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British artist-filmmaker Steve McQueen made history with his best picture win for 12 Years A Slave in 2014. But what does he remember from that night in the Dolby Theatre?
“I met Prince,” McQueen said jokingly this morning during a onstage screen talk at the London Film Festival. “He took his shades off and met my mum. It was Prince, man, oh my god.”
McQueen — who was questioned on stage by film critic Danny Leigh — continued to describe Oscars in 2014 night as “heavy” mentally before telling the London crowd that he’s proud of the film’s legacy. However, he told the audience that he’s certain the film would not have been made if Barack Obama wasn’t in office at the time.
“I know for a fact that if President Obama wasn’t in office that movie wouldn’t have been made. It was an in,” McQueen said. “It was before Oscars So White. My proudest feeling after 12 Years A Slave was that a lot of Black filmmakers got opportunities to make their movies. Because it was a blockbuster. It made loads of money from a very small budget. So a lot of movies got made because of it.”
McQueen told the crowd in London that 12 Years A Slave had been the result of an idea that he had after first touring the Hollywood studios following the success of his debut feature Hunger and taking what he described as awkward meetings with execs.
“So I went to Hollywood and I went to the studios and I think people thought I was white because I did Hunger,” McQueen said. “I took these meetings and they were all looking at me funny. But during those meetings it became apparent to me that slavery happened here. It’s something that really happened here. And I thought to myself I want to make a movie about slavery.”
After 12 Years A Slave, McQueen made Widows with Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, and Colin Farrell. McQueen was asked by the moderator if he felt he received adequate support when making the film. After a pause, McQueen told the crowd that he believed he might have been a little “ahead of the curve” with the thriller.
“People weren’t ready yet. They just weren’t ready,” McQueen said.
“It’s all about timing because if I made that movie today it would be different and the people behind the machine would do something different.”
He illustrated his point by telling the audience to check out the film’s poster, which he said he wanted to feature the four women at the heart of the film. The final version, however, features all the film’s main characters.
“Just look at the poster. It should have been the four women on that poster. That’s what I wanted,” he said. “But I was told it needs to be this and that. And then you get everyone on the poster. But if it’s for everyone it’s for no one. I wanted those four women. Those widows.”
McQueen’s latest film Blitz opens the London Film Festival later this evening. Directed, produced, and written by McQueen, the film follows the epic journey of George (Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. The Synopsis reads: George, defiant and determined to return home to Rita and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, ensues on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son. Blitz marks McQueen’s first sole feature screenwriting credit.
After London, the film will go on to play Camerimage in Poland and Sweden’s Stockholm Film Festival. The pic is set to debut on November 1.
The London Film Festival runs until October 25.
