Over the course of a week, actor Tom Hiddleston danced so much 鈥淚 had burned holes in my shoes.鈥
Part of the stress was dancing on the hot asphalt in Alabama; part of it was making sure that dance was a key part of the film, 鈥淭he Life of Chuck.鈥
Based on a Stephen King novella, the movie touches on those seminal moments that matter in life 鈥 not the job promotions, the awards or the traditional benchmarks.
They鈥檙e the 鈥渕oments in our lives which will become the brightest stars in our memories in the last hours of our lives,鈥 Hiddleston says. For his character, Chuck Krantz, one of those moments is an impromptu dance on a street. A drummer starts working out a beat, Chuck drops his briefcase and soon, the accountant is sharing moves with a woman who feels a similar vibe.
Tom Hiddleston plays an accountant who take a leap of faith and begins dancing in the streets of a town in "The Life of Chuck," a film based on a Stephen King novella.聽
The dance is the centerpiece of Mike Flanagan鈥檚 film 鈥 a segment that took four days to capture. Choreographer Mandy Moore and her assistants worked with Hiddleston five or six weeks before filming. 鈥淲e all kind of collected together in London, initially, then in Alabama for a week,鈥 he says. 鈥淲e were in a dance studio in Fairhope.鈥
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Among the segments: moonwalking. Flanagan tried to do it but couldn鈥檛. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a horrifying video of it out there somewhere,鈥 he says.
For Hiddleston, it was an opportunity to check off all the dance experience a young Chuck might have had.
In another segment of the film, Benjamin Pajak (who plays a younger version of Chuck), is shown learning steps and discovering the joy of dance.
To make sure young Chuck and old Chuck matched, Moore united the two and offered signature moves that would be evident in both segments.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I would have gotten through it if I didn鈥檛 have Mandy,鈥 Pajak says.
In those non-dancing moments, the young actor (who starred on Broadway as Winthrop in 鈥淭he Music Man鈥) brought a level of professionalism that 鈥渞aised the bar for everybody,鈥 co-star Kate Flanagan says. He brought a sense of wonder 鈥渢hat shows in everybody鈥檚 eyes when they look at you in the movie.鈥
Other standout moments leaned heavily on King鈥檚 thesis statement.
Mark Hamill plays a man who finds joy in numbers in "The Life of Chuck."聽
Example: Mark Hamill, who plays Chuck鈥檚 father, has a monologue that extols the joys of math.
鈥淎t one point, I was having a hard time making a jump from one line to the other,鈥 he says. 鈥淥ne line was, 鈥楯ust think, you could go to dinner and figure out how much it cost for everybody to eat 鈥 and it鈥檚 good for your brain.鈥 And I鈥檇 say, 鈥楬ow do I make that jump?鈥 And then it hit me: Eat brain. So in the side I wrote, 鈥榋ombie.鈥 Anything to help me remember lines.鈥
When he saw the film, the line had been cut. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a different kind of apocalypse,鈥 Mike Flanagan says.
In one of the three parts of the film (it鈥檚 told in chapters), two characters consider the end of life.
鈥淎s things start to break down, as traffic grinds to a halt, as the Internet goes down, as the phone lines go down, as you see images of whole land masses sliding into the sea (you realize) I don鈥檛 need this 鈥 I have two legs,鈥 Hiddleston says. And the character who has that moment of enlightenment decides to walk to his friend鈥檚 place and have a real conversation.
鈥淪tephen is asking questions聽鈥 we have the resources we need but we lean our technologies, which are simulating real connection, but they鈥檙e not the substance of human connection,鈥 Hiddleston explains.
Chuck鈥檚 non-dance scenes take place in a bed where his life is coming to a close. As elements become stripped away, he revisits those important memories.
鈥淚 had this awareness of the preciousness and the fragility of living, but also the magic and majesty of connection in the every day,鈥 Hiddleston says. 鈥淎s it鈥檚 so beautifully described in the story, this moment on the sidewalk on a Thursday afternoon is maybe an expression of the most intense freedom of his entire life.鈥
