By Peter N. Chumo II.

Steve Coogan

Philomena began with a photograph, specifically a photo that accompanied an article that actor-writer Steve Coogan (24 Hour Party People) read four years ago.  The 2009 story, titled “The Catholic church sold my child,” was published in the Guardian online and told the heartbreaking story of how Philomena Lee, an unwed, pregnant teenager in Ireland was forced to live in a convent for wayward girls and give up her child, a son who was sold to an American couple in 1955.  “The article moved me.  It touched me,” Coogan confesses, and he “wondered straightaway if there’d be a story in this.”  One of the clues to telling the story was the photo, which was of the journalist, Martin Sixsmith, and Philomena as an elderly lady laughing together on a bench.  Coogan immediately wondered “how I could marry those two things together, to bring some of the laughter into a traumatic story.”

Moreover, the photo further intrigued Coogan because it suggested that Martin and Philomena were “quite an odd couple.”  Coogan knew of Sixsmith’s reputation as a journalist and surmised that, given Philomena’s status as a retired nurse, “they would have very different backgrounds, so I thought that would make for good drama.”

The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, by Martin Sixsmith

Coogan was inspired to option Sixsmith’s book, which was not yet published.  The book would be called The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, and, as its title suggests, focuses on the life of Philomena’s child, Anthony (renamed Michael in America).  This, however, was not the story that Coogan wanted to tell, which meant that Sixsmith’s book alone would not be a big help in piecing together the relationship between Martin and Philomena and their search for her son.

Given his background in narrative comedy, Coogan “didn’t feel equipped to do it by myself from a technical point of view” although, from a creative standpoint, his own Irish Catholic background made him feel “familiar with the subject matter, familiar with the characters.  They seemed people I felt I knew.”

Thus, through his connections at the BBC, he met with Jeff Pope, head of factual drama at ITV in the United Kingdom, who has written screenplays based on real-life events.  They “clicked immediately and went on this journey together, writing this script,” Coogan recalls.  Their key decision was “to put Martin the journalist into the story,” which necessitated meeting both Martin and Philomena, who would be played by Judi Dench in the movie.

Judi Dench as Philomena Lee in Philomena

Coogan needed to learn about the characters and to gather anecdotal information about their relationship and the search for Philomena’s long-lost son.  “I would ask Martin simple things,” Coogan remembers.  “‘What was it like when you met her?  How did you feel when you met her?  What did you think?’  And he would just talk.  So it was very good in terms of looking at their characters and seeing things about them that would help.  You would find kernels of things and then grow something from that.”

For example, before researching Philomena’s story, Martin had been a political journalist who had recently been fired.  Researching an old lady’s tale of woe, a human-interest piece, was not the kind of story he was used to doing.  Coogan asked Martin if he felt sorry for himself when he got fired, to which he said that he did.  By digging a little further, Coogan discovered that, in investigating Philomena’s story, Martin “was out of his comfort zone.  And I knew that.  I felt I can use that, which is just him thinking he’s punching below his weight.  So he’s got a slightly patronizing attitude towards the whole thing and her.  He’s used to dealing with Tony Blair and high-end politicians, and he’s having to deal with this old Irish lady.  I liked that discombobulation.”  But finally, in seeing the trauma of Philomena’s loss of her child, Martin grew closer to Philomena, and Coogan recalls Martin admitting, “‘I quickly got over my own feelings of self-pity,’” which “helped inform the narrative.”

Steve Coogan as Martin Sixsmith in Philomena

For Coogan, there are “so many different genres” at work in the film, including the detective story, road movie, buddy movie, and even mother-son romance.  Coogan elaborates that “Martin of course is the same generation as her son and could easily be Philomena’s son.”  When, in one scene, he is worried about her and has to call her “mother” to gain access to her room, Coogan observes, “the audience also hopefully make that connection that in some ways he’s a surrogate son.”

As the research continued for the screenplay, Coogan found that he was also conducting “research for me as an actor.”  Initially, he was not sure that he would play Martin, but, as the process went along, he found the screenplay taking on some unexpected layers in which his own experiences were factoring into his writing.  For example, one day when he was interviewing Philomena, they were watching footage of Anthony, and, Coogan recollects, “she grabbed my hand on one occasion and said, ‘I did love him, you know.’”  Coogan used that real-life event in the scene at the salad bar, “but the reality of that moment,” he points out, “is that it happened to me and not Martin.”

Coogan also visited the convent at Roscrea where Philomena lived and talked to one of the sisters there, and, in his screenplay, that “became the basis for the first meeting where the nuns are friendly but not helpful.”  Coogan still has footage on his BlackBerry of himself walking around the abbey and talking to Pope during their “fishing expedition,” as Coogan calls it.  “In some ways,” he reflects, “I retraced the steps of Martin as a journalist.  So the process of writing it was quite organic.  In some ways, I had already put Martin’s shoes on in the writing of the film.”

The Sacred Heart Convent in Roscrea

Coogan ultimately committed to playing the role of Martin to protect his work as a writer.  “I don’t want anyone else to screw up the delivery of these lines, and I know how they should be delivered,” he realized.  And, “as the writing process went on,” Coogan explains, “I started to put more of myself into Martin.”  For example, the real Martin Sixsmith is not a lapsed Roman Catholic, but Coogan is, and using this character trait for the movie’s Martin creates a “good contrast with the ongoing faith of Philomena.”

The movie does not shy away from the dicey subject of the nuns’ behavior in tearing children away from their mothers, but Coogan believes that, for a screenwriter, “if something becomes a problem, you make it part of the solution.  So you’re anxious about the fact that you’re doing something about evil nuns, well, have the character say that in the script.  Have the character address the problem that’s bothering you as a writer.”  In effect, Coogan could “express my anger through that character [Martin] with the Church” while, at the same time, “show that there are people like Philomena who dignify that faith and set an example to us all.  Then you figure out a way to resolve the film, and the forgiveness aspect is something we can work towards at the end.”

The real Philomena Lee