Me and Orson Welles Character Card: George Coulouris (Ben Chaplin)

George Coulouris was born in Salford, England, in 1903 and educated at Manchester Grammar School and at Elsie Fogerty's Central School of Speech and Drama, where he was a contemporary of Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft. He made his stage debut at the Old Vic in 1926 and his Broadway debut three years later. He met Welles in 1936, who cast him as Mark Antony in "Julius Caesar" and as financier Walter Parks Thatcher in "Citizen Kane". A regular on stage, on radio, on television and in more than 80 films on both sides of the Atlantic, he received an Oscar® nomination for "Watch on the Rhine" in 1943 and died in London in 1989.

Starring as the prickly and pessimistic English actor George Coulouris is Ben Chaplin. "In the States we think of him as a romantic comedy guy, but working with him on the film we got to see that he's got tremendous range as an actor" says producer Ann Carli. "He's amazing. I just said thank you for every arched eyebrow, thank you for every hurt and indignant pause – thank you for all of that."

Chaplin who surprisingly, despite his extensive stage experience, had never performed Shakespeare before, enjoyed the opportunity to recreate Welles' legendary production. "I listened to a recording of Coulouris doing the funeral oration – 'Friends, Romans, countrymen'. There comes a point where you're representing him, but you're not discovering the speech for yourself, you're not feeling it as an actor. In the end I thought I just had to go for it, as I would if I were doing it. And then I just slipped in bits of George, because nobody will know how he did it – most of the people who saw it are now dead. It's really strange, because you're playing a good actor acting – it would be a lot easier to play a bad one."

Ben Chaplin trained at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, leaving early to try his luck in the theatre. He has made regular appearances on stage throughout his career, winning an Olivier Award nomination for "The Glass Menagerie" and a Tony Award nomination for "The Retreat from Moscow". He made his feature film debut in James Ivory's "The Remains of the Day" and followed this up with Chris Menaul's "Feast of July", but his first great screen success was in the TV sit-com "Game On". His previous films include "Washington Square", "Lost Souls", "Birthday Girl", "Murder By Numbers", "The Touch", "Chromophobia" and "Stage Beauty". He has been directed by the legendary Terrence Malick three times, in "The Thin Red Line" and "The New World" and upcoming "Tree of Life." Recent films Chaplin starred in were "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep", which grossed more than $100 million and Oliver Parker's "Dorian Gray". He is currently shooting acclaimed screenwriter William Monahan's directorial debut "London Boulevard".

Based in real theatrical history, Me and Orson Welles is a romantic coming-of-age story about a teenage actor who lucks into a role in Julius Caesar as it's being re-imagined by a brilliant, impetuous young director named Orson Welles at his newly-founded Mercury Theater in NYC, 1937. The rollercoaster week leading up to opening night has the charismatic-but-sometimes-cruel Welles (impressive newcomer ChristIan McKay) staking his career on this risky production while Richard (Zac Efron) mixes with everyone from starlets to stagehands in behind-the-scenes adventures bound to change him. Claire Danes co-stars as Sonja Jones, the unapologetically ambitious assistant to Welles whom Richard tries to woo. Ben Chaplin plays Mercury Theater regular George Coulouris. Zoe Kazan, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly and James Tupper are among the talented ensemble cast.

The fast-moving screenplay by Holly Gent Palmo and Vince Palmo is based on Robert Kaplow's meticulously researched novel of the same name. Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater is at the helm of the CinemaNX and Detour Film production, opening nationally in select cities November 25, 2009.

Photos by Liam Daniel, Copyright CinemaNX Films One Ltd.