The Personal History Of David Copperfield: Armando Iannucci on casting Dev Patel

You think you know Charles Dickens’ classic story, but you’ve never seen it like this before. Its writer and director explains his unconventional choice.

When you picture Charles Dickens hero David Copperfield, who do you picture?

Maybe a cherubic, pre-Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe? Or Robin Phillips from the 1969 movie version?

Who you don’t tend to picture is Dev Patel, the English actor who starred in Skins before breaking out in Danny Boyd’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire.

Patel’s Indian heritage would normally exclude him from a role as the titular character of Dickens’ popular Victorian novel, but writer and director Armando Iannucci (The Thick Of It, Veep, The Death Of Stalin) was having none of it when it came to casting his joyous and delightful adaptation, out in cinemas this week, one of the first films to play in reopened theatres.

The Personal History Of David Copperfield employs what is termed as “colourblind” casting, a practice in which an actor is chosen for a role regardless of their or the character’s cultural background.

(Though this tends to work in which actors of colour take on roles that are traditionally caucasian, a subversion of established power dynamics in entertainment and representation, rather than white actors playing characters of colour which is a far more problematic choice.)

In this case, it’s Patel as Copperfield, a character usually portrayed as white. It’s radical in a way, but in other ways, it’s also perfectly natural because when you see the film, it really feels as if no one other than Patel could’ve been Iannucci’s David Copperfield.

Iannucci always had Patel in mind – there was no plan B.

Dev Patel, leading man.

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“I’d never met Dev before but I’d seen him in Skins being very gawky and awkward as a teenager, but in Lion he was very strong and charismatic. It was the blend of the two I was looking for in David,” Iannucci told news.com.au.

“It demands an awful lot of Dev, because he’s in practically every scene for two hours. He has to be submissive, poor and physical. He has to do impressions of other characters. He has to be funny. He has to be drunk. He has to be in love. He has to be besotted. He has to be miserable. He has to be happy. Dev is a natural.

“When I was speaking to Dev, the inevitable questions came up – ‘OK, so my father is Indian?’ ‘No, I’ve approached you because I think you’re the best person for the part.’ And then we cast everyone else like that.

“Let’s just cast whoever we think is the best person for the part, because it struck me that if I didn’t do that, then I wasn’t casting from 100 per cent of the acting community.

“Many people have commented on how natural it seems, which was the idea. It’s something that’s been done in theatre for the past five to 10 years and there are so many great actors coming onto the scene. It’s just ridiculous if we’re going to be making these period pieces, that they are limited in parts.

“I hope it encourages casting people, directors, producers to think a little bit outside that kind of terribly literal, historic mindset in how they cast.”

Dev Patel, Rosalind Eleazar and Hugh Laurie in The Personal History Of David Copperfield. Picture: Roadshow Films

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Patel isn’t the only actor from a culturally diverse background in The Personal History Of David Copperfield that Iannucci cast.

Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange, State Of Play), an actor of Asian background, was hired to play the drunken but kindly Mr Wickfield, while black actor Rosalind Eleazar portrays Mr Wickfield’s daughter, and David’s love interest, Agnes.

In a stellar cast that also includes Tilda Swinton, Peter Capaldi, Ben Whishaw, Aneurin Barnard, Gwendoline Christie and Hugh Laurie, the film never comments on its different casting approach, instead allowing the actors to do what they do.

Iannucci said his ambitions didn’t get pushback from financiers or producers who, at first, were confused why a filmmaker best known for political satire wanted to do a Dickens adaptation.

“When I explained how I was doing it, the financiers said, ‘OK, good, because we didn’t want a conventional David Copperfield.’”

Armando Iannucci is best know for political satires such as The Thick Of It. Picture: Lia Toby/Getty Images for BFI

Iannucci has been a Dickens fan since he was a child, growing up with the 19th century author’s stories, and admiring his ability to write for a wide audience while still challenging his readers. For Iannucci, taking on Dickens’ words felt like “coming home, going back to the thing that inspired me in the first place”.

He found universal themes in David Copperfield, Dickens’ story about a young boy growing up in idyllic circumstances with his single mother until she remarries a cruel factory owner, and whose life takes many, many turns, through the doorways of eccentric characters who would make indelible marks on his life.

“Even though we set it in 1840, I wanted everyone in it to feel very much as if they were in the present day, not in the past,” Iannucci said. “So, no mannerisms, just speak like you do, walk like you do. Don’t feel like you have to conform to any perception of what costume drama should be like.

“I said to everyone, ‘Let’s pretend no one’s ever made a period drama before, and therefore, there are no rules and conventions to how this should be made.’”

That energy and verve is evident in the finished film, a colourful, life-affirming coming-of-age story in which you can easily lose yourself in the travails of a classic character come alive.

The Personal History Of David Copperfield is in cinemas from Thursday, July 2

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