Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan was born on November 2, 1959 in Peterhead, Scotland, United Kingdom. His was a humble Catholic family with eight siblings, in which Peter was number six. His mother was a nurse and his father was a laboratory technician, and Peter’s childhood was not a happy one due to his mother’s alcoholism. The complicated family situation pushed him to spend part of his time on the street, integrated into a gang, or to work as a “bouncer” in pubs. In any case, his life was not definitively twisted, and he was able to go to the University of Glasgow to study history of economics and drama. Just as he was beginning his studies, he received the news of his father’s death from lung cancer. The student days seem to have been very stressful, as Mullan has recounted that he suffered a nervous breakdown, so many hours of activity occupied his day.

Mullan was attracted to filmmaking, to the point that he tried to enter the National Film School, but when he failed, he took the alternative path of acting, where he had made his first steps as a teenager in a Christmas performance. He did not debut as an actor immediately, it was in 1988 when he began to move publicly on the tables of a theater. Also in that year he achieved some minor television work, and in 1990 he made his film debut with The Great Man , where he coincided with Liam Neeson . Things are clearly going little by little, but it is worth noting 1991 as a key year filmically for Mullan, because he finds a soul mate in Ken Loach and makes Riff-Raff with him.. Obviously the leading role he plays with him in 1998 in My Name Is Joe is juicier , since it won him the best actor award at Cannes. And of course, angry and denouncing films to his credit such as Las hermanas de la Magdalena (2020) and Neds (2010) are indebted to Loach’s way of doing things, apart from being very personal, with echoes of his hard youthful life. .

But it shouldn’t move so fast. When he is still beginning his professional career, in 1989, he marries Ann Swan , with whom he has three children, although they will end up separating. Mullan will take his first steps as a director filming shorts, while his acting career is consolidated by partnering with Danny Boyle in Open Grave (1994) and Trainspotting (1996). It is also presumable that he would be excited to shoot the multi-oscar winner Braveheart (1995) under the orders of Mel Gibson , since it dealt with the rebellion of his Scottish countryman William Wallace against the English king Edward I in the 13th century.

His rocky face and bulk, together with his strong character, make him ideal for guys with personality, sometimes brutal. After playing with the curious beliefs of Sherlock Holmes in A Fairy Tale ( Charles Sturridge , 1997), he looks impeccable in Miss Julie ( Mike Figgis , 1999), a careful adaptation of August Strindberg ‘s play , and in the film translation from a Thomas Hardy novel in Forgiveness ( Michael Winterbottom ). He will also come to the hair of being in the gangster Criminal and decent (2000) or in the terror of Brad Anderson in Session 9(2001).

His directorial debut is in 1998 with Orphans , which describes the reunion of four sisters after the death of their mother; Mullan’s lesser-known film as a director already hints at the type of stories he is interested in telling: family and the environment in which he grew up, he won’t talk about what he has no experience with; He has sometimes explained that it is not that he wants to direct, but that he has to direct, he feels that need. And although he has undeniable qualities as a director, his films are like a punch in the viewer’s stomach, they are certainly not the kind that brighten your day. Proof of this is Las hermanas de la Magdalena, which gives him the Golden Lion in Venice in 2002. The film will be terribly controversial due to the biased and visceral vision it gives of the Catholic Church, when describing the abuse suffered by orphans in a convent run by nuns. Neds (2010) is also very hard , where the protagonist is a teenager with a broken family, not lacking strange religious dream scenes, and an alcoholic character played by Mullan himself, undoubtedly inspired by his father. Although the filmmaker assures that it is not an autobiographical story, it seems clear that there is a lot of Mullan and his environment in the film.

As an actor, Mullan will add minor roles in commercial films of different types, such as Children of Men ( Alfonso Cuarón , 2006), The Last Legion (2007) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) ( David Yates , 2010). So in 2011, twenty years after his meeting with Loach, he has reached two important milestones in his career. His leading role in Tyrannosaurus , a terrible film by his fellow actor Paddy Considine , where he embodies a character that suits him, violent, cynical and out of everything, is memorable; because despite his brutality, he is definitely a human being. He has also done with Steven Spielberg War Horse .