Hannah Montana and the Lancashire connection (From Blackpool Citizen)

Hannah Montana and the Lancashire connection

3:19pm Wednesday 20th May 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

LANCASHIRE-born director Peter Chelsom may have seemed an odd choice to transfer Disney’s hit teen TV sitcom Hannah Montana to the cinema.

He hadn’t even heard of the actress-turned-singer before taking on the job of directing, and three of his friends in the industry told him it would be career suicide.

But the family sitcom about a teen who is also a pop star has become a worldwide phenomenon overnight. With Miley Cyrus playing the lead and her father, country star Billy Ray — famous for his hit Achy Breaky Heart — as her on screen father, the brand of Hannah Montana has spawned best-selling albums, a sell-out tour and now, thanks to Peter Chelsom, the film marked the second highest opening weekend ever for a musical, behind only High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

It was in the ‘90s when 53-year-old Peter made his name as a director and co-wrote two quirky comedies, Hear My Song and Funny Bones starring Lee Evans, both set in his home town of Blackpool. Hollywood beckoned but Chelsom spurned scripts such as Forrest Gump, Chicago and Hairspray, preferring first to work on his own projects.

And despite having lived in Tinsel Town for the last 13 years, Peter is not your typical Hollywood resident — so much so that whenever he is interviewed there he is asked ‘so how long are you here for?’ “Everyone always wants to know when my flight home is,” says Peter, in his still-strong English accent. “They say to me ‘how long are you here for?’ and I say well I’ve been here 13 years so I was thinking of hanging around a bit longer.

“It’s because I’m not a player – I don’t get out and go out on the town so people think I’m visiting from Britain. I just like a quiet life and spending time with my family,” added the father-of-three.

Starting out as a photographer before becoming a successful actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company for 15 years, Peter didn’t discover directing until later in life.

“My last job as an actor was a BBC theatre special with Sir Nigel Hawthorne. And there I was at 30 playing the juvenile lead in a silly wig and my heart wasn’t in it. He used to say ‘you really should direct’ and I’d think ‘Oh, thanks a bunch Nigel,’ and he’d say ‘No, don’t take this the wrong way you’re a good actor but your third eye is over-developed. You look at things from a director’s point of view, not an actor’s.’ So I panicked first then made the switch to directing and I’m so pleased I did,” he said.

And Peter says it is coming from an entrepreneurial family that got him to where he is today.

“Just after the war, my parents had only £5 17/6d to their name, as they often reminded me, when they started an antiques business called the Golden Age in part of the Metropole buildings, now Butlins,” he said. “Dad started an importing side with lighting and furniture and my brother Robert to this day still runs the business, called now simply Chelsom Ltd. My parents died forever ago in 1970 and 1977 but that’s where it all began.”

Peter is very proud of his Lancashire roots and thanks his upbringing for his subsequent success. He is one of a list of notable directors from the county, including Michael Winterbottom and Danny Boyle of the recent Slumdog Millionaire fame. And Peter says it is no coincidence the creative bunch all come from the same backgrounds.

He said: “I think there’s something very down-to-earth and not so Oxbridge about the film makers that come from the north of England. I resent that upper class attitude and I think there is an unpretentiousness about us. The work we produce is not overly intellectual. It provokes feelings then thought in that order, so I’m proud to be in that group of North West directors.”

Peter left the seaside resort where he was born to go to drama school in London in 1975 and after another 20 years he emigrated to Hollywood, where he lives now with his wife and three children, aged 13, four and two, whom he takes back home to Blackpool to visit as often as he can.

It was that childhood in Blackpool that first inspired Peter to make movies.

He added: “Funnybones was my ode to Blackpoool. I always say I’m not a film maker because I saw some life changing movie when I was six. I’m a film maker because I’m from Blackpool. I saw comedians on the pier and that’s what I got, not through education but by being brought up in that world that life in Lancashire.”

He is responsible for big hits of recent years, including Shall We Dance and Serendipity, but Peter admits Hannah Montana as his favourite work to date.

“I said I want to make a wholesome family movie like the ones I was brought up watching in the ‘60s and I hope that is what I have achieved. I knew nothing about Miley and I think it was a big advantage. I went about it in the way that I have every film. I didn’t have to try to not be like the TV show, because I’d never seen it.

“So I just made a film. We had to do a lot of work with Miley to get her out of sitcom mode and I loved doing that. It reminded me of working with Lee Evans in Funny Bones. Lee hadn’t done acting before and we did drama school career in three hours. I did the same with Miley.”

“Miley is crazy. She has such energy. She walks on the set and the energy just goes up. She never stops. It’s a real contagious vitality and it’s really inspiring actually. She has that real watchability. That little face, it really lights up.

“It’s weird, I can really see my eldest son Reggie’s face in hers when I look at her. I think that means I have created a similar relationship with her, as a friend and father figure. I was very moved by her acting. There were a couple of times when she’d do a take and I literally couldn’t speak,” he added.

Hannah Montana has become a global sensation and the spotlight is well and truly on Peter but he remains very modest and is determined not to let the fame go to his head — or his children’s.

“Reggie is at school in England and I like that no-one knows who his dad is.

"My others are too small to be affected, but I’ll make sure they’re not. I don’t like anything elite. I think children should feel special but never above anyone else,” Peter said.

“I must say, though, I did let him ride with me to the premier in London last week and walk down the red carpet to meet Miley. Every young boy deserves a treat.”

l Hannah Montana: The Movie is out in cinemas nationwide now.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)