“Just to really frighten him into line”: Paul McGann was very nearly fired from 1987’s ‘Withnail and I’
Withnail and I is one of the most iconic British films of all time, with such an idiosyncratic sense of self that it’s hard to compare it to anything else. It’s just so British, revelling in equal parts comedy and bleakness in a way that only an English filmmaker would be capable of.
The film was directed by Bruce Robinson, who had actually taken on various acting roles during the 1960s and 1970s, appearing in the likes of Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet and François Truffaut’s The Story of Adèle H. One particularly underrated movie he lent himself to, however, was Private Road, which sees him play a young author whose relationship with a receptionist crumbles following their return from a pleasant trip to the Scottish countryside, when real issues, such as pregnancy, get in the way of their romance.
Of course, Withnail and I isn’t the story of a romantic relationship, but there’s definitely a line to be drawn between this early role in Robinson’s career, and his later exploration of the contrast between pastoral and city living, and the breakdown of relationships. Withnail and I is much more comedic, of course, with Richard E Grant’s Withnail and Paul McGann’s Marwood stealing every scene with their unforgettably bold personalities.
Robinson knew that each character needed to be a perfectly strong presence, and with that came casting the perfect actors. Grant hadn’t appeared in a movie before, and despite the fact that Withnail is an alcoholic, he’d never actually been drunk before, either. But Robinson was convinced he was right for the role, although he did have to persuade him to go on a bender so that he would know what being drunk feels like. Grant subsequently threw up a lot.
Meanwhile, the director had cast McGann as Marwood, and he, too, hadn’t appeared in a movie before. Yet, with his experience on stage and in a few TV roles, this was enough to secure him his part; that’s until Robinson realised that his Scouse accent wasn’t going to cut it, so he ‘fired’ him.
“I nearly fired Paul the week before we started shooting because of the Liverpool accent. He wouldn’t dump it. He’s very broad, and it was his parachute, his safety padding, you know? If you’re in trouble, some of the lines are quite hard to say in a natural way, and he’d revert to the ‘Pool,” he explained to Premiere Magazine, “And it freaked me out. But from the moment I saw Paul, I wanted him to play the part. I really wanted a Home Counties boy.”
So, Robinson decided to pull a little prank, if you will, on the actor, to make sure he ditched the Scouse once and for all. “I phoned up his agent to say I wouldn’t be able to use him, just to really frighten him into line,” he admitted, “I honestly think that if it had got to a minute to midnight, I would have still had him. But the combination of his and Danny’s [the drug dealer] accents, I don’t think would have mixed very well.”
McGann begged Robinson to reconsider him, chiming in, “Then it was my invidious task, as it turned out, to sit with the prospective Withnails while they were auditioning. I say that because after a day or two, he sacked me. He said, ‘What are you doing? You’re crap, it’s like Norman Wisdom’. I was so upset. I said, ‘You’ve got to audition me again’, so he did the following Monday, and then he gave me the job back again.”
It’s lucky that Robinson gave in, because this gave McGann the defining role of his career. Withnail and I is a timeless classic, largely thanks to the amazing performances at the heart of the film. “Thank god I didn’t replace him,” Robinson concluded, echoing popular consensus.
