TORONTO – Several important events happened in 1969 – the moon landing, for one, as well as Woodstock – but “Ink” director Danny Boyle argues that a meeting between two ambitious men in a London restaurant had the most lasting effect.
Boyle begins his new journalism drama (in select theaters Dec. 11, streaming on Netflix Jan. 8) with Australian businessman Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) asking British journalist Larry Lamb (Jack O’Connell) to run The Sun newspaper. "Although I lived through that period, in retrospect I realized that it was an ignition point for what we have become now,” Boyle said after the “Ink” premiere at Toronto International Film Festival.
in your inbox
The stylish and fast-paced “Ink” chronicles how Lamb shook up Fleet Street in the fall of ’69: The Sun’s new editor aimed to turn this laughingstock into the biggest newspaper in England, emphasizing elements such as sex, crime, controversy and over-the-top headlines to create something fun, new and dangerous to appeal to everyday people. That U.K. tabloid culture would ultimately influence much of the world’s media industry over the next several decades.
But the movie also shows the conflict that arose between control freak Lamb and tempestuous Murdoch, who didn’t love Lamb’s button-pushing decisions.
Because Murdoch owns Fox News and is still a powerful media mogul, Pearce had an image in his mind of him being “a monstrous, demonstrative, sort of dominating kind of personality,” the actor said of his fellow Aussie. However, Pearce saw a different guy researching old footage of Murdoch from the mid- to late ‘60s.
While “the mystique and the characterization of him is one of great power,” Pearce looked at interviews and saw that “he always looked awkward. He was shy, he was very quiet and humble, very generous, charming and not at all the image that we all have of this person who we think we now know. It really was an awakening to a very different personality … a quite humble kind of chap.”
As for Lamb, “he's a different proposition than playing somebody who is a household name,” O'Connell said. The English actor had “no prior knowledge” of Lamb until studying him and “realizing, actually, his influence in British culture was seismic.”
The Sun became a “tool” that landed in the majority of people's living rooms, O’Connell added. “Through that, he was able to peddle all sorts of stuff politically and whatever else under the guise of news.” Lamb turned this newspaper from “being a very bland, boring-looking periodical to being diabolical. You could see in the space of a day the difference.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Guy Pearce reveals the Rupert Murdoch he didn't expect to find in 'Ink'
