quest to avenge.
I’d pretty much stumbled into this. At first I thought I was interviewing Martin Compston, one of the two principal actors from the psychological film Piggy. But through not mentioning any specific names during e-mail correspondence, I ended up interviewing Kieron Hawkes, writer and director of said film.
My journalistic skills obviously far beyond mere mortals, I sat down in my car during my lunch break and chatted on the phone with the man himself. After assuring him the interview would be exciting (‘It’ll be like Space Mountain! You do like Space Mountain, don’t you Kieron?’) I got right to it.
Oh, and watch out. The first question’s a bit of a spoiler. Or is it? Even I don’t know…
Matt Smith: So let’s get right to it. Was Piggy an invention of Joe’s mind? The use of fades, the way they interact… it seems the film was deliberately ambiguous to this point, so…
Kieron Hawkes: I wanted it to be a talking point with audiences; I wanted it to be ambiguous. All the things you said were put in there deliberately to do that.
MS: Did you want the violence to be very over the top or grounded in realism, because there seems to be a bit of both in there?
KH: It was very important that it felt real to the audience. There’s a lot of these violent films out there and I didn’t want Piggy to be another violent film. I wanted there to be a point to the violence. The film asks questions about morality. These guys have killed his brother, so what should he do?
MS: Was Joe a child growing up through the film then? He obviously goes through character development and ‘grows’ throughout the film.
KH: Yeah, I wanted it to be relatively claustrophobic. This is Joe telling us his story, it’s him remembering the tale. If it was Piggy telling us about the events, it would probably be through a high saturation lens, it would be crazy… this is Joe’s point of view, his re-telling.
MS: Was this a script that had to be delivered exactly as read? I got the feeling it had a perfectionist behind it. Is this your approach to every film you’re gonna make?
KH: I think… hmm… with this type of film, you have to get every beat right. The actors were respectable in concerns to that. But they liked the script from the beginning, so it wasn’t hard. I really like writing dialogue and the actors were sold on how everything was there in the script. There’s a scene in the film where two characters are just saying ‘Yeah.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Yeah.’ to each other about four times and they really liked that. So the script was very complete when the actors got it.
MS: So are you not a fan of improvisation? Was there any room in the script for any improv from the actors?
KH: There was a bit of improvisation from Paul [Anderson]. That type of character lends itself a bit more to improvisation. I don’t think every film has to be like this, though.
MS: So was there an element to making this film that was… why am I talking like this? What was the most important or difficult part of making this film?
KH: I think everything’s equally difficult, every aspect has its own problems you have to overcome. No one part of film making is easy. You have to be hard headed to get a film made, I’ve been hard headed. You have to know when to say yes but equally as important you have to know when to say no. It’s very difficult getting a film made and we just wanted to get out and get this film done.
My interview was coming to an end. I only had a ten-minute spot with Kieran anyway and, perhaps more significantly, I was supposed to be back at work twenty minutes ago. One final, important question…
MS: So what did you take away with you from the film?
KH: (quickly): A plastic pig nose.
MS: Damn it. Stole my joke.
KH: Ha ha.
MS: Spent hours writing that one…
KH: I’m sorry. Better luck next time.
Many thanks for Kieron Hawkes for taking the time for this interview.
Piggy is out now in UK cinemas and will be released on DVD on May 21st. Check out the trailer and read our review.
Matt Smith
Originally published May 7, 2012. Updated December 6, 2019.
