 |
 |
|
|
 he life of 11-year-old Billy Elliot
(Jamie Bell), a coal miner's son in Northern England, is forever changed
one day when he stumbles upon a ballet class during his weekly boxing lessons. Before long, he
finds himself in dance class, demonstrating the kind of raw talent
seldom seen by the class' exacting instructor, Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters). With a tart tongue and a never-ending stream of cigarettes in her hand, Mrs. Wilkinson's zest for teaching is revived when she sees Billy's potential. Forgetting the other ballerinas, she's drawn into teaching her new protégé. But Billy must keep his participation in the class a secret from this widowed father (Gary Lewis) and overbearing brother (Jamie Draven), as both men are on strike from their jobs at the mine, and are struggling just to keep food on the table. Their pent-up frustration finally explodes when they discover Billy has been squandering his boxing money on less than manly pursuits. Banned from ballet, and troubled by the diminishing mental |
actors Jamie Bell Julie Walters Jamie Draven Gary Lewis Jean Heywood Stuart Wells Nicola Blackwell director locations outtake |
| capacity of
his grandmother (Jean Heywood), Billy finds solace with his school
friend (Stuart Wells), which deepens into a touching friendship.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Wilkinson encourages Billy to try out for the Royal
Ballet School in London, where he can refine his craft while escaping his oppressive surroundings. The inspiration to write the story for Billy Elliot came in a flash to screenwriter Lee Hall while living in America and writing about his own childhood. The story gestated for about a year, mostly because Hall was working on other projects. Then, in a flurry of inspiration, he completed the first draft in three weeks. His screenplay also touched on the 1984 miners' strike which, for him, was one of the defining moments in British history since the war. "I wanted to write about it obliquely by looking at the various tensions within the community which were crucial in determining the strike's failure," said Hall. "The story sort of wrote itself once I had the image of the kid at odds with his family and the community and pitted against a larger, hostile world." Directed by Stephen Daldry, who was already recognized in London as the face of contemporary theater, the man behind the long-running An Inspector Calls and the Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theater, Daldry was well-equipped to segue into feature films. He responded swiftly to Hall's script. "I knew immediately that I wanted to direct this film by the simple fact that the script moved me," said Daldry. "It made me want to read it again." The search for the actor to play the title character involved auditioning over 2,000 boys. "It was a tall order to find a child who could dance as well as act, who came from the Northeast and had the right accent, and was also the right age," Daldry explained. "But eventually we found Jamie, who completely understood all the elements of the story and he had that elusive thing that allows you to fall in love with a child and be terribly concerned about what happens to him. We found our needle in the haystack." - Rise Levy |