11/25/2013

Interview: Steve Coogan Explores his Serious Side in 'Philomena'

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Although Steve Coogan will always be the guy who has made us laugh in The Trip or as Alan Partridge, of late he's taken his career in a more dramatic direction. What's more, his films seem to have a real point to make, whether it's the impacts of divorce on children in What Maisie Knew, or challenging social moors in The Look of Love.

Coogan found a true passion project in Philomena (review here), which he wrote and starred in as real-life BBC journalist Martin Sixsmith. Coogan stars alongside Judi Dench in the story of Sixsmith's journey with Irishwoman Philomena Lee to find the son who had been taken and hidden from her by Catholic nuns fifty years earlier. The film is part road trip comedy, part angry commentary against the church's misdeeds, and joined by my colleague +Tim Gordon  we had a chance to talk to Coogan about taking on what is very different subject matter for him.