INSIDE THE WRITING AND DIRECTING MIND OF CHARLES WILLIAMS

 First-time feature filmmaker Charles Williams discusses success, the precarious nature of filmmaking, and what he hopes audiences will take away from his unique prison drama, Inside. 
 Guy Pearce playing Warren Murfett and Writer and Director Charles Williams on the set of Inside. Photo by Mat Lynn

Growing up in regional Victoria, Williams’ early life was punctuated by volatility, including a lineage of incarcerated family members. Movies were a welcome escape, and he started making short films (and picking up awards for his efforts) as a teenager. 

Ultimately, the challenges which marked his childhood, would form the basis for his short film, All These Creatures, which collected Cannes Film Festival's top prize for short filmmaking, the Palme d'Or in 2018.

The pivotal moment Williams knew he needed to make his debut feature film, Inside, was off the back of the Cannes prize, he explains. “I asked myself, ‘What is the film I want to put all my energy into with this opportunity?’ For me, the Palme d'Or felt like an ‘I owe you’. I told myself, ‘You better trade this in for something, and you might only get one shot at this.’” 

Writer and Director Charles Williams and actor Cosmo Jarvis on the set of Inside. Photo by Mat Lynn

Williams spent close to four years researching and developing his script. “I wanted to take the things that were creatively interesting about my short film and reimagine them into something I thought would be great to watch in a cinema. I would literally imagine myself going to the Astor Theatre and think, ‘If the curtains were opening, what would I want to see?’”

Slowly but surely his script started to evolve into a story about prisons – both the ones that are forced upon us, and the ones we make for ourselves. Corrections Victoria facilitated access to a range of prisons and juvenile detention centres, allowing Williams to conduct interviews with current inmates to inform his narrative. 

Actor Vincent Miller playing Mel Blight and Writer and Director Charles Williams on the set of Inside. Photo by Mat Lynn

“The prison genre film, as we know it, has two hallmarks,” Williams explains, “People trying to escape, or corrupt authority. No matter how lofty the prison film is, whether it's Shawshank Redemption or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, ultimately, the protagonist is trying to escape, and the people in charge are corrupt. And neither of those things are particularly true to my experience of prison.”

Williams therefore set out to depict a prison film that felt authentic; where, for long-term inmates especially, the outside world presents as more of a prison than life behind bars. “When Guy [Pearce]'s character [Warren Murfett] gets released, that's the bigger prison,” Williams says. “It's a movie that I think is very emotional, but not in a way that is upfront and sentimental. It sort of creeps up on you throughout, and by the end of it, you realise it’s a much softer and layered story.” 

Actor Toby Wallace playing Arian Murfett and Writer and Director Charles Williams on the set of Inside. Photo by Mat Lynn

Attracting Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) to the role of Murfett was extremely validating, Williams admits. “Guy came on board about a year before we started filming. I hadn't really shown the script to anyone until I was very happy with it, and Guy was the first actor that I sent it out to. So, the fact he came on board was a great endorsement of the script.”

Production still of Guy Pearce as Warren Murfett in Inside. Photo by Mat Lynn

Finding his young protagonist for the role of Mel Blight was a much harder task, Williams reveals. Working with casting director, Nikki Barrett, Williams knew they needed to cast the net as wide as possible and was prepared to re-write the part around the right actor. “I was after someone who is one in a million,” Williams says. “Someone with a very specific quality, including a sort of innocence and maturity, and an innate quality where you just want to watch them…all of these qualities are not easy to find.”

First time feature actor Vincent Miller landed the part of Mel, captivating Williams with his emotional range and ability to stretch in a scene. “Vincent had this gift of being completely present in whatever was going on. And when you watched it back in particular, it all translated through a camera, which is something you can't direct out of somebody.” 

Actor Vincent Miller as Mel Blight and extras on the set of Inside. Photo by Mat Lynn

English American actor Cosmo Jarvis rounded out Williams’ principal cast in the role of Mark Shepard (Australia’s most despised criminal). “Cosmo came at the role from a very immersive, but also a very analytical perspective,” Williams says. “It’s an intimate relationship between a director and cast…It’s your job to get the best out of everyone in whatever way they need you to get the best out of them.”

Cosmo Jarvis as Mark Shepard on the set of Inside. Photo by Mat Lynn

Williams also prioritised casting extras and bit-parts with non-actors who had lived-experience of the justice system; people who could relate directly to the darker themes of the film. “I'm casting people who have never been on set before, including former inmates who have serious mental health issues, and current corrections officers. In a sense, I created the hardest set possible for myself, but I was also aware this would make the film more interesting.”

Despite assembling world-class talent, crews and a creative team with decades of cumulative experience, making his debut feature still felt extremely precarious at times, and like it could fail at any minute, Williams admits. “Even when pre-production started,” he says, “financially, it always feels rocky. You've got all these different partners that are proceeding with an agreed-upon confidence that everyone's going in together, but if one thing shakes it could all fall apart.”

Cast on the set of Inside. Photo by Mat Lynn

Having received enormous success with his short films, which have screened at more than 200 of the world's most prestigious festivals including Cannes, TIFF, Telluride, MIFF, Rotterdam, and SXSW, and sold globally including to the Criterion Collection, Williams did feel a degree of pressure to nail his debut feature.  “There was a lot of pressure that came along with it. But I had been under even more pressure for a long time before it, and that was the pressure of being completely ignored, and the pressure of potentially never getting a chance. And so, the pressure of telling myself, ‘Don’t screw it up’, was a much better pressure than ‘no one cares, and it'll never happen.’” 

To premiere Inside at Melbourne International Film Festival – the first film festival Williams ever attended as a kid – was equal parts nerve-wracking and thrilling.  “You have high expectations of yourself. You feel the judgment of the local industry. And you feel your own expectations weighing upon you.” However, as hard as he finds it to admit, Williams is proud of the film he has made. 

Inside hits cinemas nationwide from Thursday 27 February. 

VicScreen supported the making of Inside through the Victorian Screen Incentive and through the Victorian Screen Rebate – Regional Filming.