Lost in London: star of Woody Harrelson’s live film says London traffic is their 'worst enemy'

Eleanor Matsuura will be acting in a live broadcast of one-take feature film
Challenging act: Eleanor Matsuura will be performing in Woody Harrelson's live film Lost in London
Alistair Foster18 January 2017

The star of a live film to be shot in one take on the streets of London says the cast’s worst enemy won’t be 2am revellers or fluffed lines — but the capital’s traffic.

Eleanor Matsuura stars in Lost In London, actor Woody Harrelson’s writing and directorial debut. It is based on the true story of how he ended up in a police cell on a night out in 2002.

In a world first, the film — which will be shot in the early hours of Friday morning — will be broadcast as it happens to more than 550 cinemas.

Matsuura plays Harrelson’s real-life wife, Laura. She said: “When I first read the script I thought it was hilarious. He is obviously an incredibly experienced comedian.

“Laura is amazing, she’s the best. She was incredibly generous with me. She said to me early on that I could have a free rein with the part and do what I want with it. It’s such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’ve never done anything like this before and we’re all loving that fact. Last night’s rehearsal was a bit stressful — we got to 7am and something went wrong and I began to think, ‘I’m starting to rue the day ...’”

Rehearsals have been taking place since December. For the past week they have moved to the streets around Holborn, Bloomsbury Square and Waterloo Bridge, where the final shoot will take place at 2am on Friday. The whole 100-minute movie will be shot by one camera in one take.

Matsuura, who has appeared in Sherlock and Doctor Who, added: “I was a little nervous as I know how people can be on the streets of London at 2am ... But that has not been a problem — yet. What’s much more difficult is the logistics. We visit places all around London and sometimes our worst enemy is the London traffic. It can set back the entire movie.

Woody Harrelson and his wife Laura Louie 
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

“We have to improvise and fill the time in if anything goes wrong. We had one scene where traffic caused a delay of 10 to 15 minutes and the actors had to improvise for that long — and that is a very long time to improvise for! It’s not ideal. It’s do-able but it just means you have to be completely alert, alive and in character. So I think traffic could be our worst enemy.”

Films to look forward to in 2017

1/10

Harrelson was arrested when he was in London making his West End debut in On An Average Day in 2002. After one of the performances he visited Chinawhite and was later chased by police after a fracas involving a black cab.

The movie, which also stars Owen Wilson and Willie Nelson, will be broadcast live to more than 550 cinemas in the US as well as the Picturehouse Central in Soho.

Asked if the cast were nervous, Matsuura replied: “Oh my God yes! I can’t even compute that it’s going out to so many cinemas in the US, and one in London. It feels like the opening night of a theatre show. There is no chance for any retakes.

“But because it’s live, I think people will be coming to watch in the spirit of that. Rather than looking out for mistakes, I think they will be looking to see how we react to them.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in