Film Studies: Actors are on his side

R oss Kemp may be rubbing his hands at his pounds 1 million deal to leave EastEnders for a clutch of ITV projects, but what he should be doing is thanking Oliver Parker; it was film director Parker, the artist formerly known as surgical manager Mark Calder in Casualty, who first proved that soap stars could also become credible industry players.

His stint on the Casualty ward in the Eighties gave Parker the money and the space to see beyond acting and "nag various friends" into helping him realise his directorial ambitions. Unsigned, a 1994 short film starring his brother Nathaniel, made it into the London Film Festival. It was followed by A Little Loving with Helena Bonham Carter, and then another short, The Final Cut, in 1995. Then, that same year, Parker's breakthrough project, Othello, starring Laurence Fishburne, Irene Jacob and Kenneth Branagh, got him noticed in Hollywood in a serious way.

Now, four years, two TV dramas and several film developments later, the 38-year-old Londoner is back, this time with a star-studded adaptation of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. The film, which opens on 16 April, has drawn together an A-list cast to rival that of Shakespeare in Love. Cate Blanchett, Oscar-nominated for Elizabeth, is joined by Minnie Driver, Julianne Moore, Rupert Everett, Jeremy Northam and Jeroen Krabbe in a project backed by pounds 7 million- all of it British, and all of it a tribute to Parker's talent.

"He's been an actor for years so he knows how they behave and think," says An Ideal Husband's producer Barnaby Thompson, who has known Parker since he was a child. "And he has enough confidence to give actors freedom at the same time as being astute enough to steer them. They love him."

Perhaps a more accurate measure of Parker's appeal to cinema's elite is what appears to be a complete lack of ego. There are no histrionics or complaints when, during filming in Greenwich, I shuffle down next to Parker while he's directing a scene with Jeroen Krabbe. Dressed in scuffy shorts and boat shoes (no socks) and a simple T-shirt, his dark hair thinning slightly, he manages to dish out advice to Krabbe, shake hands, smile quickly and issue an invitation to see the day's rushes after the next take all at the same time. Compare Parker's quiet, determined manner to the madcap attention-seeking of American History X's British first-timer Tony Kaye, and the reason for Parker's relative anonymity as a "name" director becomes apparent; the film firmly comes first.

An Ideal Husband has been some time coming to fruition and it's easy to dismiss the project at first as a very late starter in the Wilde centenary celebrations - the more so since there is another British film version of the same play, directed by William P Cartlidge and starring James Wilby and Trevyn McDowell - that is vying for distribution (Parker's film is tied in with US powerhouse Miramax).

"This sort of thing happens a lot," says Parker of the double-up. "Usually when you hear about another production you are already quite advanced. I think I heard about it when we had sent the script to some actor and the agent said, `Which Ideal Husband is it?' But they are very different. Mine is period and the other is modern so some people might be interested to compare the two."

Parker says he comes from "a culture that is essentially a literary one" and that "obviously Wilde is a part of that" - but that despite Husband being a period drama, he is aiming to break new ground. "Actors like Julianne Moore and Laurence Fishburne help me break it even more - because they don't even know these heavy literary references. They are just being themselves and bringing a completely new approach to things. Julianne is tremendous. She had never done a period piece before and she's fantastically witty and subtle, bringing a different culture and consciousness to the adaptation."

Authenticity obviously means a lot to Parker. It was shared belief in the principle that marked one of his earliest artistic collaborations - with the revered Hellraiser author/film-maker Clive Barker in the early 1980s. Barker - whose vision has helped to redefined the horror genre in the US - met Parker when the latter was only 19, the year before he took up a place at Cambridge University. Parker auditioned for Barker's theatre group The Dog Company where the affable playwright was "benign dictator". "Oliver was from the beginning an incredibly driven guy," Barker says fondly from his base in LA. "He was relatively young when I met him - I was in my late twenties at the time - but he didn't strike us as being immature at all. Here came this very energetic, incredibly handsome young man, with this amazing willpower and drive. I saw in him some sharp, great ambition, and maybe he saw in me someone with an imagination he could relate to. We were mutually empowering. I think we were all in love with him a little bit for a while."

It's proof not only of their enduring friendship but also of Parker's wilful desire to try something new that one of his next projects will be a stage version of Hellraiser. Trying to stage a cult horror film is hardly a commercial choice for a director whose cinematic career is on the verge of going orbital. Even Parker admits his project is a "curious idea". "But I thought, I want to do the opposite of what I'm doing," he says. "In other words, take it from cinema and put it on the stage. There is a whole style of drama that is more powerful if you are physically there. It's like watching magicians - it's never as exciting on the telly as it is live, when you actually see something in front of your eyes as a group. It's exhilarating and allows for all sort of reactions. I love the idea of a horror film on stage, frightening people."

Unlike Othello and An Ideal Husband, both of which Parker adapted himself, Hellraiser is being scripted by an unnamed friend while Parker keeps an executive eye on the developments. Barker, who most recently executive- produced Gods and Monsters (the story of horror guru James Whale) is delighted by Parker's involvement. "I've no doubts it can work with Olly as benign dictator this time!" he says. "He's a first-rate director because he has a great gift for moving people. That desire, to make them laugh or cry, might sound obvious but it's actually bloody difficult. You have to really want to do it." Oliver Parker clearly does.

`An Ideal Husband' opens on 16 April