Preview: Body of Lies
by Evening Gazette
IT WAS just one scene, in one of George Clooney’s less successful movies but it made a big difference to Mark Strong’s career!
In fact, you could almost say it’s transformed it, turning him from a well respected British actor into an international movie star.
His single scene in Syriana was extremely memorable and, career- wise, propelling.
“As the head of the Lebanese secret service, I had to do unspeakably awful things to George’s fingernails and the scene seemed to capture people’s attention,” remembers 45-year-old Mark with a slightly sheepish grin on his face.
“It led to me getting a part alongside Robert DeNiro in the movie Stardust and now this.”
The “this” in question is BODY OF LIES, a big-budget thriller set in the Middle East but filmed on location in Morocco.
The posters for the movie might bleat about the contributions of those two megastars Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio but Londoner Mark has almost as much screen time as those two. Mark makes a huge impression as Hani, a suave and sophisticated Middle Eastern leader keen to see that his country doesn’t become a hiding place for terrorists.
“He’s not the kind of guy you would want to cross. He’s strong- willed and powerful,” says Mark, who is married with two young sons. “And he’s part of what I consider to be an excellent movie.
“I’ve had the chance to appear in action-based, shoot ’em up, $200m pictures being shot in Los Angeles but I don’t want to do them.
“I don’t want to spend six months of my life making a film like that, sitting around thousands of miles from my family when my boys are back in England missing their dad.
“These are not intelligent scripts we are talking about here. They are designed to entertain and, while my agent in America says there is no shame attached to making an all-action film that’s low on intelligence and dialogue, it’s not for me at the moment.
“If you see me on screen in five years’ time, in a movie where I’m shootin’ ’em up and not saying very much, you’ll know I’ve changed my mind!”
Mark’s principles have allowed him to pick and choose his work to the point where his CV looks mighty impressive.
On TV, he is probably still best remembered as Tosker Cox in the acclaimed BBC drama Our Friends In The North but he has gradually developed a movie profile - first with small parts, such as the one in Syriana, and then bigger ones, culminating in Body Of Lies.
The life of Mark’s character here intertwines with that of American undercover agent Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) and CIA veteran Ed Hoffman (played by a chunky Russell Crowe). It’s the latter who masterminds American operations in The Middle East via his mobile phone and laptop back in America.
The film captures the zeitgeist - it’s about the kind of terrorists keen to disrupt life in the West - and will doubtless boost Mark’s standing in Hollywood still further.
Despite his Cockney accent and London upbringing, he hails from parents who were Austrian and Italian and that would surely make him a prime candidate for the hit BBC ancestry show Who Do You Think You Are?
