When lonely Welsh inventor Brian (David Earl) finds a mannequin's head as he looks for raw material for new work, he unwittingly sets in motion the creation of his new best friend. BRIAN AND CHARLES is an unusual but ultimately life-affirming story about a man who builds a robot buddy. It allows us to see what happens when that robot, Charles, becomes his own person.
BRIAN AND CHARLES is the creative product of three minds: actors and writers David Earl and Chris Hawyard and director Jim Archer. We spoke to the trio to learn about how the movie is rooted in stand-up comedy, and how that comedy transformed into a short film. And, like Charles's own evolution into a unique being, that short film blossomed into this movie.
David Earl explains how he had been "performing Brian" live for years, and then "did an internet radio show, where members of the public would ring in and Brian was like the world's worst phone-in host." But eventual BRIAN AND CHARLES producer Rupert Majendie called in using computer-emulated speech to talk — and one of the voices was Charles. A bit was born, and then it expanded.
"We ended up performing these live gigs for a couple of years," says Chris Hayward, " where I'd be dressed as Charles, David would be Brian and Rupert would be controlling the voice at the back of the comedy club… we had a really good time with it even though a lot of times the audiences would be staring at us, just baffled wondering what we're doing."
For more of the character and story evolution, watch our full interview with the creators of BRIAN AND CHARLES:
BRIAN AND CHARLES open on June 17.
All images courtesy of Focus Features.