Saint Sting

He was once lead singer of punk group Gutterboy. He waited tables. He modelled, but it’s his latest reincarnation that suits Dito Montiel best. A Guide to Recognising Your Saints, his debut feature film, based on his novel of the same name has been clocking up a swag of awards wherever it screens. It first wowed audiences at Sundance earlier this year, and more recently at the Venice International film Festival. It’s been compared to the masterly Mean Streets and Do the Right Thing because it pulses with a raw authenticity that recalls the work of Scorsese and Lee. The strength of the film lies in the fact that Montiel writes about what he knows, and offers up a confronting, often brutal look at his violent youth in the late 80’s in Queens when he and his friends ruled the streets of Astoria. The film stars veterans like Robert Downey Jr and Diane Weist, as well as gifted newcomers Channing Tatum (She’s the Man) and Shia la Beouf. Sting (who executive produced the film) and his wife Trudie Styler, (producer), were both at Venice where Gaynor Flynn caught up with the dynamic duo.

What was the genesis of this project?

Trudie Styler: My journey with the film began five years ago on September 10th where Robert Downey Jr brought this book to me written by a very impressive young wild guy called Dito Montiel and I optioned the book. There are many stories in the book but this one to me is the story that has the most cinematic appeal and Dito had never written a screenplay before. So I brought him to England and he worked with Catherine Butler who’s an exceptional script doctor then we would go to New York and have a think tank workshop with Robert where we really hammered out the nuances of the film. But it’s been a very long process. We lost our financing three times.

Which is where Sting comes in right?

Styler: It was significantly on Dito’s birthday that I came to Sting and said look we know we’ve got a great film we just haven’t had people who are very good at keeping their promises. He said very simply ‘I believe in you let’s go’. So this was really produced by a group of friends, my best friend Sting, and Bobby Sieger who’s a family friend. Charlie Corwin from Original Media who had a big success with The Squid and the Whale matched our funding and away we went.

Have you produced anything before?

Sting: I’ve never actually financed a movie before even in part and its quite easy really, you hope for the best and trust that your producer will get your money back eventually. But I’ve known about this project since the beginning. I read the script and liked it very much and on the surface it looks like a story about kids growing up in New York and it’s kind of violent and rough but it’s also about some very heartfelt issues. It’s a very emotional film so it ended up the way I wanted it to.

Besides contributing the money, what else did your role involve?

Sting: Supporting the real producer, and making sure she gets her way. I was very much in the background and if I thought things weren’t going Trudie’s way I would always get on the phone and threaten people with violence because that’s my job. (laughs)

How would you describe the experience of working together on this film. Would you do it again?

Sting: I think if I get my money back on this one I’ll feel justified in doing it again (laughs).

Is this the first time you worked together?

Trudie Styler: No. We did a movie called The Grotesque together, we were actors and producers on that film but it’s always a good experience. We get on very well and it’s always great to have an excuse to spend more time together not less because when he’s on the road I’m really based at home with the children so this is a great way for us to see more of each other.

The film has been compared to Mean Streets, Kids, Do the Right Thing. Are those the movies that inspire you as well?

Sting: I think its an authentic film. Its this boys story, he lived this life he didn’t just come in there and observe something, and so the film breathes a kind of authenticity that you couldn’t get otherwise and I think it probably could become a movie like Mean Streets where it defines that era that time and those people very beautifully. And if it’s successful it will become an icon.

Can you talk about the cast you managed to assemble?

Styler: Obviously we were extremely fortunate to get Chazz (Palminteri), Diane (Wiest) and of course Robert. Then this young boy Channing Tatum came along and I was very vocal in wanting him cast I thought that he had a complete light in his eye that was extremely compelling, and I think Channing has a vulnerability in him which is what was needed for Antonio, the anti-hero.

Did you identify in any way with the lead character?

Sting: I’m from Newcastle. It’s not much like Queens but I suppose that yeah I left my family. I left my friends to seek my fortune in a big city. I haven’t been back very much. Yeah there are some elements of it.

The film is set in the 80’s, what feelings come to mind when you think about the 80’s? Do you miss The Police?

Sting: No I don’t miss the Police at all. I’ve never been happier. That period for me, the early 80’s I was a big pop star so I had a different kind of reality at that time, not necessarily a real sense of
reality (laughs).

Why don’t you miss those times do you think?

Sting: I have a low threshold for boredom so I like to keep challenging myself and doing new things.

Have you thought of producing before?

Sting: Not really no. I mean I’ve dabbled a little bit we’ve done a few things before but this is kind of serious and to bring a film to the Venice film Festival or Sundance as a producer is exciting and a new experience for me and I must say that when I first saw my name up there as a producer I got a thrill. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that. I’ve had my name in lights a lot but this felt kind of grown up and I thought yeah, a real job and I’m proud of that.

What brought you originally to the movie business?

Styler: Acting was the thing. I’d been an actor for a long time. So I started out as an actress and I went to the Old Vic theatre school in Bristol I was a theatre and repertory actress, Shakespearian actress and did a bunch of TV and films and then when I had two children I decided to be a producer.

Sting you’ve also acted but you haven’t done anything recently. Not interested?

Sting: Its not that I’m not interested its just that I’m just very busy making music and acting is something I never really had an ambition to do it just happened by accident. I tend to just fall into these situations and try and learn something and I also had fun doing it but its not my passion. I’m not burning with desire to do a film and some people are so I figure that I should just let them do it. I’m burning with passion to sing.

What drove you to try acting in the past?

Sting: You’re given opportunities as a rock star, to travel to meet the Dalai Lama to meet the Pope all this crazy stuff. People offer you movies to see what happens, I have enough adventure in me to try things
and I think I’ve made about a dozen movies some of them are good, some of them are terrible, some of them are indifferent but I’ve always had fun doing it and I don’t’ regret it but its never been my passion. Its
never had this idea ‘god one day I’ll have an Oscar’, I won’t.

I have to ask, do you ever use your real name?

Sting: Well I’ve had the name Sting longer than I’ve had any other name since I was 18, you do the maths, I can’t work it out. So that’s my name, It’s a silly name but you get use to it. People know me as Sting I mean it would seem very self important to say I’m now calling myself this. People know who I am, its just a label.

Interview by Gaynor Flynn

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A Guide to Recognising your Saints

Director: Dito Montiel
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Shia Le Beouf, Channing Tatum, Chaz Plaminteri, Diane Wiest
Release: Nationally on 16 November 2006
Rated: MA 15+

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