Steven Berkoff: "What makes Poe elusive is that most filmmakers have not the acute sensibility to capture the finesse"

CK FILMS

CLAPPER: The Tell Tale Heart is a story you previously adapted into a one-man theatre show, what urged you to further to explore the text through this film?

STEVEN BERKOFF: A strong desire to go deeper into this monstrous story where only film will take you.

What challenges do you feel that film and theatre respectively bring when adapting The Tell Tale Heart to life?

The challenge is to bring a tale of such shocking relevance and such bizarre inventiveness.

Have you always found yourself attracted to the work of Edgar Allan Poe?

I have always been fascinated by his work more so since films of his work have been so poor directors more obsessed with the horror than the motivation.

The work of Edgar Allan Poe has become increasingly far and few in the realm of cinema, what do you think it is about Poe’s work that remains so elusive to filmmakers?

What makes him elusive is that most filmmakers have not the acute sensibility to capture the finesse of Poe.

How did you find adapting and writing the screenplay of Poe’s short story, what was the most enjoyable aspect to adapt to screen?

The most enjoyable aspect was to perform this strange being. 

The film is certainly a faithful adaptation of the original story, did you always set out to ensure not to make too many changes from the source material?

Few changes were necessary. The material is already extraordinary.

The film itself is quite theatrical due to the nature of the source material, how did you ensure that film was able to remain cinematic despite the nature of the monologues and other theatrical elements that evoke a stage play?

By changing the inner monologues to outer monologues and to expand the story to bring in the other characters.

As with the story, the film relies quite extensively on your portrayal of the servant. How did you find performing what is clearly a mentally sporadic/challenging character? 

Performing the character was highly satisfying since his demonic personality is very relevant today in OCD.

You write, act and produce The Tell Tale Heart but are absent from the directors chair, was this a conscious decision?

Steve Cookson was the director from the beginning which enabled me to write and act in it.

Do you perhaps see yourself adapting another Edgar Allan Poe story in the future?

Yes, I wish to do the ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’

You worked with the late Dudley Sutton on this film, could you tell us a little bit how it was to work with the underseen actor

I loved even our few moments together on the set of the film with Dudley Sutton, who sadly died a few months after. But he was a remarkable actor. See ‘The Devils’

Is it true that you turned down the role of Frank Booth in Blue Velvet? What was it about that part that you could not grapple with?

 I regrettably turned down the role of Frank Booth in ‘Blue Velvet’ when I didn’t care for some of the grosser moments. These were in fact cut when Dennis Hopper did it. 

Lastly, is not very often someone gets to ask a question to someone who has worked with Staley Kubrick, let alone someone who worked with him twice, what was it like to work with the infamous director and did the experiences differ on A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon?

Working with Stanley Kubrick is a dream job but you must be on your toes with him. Barry Lyndon brought out his lyricism.

STEVEN BERKOFF'‘S TELL TALE HEARTS is released on demand June 11th 2020. Read CLAPPER’s review here

---