The 'One Chance' Director Talks About the Yahoo Screen Premiere and the Real-life Viral Sensation Behind the Movie
Yahoo and the Weinstein Group are offering a brand new way to see a movie. Yahoo Screen recently premiered the studio’s One Chance, which will play exclusively on Yahoo before the film opens theatrically around the country on Oct. 10. Directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada), the uplifting biopic tracks the real-life story of a mild-mannered mobile-phone salesman Paul Potts (James Corden), who became a viral video sensation after his knock-out 2007 opera performance on Britain’s Got Talent. Frankel got on the phone with Yahoo Movies to discuss the film and its free online premiere. Click here to watch the entire movie, which will screen through Oct. 10.
Did One Chance actually begin with the viral YouTube video?
Yes. My twins said: ‘Dad, you have to see this!’ it was one of the first huge viral video clips. It was so rare to watch a man’s life change before your eyes in two minutes. For the first minute of the Britain’s Got Talent clip, Paul Potts is a chubby guy with bad teeth, a cheap suit, and a lousy haircut. He was appealing because he was nervous and shy and you expected him to bomb out — and then he was being judged by Simon Cowell, the most astute and vicious of judges. Then, the moment Paul opened his mouth, a different person emerged.
Did you immediately know this was a movie you’d make?
I saw the clip, like a hundred million other people and, like everybody, I forwarded it to friends. It never occurred to me that it would become a movie. The fact that it was opera moved me. It takes a lot of craft. You’re not a guy singing in the shower that nails it with a Beatles song. The movie could have been called Last Chance because he really might never have sung again.
The real-life Paul Potts at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival
Did you meet Paul Potts before you made the movie?
I went to Wales and met Paul. And I asked where his love of opera and singing came from because there was no one in his family, not his mother, not his father. He felt a calling toward singing opera that brought him some measure of peace. He was a bit of an outcast. He was bullied. He’s an oddball. He found a refuge in the music.
Has his success post Britain’s Got Talent radically changed his life?
Before, he led a troubled existence. His life changed if in no other way than because he got to live his dream. Here’s this guy that literally sang in the shower who got to sing in front of millions of people around the world — and the Queen. Now, he’s financially secure, lives in a nice big house, and is still married to this wonderful woman that he loves deeply. He doesn’t worry about money and he gets to sing — what more in life do you want?
James Corden as Potts in ‘One Chance’
The British actor playing Potts, James Corden, has had some major success, but still isn’t a household name in America.
When I met James he was the biggest star in London on the West End Stage for One Man, Two Guvnors and became the biggest star in New York when he won the Tony Award for that role. He is a remarkable talent and an incredible showbiz jack of all trades. He’ll be incredibly popular as a TV host when he takes over The Late Late Show for Craig Ferguson, and I hope he’ll be able to use it as a springboard in television and movies. The dream was that he would emerge from this movie the same way Paul Potts emerged from Britain’s Got Talent.
How has the way we’ve watched movies changed since your film The Devil Wears Prada was released nearly a decade ago in 2006?
That movie was spectacularly successful in theaters, and yet a lot of women watched it on cable. The ability to watch movies over and over is one of the wonderful things about this generation of technology. So, I think it has become a different experience…. At the end of the day, movies and great entertainment are about stirring emotions in the audience, and if people can watch One Chance on Yahoo Screen and have their emotions stirred, then my work was a success.
