Tom Hooper: Les Miz is meant for me

MANILA, Philippines - Before Tom Hooper was tapped to direct the film version of Les Miz, a few other directors had been considered for the daunting task.

“But I guess that it’s really meant for me,” Hooper told Conversations during the junket in Tokyo. “I went out of my way to get it. I presented myself to the production company and said that I wanted to direct the movie.”

Until he directed The King’s Speech (with Colin Firth in the title role) in 2010, which was nominated for 12 Oscars and won three major awards (Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay), Hooper was not so well-known even if he had done a few films (The Damned United with Michael Sheen, John Adams with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, etc.) and award-winning TV series including Elizabeth I (with Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons) which won for him an Emmy Award for Best Direction. (He directed his first film, Runaway Dog, when he was 13, shot on a Clockwork 16 mm Bolex camera using 100 feet of film.)

“I didn’t really know who Tom Hooper was because he had not really done many films,” recalled Cameron Mackintosh, co-producer of Les Miz. “I think I’ve seen only one of his films. And then a friend of mine saw The King’s Speech in one of the festivals before it was released and he said that it was a really good film.

“I met up with him and I realized that he’s an incredibly bright guy. He had a real vision; I knew that he really wanted to put on Les Miz and the challenge of doing the big ensemble numbers was something that was exciting him. I discovered that he was as keen as I had been for many years to do it live. His instincts were exactly right.”

Believe it or not but Hooper said that he saw Les Miz only two years ago when a friend invited him to.

“And I had a very powerful response to it,” confessed Hooper. “The scenes showing Jean Valjean being led away by guards away from Fantine and the poor people putting up a barricade in protest against the rich sent shivers down my spine. I had a very physical reaction to it. Since then, I was obsessed with the idea of translating the musical into the screen.”

And the result is simply breathtaking; it’s so moving that only the stone-hearted will not cry.

“I was crying, too,” admitted Hooper. “In fact, when I was doing the sound mixing, I kept on weeping…mixing and weeping…weeping and mixing. Yes, I really did that! I don’t remember ever crying over any other musical or movie.”

In the credits at the end of the movie, he thanks his parents for instilling in him the love for music.

“Yes, they really did,” Hooper said. “That’s why at age 12, I fell in love with musicals, I fell in love with theater, I fell in love with acting and directing and filmmaking. That’s one of the reasons why I fought to direct Les Miz.”