Paul Greengrass is no stranger to taking on sensitive material.
It was ultimately a very inspiring story and one with lessons for all of us.
And theres wasnt any backlash?Not from the families, not at all.
Erik Aavatsmark/Netflix
On the contrary, theyve offered very profound support, which has been very moving for all of us.
To lock the barn door when the buildings on fire seems to me not the right thing to do.
You have to fight the fire.
Its meant to be an inspiring portrait and one that defeats him.
Hes not given the platform, hes defeated; defeated morally and intellectually and emotionally.
When you see what those young people did inParkland, its kind of similar.
I think were going to be seeing more of that.
Our children will beat you and their children will beat you.
You do it when you feel what youre doing has moral seriousness.
You do it with great restraints, profound restraint and you do it in consultation with the people affected.
How to handle the violence was probably the most discussed issue and the families had very clear views.
Its a disturbing sequence but theres very little gratuitous violence.
I think its handled with great restraint.
I tried to get the balance.
The balance was very forcefully and wisely laid out for me.
One other issue I had to think about before making the film was the entertainment dilemma.
I think audiences understand its different.
Thats part of what keeps cinema alive.
That commits it to the real world.
I saw it very much as a sister film toUnited 93.
You cast Norwegian actors who speak in accented English throughout.
Can you talk about that decision?
Norways a bilingual society everyone speaks English quite fluently.
It was about bringing Norways story to the wider world so we did it in English.
In many ways my job was just to help them tell their story.
In terms of casting, I cant think of a film thats been easier to cast, actually.
Theyve got such wonderful actors and, of course, they all remember where they were when it happened.
Many of them knew people involved in the attacks or knew people who knew people.
Lets talk about casting Anders Danielsen Lie as Breivik.
He felt very strongly that he should do it.
He couldve been anyone that you or I know.
That was what was so interesting about the Breivik case in Norway…
They had to confront the fact that he wasnt mad.
Of course he had a difficult family background but not to that point.
In the end, what they had to confront was his beliefs.
He believed what was his radicalization of a right-wing violent extreme.
That was the frightening thing.
22 Julyis available to stream on Netflix now.
