As allied forces prepared for the D-Day invasion during World War II, one forecast had the power to change history forever.
‘Pressure’ follows meteorologist James Stagg (Andrew Scott) as he faces the stress of predicting the weather conditions that would determine the fate of the initial amphibious and airborne landings of Operation Overlord. Also starring Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Damian Lewis, and Chris Messina, the historical drama explores leadership, responsibility, and the impossible weight of making the right call when millions of lives are at stake.
Ahead of the film’s theatrical release on May 29, Scott spoke with Metro about portraying the reserved yet deeply burdened Stagg, exploring vulnerability through silence, and what he hopes audiences take away from the story.
I think the thing that I'm looking for in a character is some degree of vulnerability, something that you go — what is the thing that they might be frightened of? And what was interesting about James Stagg is that he doesn't reveal a lot of vulnerability at all, actually. He's very formidable at the beginning of the film; I felt like that's the way he should appear. And I kind of built that up, if I'm honest.
The script had him in a certain way, and I felt like he should be pretty uninterested in being liked. I like those as sort of filmic characters. But, just because he doesn't present vulnerability doesn't mean that he isn't vulnerable and doesn't have a huge sense of responsibility for what the task that he undertakes involves. And then, of course, you're just looking for something a little bit different from the thing that you've done just previously, so to do lots of different things is the thing that I look for.
It depends from job to job, but I think as a general rule, for me, I like to go in with fresh eyes [where] in a sense, you're learning through the script and you're learning through the story that the script is telling. God knows the screenplay was incredibly well researched by David Haig and Anthony Maras, our writer/director. I like the idea that you're building something that is a film and a character that is, of course, influenced by the real man, but this is a very specific moment in his life and a very specific scenario.
And you want people to be able to get a sense of the feel of the man and the enormous task. I think the essence of James Stagg is somebody who's got incredible integrity who refused to give people the answer that they wanted at the time that they wanted it, because he had this enormous passion and respect for weather forecasting and for nature. He just didn't seem to be interested in kowtowing to people, no matter how powerful they were.
That was really one of the chief pleasures of the film for me, because I interact with all four of the other principal characters. Chris Messina is an incredible actor who plays Colonel Krick, who has opposing ideologies and methodologies, and an opposing culture, almost. So a lot of the humor and comedy comes from their clashing.
You've got Damien Lewis who's just one of our best actors. Again, a sort of different type of class of character and somebody who's incredibly experienced in war, unlike James Stagg. Then Kerry Condon playing Kay Summersby, [and] they have a sort of connection and a simpatico with each other. And of course, Brendan Fraser, who held all the power as Eisenhower, but who had the humility to be able to listen to the people who he knew had expertise on this subject that he didn't.
I think it's about containment in this scenario. The title of the film is ‘Pressure,’ and the essence of pressure is containment. So the essence of the character in some ways has to be about somebody burdening you with something [with] an enormous amount of pressure, and you not freaking out and keeping it in in some ways… Until that pressure can no longer be contained, or at least the adverse effects of containing pressure start to become visible.
Sometimes that's through exclaiming and sometimes that's about the absolute opposite, which is not exclaiming, it’s keeping it down. That's what the audience absorbs, and that's when the audience, I think, can empathize and think, "Okay, I'll take this on,” so that by the end of the film, you have this incremental feeling that needs to be released. So there's a great catharsis both for the characters and for the audience too.
It's the idea that weather isn't just small talk. Weather affects so much, and in order for us to survive, there are people that have to be experts in weather. I'd love the audience to be able to just look at weather in a new way like the way I did. Weather informs so much of our daily life—if we’re going to eat lunch inside or outside, are we going to bring a jacket or an umbrella or whatever to events, or are you going to have your barbecue on a Sunday afternoon? Or, we wake up in the morning and we go, 'Okay, well, what am I going to do with my day,' depending on what we see?
And also, this film is about leadership and responsibility and the importance of listening to people who are genuine experts in their field rather than just saying, 'Okay, well I've got all the power.' It's a film that's also a little bit about our environment and how we are at the mercy of our environment, and that we are absolute idiots if we think that we're anything other than at the mercy of Mother Nature.
‘Pressure’ drops in theaters May 29.
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