Mr. Burton, the upcoming biopic focusing on the early life of legendary Welsh actor Richard Burton, recently held a special Q&A screening at BAFTA Piccadilly as part of Wales Week ahead of its April 4th release. The intimate discussion revealed the decade-long journey to bring this story to the screen, the challenges of portraying such iconic Welsh figures, and the passion that drove the creative team.

A Script Ten Years in the Making

The project’s origins stretch back over a decade, as Talfan explained: “I think like like all projects, it starts with the script and over 10 years ago I met Tom Buller, brilliant Welsh novelist and Josh Hams, brilliant producer and co-writer of the project as well… It was an absolutely beautiful script, and from a producing point of view, the moment you read words like that, you want to make it.”

Director Marc Evans joined early in the development process, drawn to the project by the quality of the script and a desire to engage with “some part of our DNA, the Burton story.” However, like many independent films, the journey from script to screen was lengthy – approximately six years from initial meetings to production.

Kate Burton’s Endorsement

In a touching addition to the project, Richard Burton’s daughter Kate Burton became involved less than a year before filming. She shared:

“I actually got involved… a long time ago, but less than a year ago, Angela John, who is here tonight, who’s written an incredible biography of Philip Burton, my grand… one of my grandfathers… and she told me about this project and put me in touch with Ed and literally from the moment we connected, I was so thrilled. I read the script really fast on the train going to Wales, and I loved it so much I said, ‘Go for it’.”

When asked if she requested any changes to the script, Kate simply replied, “No.” According to Evans, Kate was a dream partner on this project,” showing her complete endorsement of the filmmakers’ vision.

Capturing Richard Burton: Harry Lawtey’s Approach

Harry Lawtey (Joker: Folie à Deux, The Pale Blue Eyes) faced the daunting challenge of portraying the young Richard Burton, a role requiring him to chart the actor’s development over several years. When asked about his process for marking the changes in his character, especially since they didn’t shoot chronologically, Lawtey provided a thoughtful explanation:

“I think a lot of it to some extent, happens by osmosis; when you turn up on the day, the clothes helped. I think this was the first time I worked on a job where it’s very much been a kind of exterior-to-interior process, which wouldn’t normally be the way I go about things. The makeup team did a realistic job. I think I looked younger than I thought was possible.”

The voice proved particularly crucial to Lawtey’s performance. He worked with dialect coach William Connick and spent countless hours immersed in Burton’s recordings:

“I worked with a really fantastic lauded dialect coach called William Connick, who was very helpful and we had a lot of early sessions. He was very instructive and really brilliant to work with… the rest of it was just a fact-finding mission for myself really. Sometimes people send me clips of Richard Burton as if I haven’t seen every single one. Like ‘have we found this one?’ Yeah, I’ve seen that one as well. So just hours and hours just watching him, listening to him and playing things over and over again.”

Lawtey further explained the importance of voice to his characterisation:

“The voice in some ways is everything—it’s a film about voice and how instructive that is to one’s identity in the way they kind of experience the world and the way the world experiences them in turn. And the voice was everything for me… I didn’t in any way feel qualified or ready to play this role and play this person until I felt some level of assurance in that department.”

He acknowledged the audacity of “some English lad” portraying “the iconic, quintessential Welshman,” and described finding Burton’s voice as the key marker for distinguishing between younger and older versions of the character: “The voice is the key marker for that, you know. I would come to work and go, okay, it’s this voice rather than this one. And everything else kind of flows from there, I think.”

Once cast, he immersed himself in Burton’s work, but with a unique approach:

“When I got this role, I drove into the back catalogue, and I actually watched it in reverse, because I thought the films that would be most pertinent to me would be the ones in his earliest career, but I wanted to watch them all, so I just start at the end and made my way through. And I got it, you know. You just get it. There are certain moments in certain films where he burns on the screen. And there’s an outline where his presence is. And it’s exciting and invigorating and aggressive and vulnerable.”

He also found Burton’s diaries invaluable: “Reading about him, reading his diaries… It’s just a gift, you know. I had his voice in my head for months. And I’d read things, and I’d find this strange sort of kinship with something that he said.”

Toby Jones as Philip Burton

Toby Jones, who portrays Philip Burton (the teacher who became Richard’s mentor and whose surname he adopted), approached the role with characteristic thoughtfulness. When asked if Philip Burton “leapt out” at him from the script, Jones shared his philosophical approach to character work:

“I have been asked that question with other characters that I’ve played, and there’s a great quote by Peter Brooke that I read when I was about 19. He said, often when an actor reads a part, they read the script and they go, ‘Ah, I know this guy. I know this woman. I know them. It’s part of me that’s gonna play that.’ He said it’s the wrong way to look at it. It’s the inverse of it.”

Jones elaborated on his method:

“So I try to remember that, but I will get just a little tiny bit of that person, but you have to almost imagine the character who is way bigger than yourself and try to reach different bits of this person and try to suggest dimensions of the character that maybe the script doesn’t show… I try to guard against going, ‘Oh, I know this guy.'”

He maintained a certain humility about his understanding of Philip Burton, stating:

“Every day I’d go back [to set] again and try to relate in some way to the character, try and get some new aspect of the character. But I don’t know that I ever felt that I knew Philip Burton.”

Kate Burton, who actually knew Philip Burton in real life, paid both actors a significant compliment, telling them, “You have captured both of their essence and their love for each other.”

Visual Aesthetic and Sound

Director Marc Evans provided fascinating insights into his visual approach for capturing “a Wales that no longer exists.” When asked about his visual aesthetic, the film depicts stark smoke billowing from the coal mines since defunct – ‘the Wales that no longed exists’. Evans explained:

“We didn’t have a lot of budget. So we were interested in what used to be called glass shots in 1940 films, where they used to paint in those old films – they used to paint a wide architectural shot, and then they’d get on with the drama.”

He connected this aesthetic choice to the film’s thematic concerns:

“In a way, this is a film that represents a world that disappeared in so many ways. Having to get rid of a bit of oneself to become somebody else, this paradox from a Welsh experience, is what interested me. So it was like looking for a lost world and a lost period and trying to honour that.”

This approach led to a careful balance between establishing shots and intimate character work: “The wide shots of the world that’s gone established the setting and then we zoned in with these guys.”

The film’s score, composed by John Hardy (coincidentally the nephew of Tim Hardy, a friend of Richard Burton), was recorded with the National Orchestra of Wales in record time. Evans noted that they wrapped filming on August 9th and delivered the completed film by December 13th, calling it “certainly the fastest turnaround I’ve ever been across.”

The Filming Experience

Shot over six weeks in the summer of 2024, the production faced challenges including intense heat. Working with limited resources, production designer Tim Declair built a miner’s cottage set “for about 40 quid” in an empty room when they couldn’t afford a studio.

When asked about his favourite scene or location to shoot, Toby Jones described a particularly memorable scene shot on “the hottest day of the year” that explored the complex nature of Philip Burton’s relationship with the young Richard Jenkins (Burton’s birth name):

“Well, I really enjoyed when I first read the script, I thought, wow, what’s interesting about playing this character is that from a contemporary point of view – it’s this RAF guy whose behaviour is apparently potentially extremely inappropriate. I enjoyed playing the scene in the bedroom, in our pyjamas, because it wasn’t just about me playing the character and Harry playing his character, but there was an atmosphere in the room where there’s danger, and that’s fantastic when you’re filming, because as an actor, you often have to generate that yourself.”

A Labour of Love

Throughout the Q&A, the passion and dedication of everyone involved were evident. Ed Talfan spoke candidly about the challenges and rewards of independent filmmaking:

“When you’re trying to raise money for an independent film, it’s like a horror, really – trying to raise the money. But one of the things that keeps you going when you think the project is falling apart or you can’t raise the money is the prospect of working with people like Toby and Mark and Harry. One of the greatest joys of my career was watching these guys work on a daily basis. It was a pleasure to wake up, a pleasure to go to set, a pleasure to stand at the monitor and think, ‘God, we’re making this with these guys.’

As “Mr. Burton” prepares for its April 4th release, it stands as a testament to the collaborative spirit of independent filmmaking and a tribute to one of Wales’ most celebrated cultural icons. The film not only traces Richard Burton’s formative years and the teacher who helped shape his future but also explores themes of identity, voice, and the paradox of having to “get rid of a bit of himself to become somebody else” – a journey that resonates with the Welsh experience more broadly.

For newcomers to Richard Burton’s work, Kate Burton offered thoughtful recommendations on which films to start with:

“The Last Days of Dolwyn, which was directed and written by and starred Emlyn Williams, Look Back in Anger, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and also The Taming of the Shrew, because in The Taming of the Shrew, he is having the time of his life. It’s a comedy and dad didn’t get to do many comedies because he was such a brilliant dramatic actor, but he was one of the funniest human beings on earth. And also his final movie, 1984.

With stunning visuals, meticulous performances, and a deeply researched script, “Mr. Burton” promises to introduce a new generation to Richard Burton’s remarkable story while celebrating the teachers and mentors who help shape his extraordinary talents.