6. The Original Philomena Story Reduced Him To Tears
Coogan explained to The Guardian in 2013 that Philomena was a passion project of his. The film, directed by Stephen Frears, tells the story of Philomena Lee, a retired Irish nurse on a mission to find her adult son, sold to adoptive parents by nuns nearly 50 years before. Coogan read Lee's story online in 2009 at a moment when he was casting about for a weightier project; and the story reduced him to tears. He said: "I've got this real anger against people who think the best way of dealing with the world is through sardonic eyes. It's a depressing, defeatist view of humanity. And I wanted to do something that was sincere, that was not smart and clever for its own sake. I had this notion that the most radical, avant-garde thing I could do was to talk about love. There's nothing that will make an intellectual's buttocks clench more than to talk about love."
I love Stephen King and music festivals; I eat my toast upside down; I daydream about getting married probably a bit too much; and I wish every day for a pet sausage dog puppy (who never materialises – sob).
