The man behind the throne

Given how well his film has been received, GQ.com half expects to find him in the rooftop hot tub. Tom Hooper, the director of The King's Speech, is sitting in Soho's Sanctum Hotel discussing the movie which has received 14 BAFTA nominations and 12 Oscar nods. Here he talks exclusively about outfitting royalty, Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes and what he hopes Madonna will bring to the Wallis Simpson story…

GQ.com: Jenny Beavan told us you were heavily involved in the costumes. What were you particularly keen to get right?
Tom Hooper: The real King George VI looked slight, small and awkward. Colin is a strapping lad of 6' 3", has worked with Tom Ford and when he puts on clothes tends to look pretty buff. The hardest thing is that you're trying to create that silhouette with Colin that implies that lack of confidence, anxiety in the body and almost a sort of geekiness that the real king has. Yet of course at the same time royal tailoring would have been the best in the world and he would have looked impeccable. We looked at whether there were tiny adjustments to the fit that we could make to see whether we could get the impression that they were well-tailored but worn uneasily. The other thing was my obsession with avoiding too much "royals dressed as you think they must be". The classic example is the opening of the film, where [screenplay author] David Seidler, understandably, had Colin getting dressed as king in a feather hat and a sword, epaulettes and medals where he was taken to Wembley to meet his father, who was also dressed in sword and feather hat. Then I found some photos of the actual event and he was just wearing a black overcoat, a grey suit and a black hat - like every other man in the stadium. You wouldn't know he was royal. Working with Jenny to avoid too much bling was really important. We made a very conscious effort to put him in greys and blacks, almost funereal colours. I can't tell you how excited I was - it meant he was an everyman figure. Out of that came this image of him up against a dirty brick wall looking scared out of his wits. I wanted to meet him as a man first and a royal second.

Ricky Gervais once gave you advice on how to cope with awards ceremonies. How do you think he got on at the Globes?
Our jaws were on the table. I can't tell you if it was more shocking in the room or more shocking on TV but you have to understand that Los Angeles has a surprisingly polite culture. I would say LA is more polite than London - it's a very careful place. People talk a lot in code. It takes a while as an Englishman, or a half-Australian/Englishman, to work this out. Particularly in that context, I thought it was really full on. But it was hilarious. What it did was it gave this massive shot of adrenaline to this awards show. Everyone was totally present in that room at the end of the introduction. That's what his job is. I think he has to be credited for being brave enough to say some of the stuff he said. But I'm a great fan of his - we got to know each other on the awards circuit. I was at the Golden Globes three years in a row with my HBO work [John Adams and Elizabeth I] and I got to know Ricky then. I think it's great that he can be so brave and he's not scared.

How excited are you about the royal wedding?
We have been joking about whether Colin and I will get an invitation. That will tell us all we need to know about what the royal family think about the movie. Let's just say we haven't had an invitation yet

Your mother saw a reading of the King's Speech play before you did. Has she seen anything good recently and has Harvey Weinstein signed her up yet?
He bloody well should! No, disappointingly, because it would be rather nice if I could stop reading the endless scripts I get sent and just wait for my mum to be invited to another fringe theatre play reading. But unfortunately that is the only time in her life she has been invited to one so it could be a long wait.

At one time you were set to direct Thor. Are you excited about it?
Well, I'm very pleased I did The King's Speech. I'm intrigued to see it. I do think Kenneth Branagh has been given a very hard time. He had a spectacular early career as a director and I think people were very tough with him, particularly after Frankenstein. I'm intrigued to see what he's done with it partly because whenever you think about directing a film you end up running a version of it in your head. I've still got that version, so I'll go to the cinema and compare it.

Are you looking forward to Madonna's version of the Wallis Simpson story?
I was with the star, Abbie Cornish, in LA and she was very confident about it. It will be really interesting. It's kind of funny because it was the film I didn't want to do. I think the abdication story and the Wallis Simpson story is interesting but it's been well covered. No new information has arisen about it. All you can do is have a new angle. There are some wild angles out there - I've met with some people who claim that Wallis Simpson was a hermaphrodite, that Edward VIII was gay, that he was potentially a Nazi king, which frankly is ridiculous. There's the angle that she's much-maligned and there's the angle that she's an evil witch. But what's nice about my story is that it brings new information to light that no one knew. Literally we did that by finding a new primary source, the diaries, during the shoot. One of the reasons the film has so taken off is that no one knows the story. It's genuinely new. I think people enjoy finding out something genuinely new. It's not just a take, it's not a conspiracy theory, it's based on new primary source material about that king, which is very exciting.

Click here to read GQ's bluffer's guide to the Oscars

Tom Hooper is the head judge on the panel for the Done In 60 Seconds competition, giving amateur film makers the chance to share the red carpet alongside Hollywood stars at the Jameson Empire Awards on 27 March. jamesonwhiskey.com/DISS

Andy Morris

Andy Morris is the former editor of GQ.co.uk and a ten year veteran of GQ. Follow him on Twitter @iamandymorris.