ACG: In Ireland, feelings toward Churchill might charitably be called mixed, if not outright hostile. Did you find any irony in being asked to portray the Briton who played a key role in negotiating the treaty with Sinn Fein regarding Irish freedom in the 1920s?

BG: It was a definite factor. I had to deal with that baggage. Nevertheless, what he did in the Second World War was remarkable. His maverick qualities, his self-confidence appealed to me. It would be interesting to see how he would be remembered if he had failed.

You know what he gained from the disaster at Gallipoli in the First World War? That what was wrong was that he was only second in command. He needed to be in charge. His conviction that he knew exactly what to do was incredible. I don’t think anyone else could have galvanized his people as he did. Really, circumstances have a large part to play in how a man can rise to destiny.

I’m in no way churlish about it. My grandfather was in the First World War and he was captured by Turks, but he wasn’t at Gallipoli.

ACG: What unit was your grandfather with?

BG: He fought with the Connaught Rangers. They’re an interesting group. In India, there was a mutiny among them (in 1920) because of what was happening in Ireland. Grandfather said that if he had been in India at the time, he wouldn’t have joined the mutineers because he had given his oath (as a soldier). He was proud of his war record.

ACG: There’s one memorable scene in which Churchill grabs a helmet during an air raid and goes onto the roof of 10 Downing Street to watch the bombing. His wife, in a shelter, remarks that he sometimes seems like a little boy playing at war and suddenly it has come true for him. What were you thinking during that scene on the roof? What were you hoping to convey about him?

BG: Funny thing is, I like the fact you don’t know what he’s thinking. That whole thing about playing at war—you know, I’ve thought about his relationship to war. He really was a warmonger at times. He was a warrior. He said, "War which was once cruel and magnificent has now become cruel and squalid."

I feel he didn’t take war less than seriously, but he was fascinated from the time he was a child with war and the glory of war. He didn’t just send men to war, he was willing to put himself into it, in the Boer War for example. (As shown in the film, Churchill intended to personally go ashore with the Normandy invasion force. – ACG) He wanted to do great deeds, and he saw war as a way to elevate himself to great position where he could do them.

When he’s out there watching the bombing of his city, I think he has a feeling of being truly appalled and truly alive, and he felt could do something about (the war and Hitler). This is his job, this is what he felt he was born to do. I think he pictured himself as a knight.

War was always savage, it’s not a new thing. I think in my generation we’ve forgotten we have to overcome our sense of survival in order to face danger for some larger cause.

ACG: In early scenes, Churchill is shown standing up to Lord Halifax, who is urging a compromise with the Germans in order to save the British Expeditionary Force in France. Churchill adamantly refuses. At this stage of the war, did that contribute to his reputation as a warmonger?

BG: I think he already had the image. He was very warlike; he was Lord of the Admiralty. He looked for ways to fight. He thrived in it. A lot of people did not like him. He even changed political parties then changed back. But what he had was this conviction Hitler was a real danger. He’d said that throughout the Thirties, and people were tired of hearing it—but he was able to say, I was right.

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