Michael Apted has had a pretty prolific career as a Hollywood film director, with credits including Nell, The World is Not Enough and, recently, Chasing Mavericks, starring Gerard Butler. But he's also currently the man behind the 7 UP documentary series, which began profiling 14 seven year-olds in Britain in 1964, and revisits them every seven years. We chatted with him about the series' most recent installation, 56 UP.
Which participants do you think have surprised you the most so far?
I suppose Neil has had the most spectacular ride. He seemed so full of promise at seven, and then at 21 he was homeless, and at 42 he kind of regained himself. He's had the most roller coaster life, I think. At 56, Sue, one of the three working-class East End of London girls who started off in fairly unpromising circumstances, now runs the administration of Parliament University College of London. That's pretty spectacular.
The participants who seem empowered stayed empowered, although Bruce had a big class shift and went to work in the East End of London and Bangladesh. Then he went back, in a sense, into the more empowered class, so he's done a couple of curves in his life. Not many of the other participants have been that socially mobile. When you look at him at 7, with his Wellington boots in the countryside, you probably couldn't have anticipated his success.
What were some of the big differences you noticed with the participants since 49 UP?
It seems to me, without giving the whole game away, that they seem somewhat more content at 56 with their lot. I don't believe they'll stay this way. I believe as they get older, panic will set in when they confront mortality and retirement, etc. There seemed to be a fair amount of anxiety and uncertainty in 49, so I was surprised by 56. I thought when I started it might be rather depressing, but it didn't turn out like that, despite the fact that everybody's been beaten up by the economic situation. This in some ways has been the most overtly political [film]. There were a lot of economic crises when we were doing 35 UP, but they were younger and it didn't seem so important. At 56, when there's an economic crisis, you look at the future of your pension and all that and it gets very scary.
A number of the participants commented on the invasive nature of the series and said that they weren't being portrayed in an accurate light, or that the camera only captured snippets of their personality and put that forth as exemplary of their whole selves. Did you feel that the participants were being shown as multi-faceted enough on screen?
I agree with them. How can I do a life in eight minutes? But I thought Nick answered that very well in 56 UP. "It's not a portrait of me," but it's a shorthand portrait of a group of people. I think it all comes down to a matter of trust between them and me, and for all their complaints they still come back, so they are clearly not outraged by it, although they might say they are. None of them have ever dropped out because of being misrepresented, and as you know, all but one are in it again now, so the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I think it's good that they should air their objections and that there should be a discussion and that I should be transparent about it and not just hide it.
We now live in an era where reality TV rules the airwaves, and everybody lives very public lives via things like the Internet and social media. Do you think a series like 7 UP would be at all successful if it had begun, say, ten years ago?
I believe that this kind of series will never happen again, but because of the whole economic setup of the industry. Companies don't stay in business long to commit to something as long-term as this. When I started this in the early 60's, there were three channels in the United Kingdom, so it was easier to support this financially. But I don't believe you could ever get it going in this economic climate. I'd say you're right, you wouldn't be able to do this sort of thing in this day and age for a number of reasons, like the reason you mentioned and the financial state of the entertainment industry.
The participants all vary in terms of class, but there's not a lot of diversity of any other kind on the show in terms of race or sexuality, and there are only four female participants. Does the sampling more accurately reflect the sensibilities of a Britain of 1964?
That's precisely it. It was a sign of the times, and I can't beat myself or get beaten up about it, because that was England in 1964. The fact that society has changed is itself of great interest. I'm very disappointed that I wasn't more prescient, that I didn't use more of an ethnic cross-section and more women, but we were just looking at England at that moment in time and that was that moment in time. [In 1964] there was no question of a women being prime minister in 15 or 20 years. It was inconceivable. 7 UP was just one film, one moment in British History.
Why do you think this series has been so successful? Do you think that viewers identify with the participants at a certain period in time, and then enjoy watching and growing with them or if they're young, getting a glimpse of what their own futures might be like?
All of the above. I think what's powerful about it is that you do identify with it, because it's a real history and a real journey. I like to call it the heroism of everyday life. The series is about things that that we all have to deal with. It's not about fantasy, it's about reality; how can you resist that? I don't mean that you identify with everybody or every period in the film, but once you connect to it then you've connected to it. Over the years I haven't lost the audience. There is a connection that an audience draws with certain elements of the film that that's what keeps them interested in it.
Do you see the series continuing on indefinitely?
I think so. I always had two conditions for contiuing: one, that enough of them stayed aboard that i wasn't having to explain why everybody wasn't there. I think people missing it somehow spoils the whole thing. The other was if I suddenly sensed that the audience was fed up with it, and that hasn't happened either. Those are the two tests that I set myself, to keep it going under those two conditions, and so far we've achieved that.
56 UP is now playing at IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue (at West Third Street) in Greenwich Village; 212-924-7771
