The “control freak” producer who became Richard E Grant’s arch-nemesis
As an actor, Richard E Grant is untouchable, capable of comedy, drama, and everything in between, and as a human being, he comes across as incredibly pleasant, funny, witty, self-deprecating, and largely generous with his personal anecdotes.
He’s won awards, published several books, and technically played the lead character in Doctor Who. That’s a story for another time, though.
One area in which Grant unfortunately hasn’t excelled is directing. In 2005, he got behind the camera to make Wah-Wah, a semi-autobiographical tale, depicting the life of a young man named Ralph, played by Nicholas Hoult, growing up in the African country eSwatini (then known as Swaziland).
Ralph was based on Grant, whose early life was shaped by both the decline of his parents’ marriage and of the British Empire’s control in the region. Critics were split right down the middle on the movie, which made just $2.8million from a $7m budget.
There were issues right from the start. A number of famous names, including Ralph Fiennes, Toni Colette, and his former co-star Daniel Day-Lewis, all passed on the movie. Grant wanted Harry, a stand-in for his father, to be played by a younger man, but was forced to cast an older Gabriel Byrne when he was left with no other options. It was also the first major picture to be shot in eSwatini, which presented its own set of issues.
If you were to ask the star of Withnail and I, however, the biggest problem with Wah-Wah was its producer. In multiple interviews about the film, the star has been very open about his poor relationship with Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar. In one conversation with The Courier Mail, he went full scorched earth.
“Where do I begin?” he lamented (via his official fan forum), “I last spoke to her 18 months ago, and I hope to never see her again as long as I live. It’s just appalling, the catalogue of problems she caused. She was a control freak, just out of control.”
Mention-Schaar is a French producer and director who had very limited experience prior to Wah-Wah, only coming on board after the film’s initial producer dropped out. According to Grant, she failed to obtain much of the paperwork that was vital to the filming process, including medical certificates.
“Three days before shooting was due to start, with 110 people ready to work, I had to seek an audience with the King of Swaziland (King Mswati III) and beg his clemency and get the permission we needed to work,” Grant recalled, “It was not the way I’d wanted to start.”
While Grant never worked as a director again, his one-time foe has made quite the career for herself, helping a number of films, including the well-received Heaven Will Wait, but controversy still follows her around, as her 2020 movie A Good Man was criticised for the casting of Noémie Merlant, a cis woman, as a transgender man.
