When Louise Brealey first joined the cast of “Brian and Charles,” she had no idea what a sensation the deadpan “love story” of sorts about a depressed inventor and his new “7-foot cabbage-loving robot” happened to be.
The movie, which opens in theaters Friday, is based on a 2017 short of the same name. Director Jim Archer and starring David Earl and Chris Hayward, they all returned for the feature, but Brealey didn’t realize the impact of the original.
“When I got the audition, I had no idea of the sort of cult around the short film. The first I heard was, luckily, after I’d done my recall,” Brealey, 43, told the Daily News. “Certainly in British comedy circles, it was something of a cult classic. And so I was very pleased to have only discovered that after I’ve done my recall. Otherwise, I think I’d have been far too nervous going in [laughs].”
The comedy sees Welsh inventor Brian eventually find success — both emotional and creative — when the robot he builds out of, among other things, a washing machine and mannequin head, actually results in the functional AI that is Charles. Afraid others will find out about his creation, Brian finds a lone human ally in Brealey’s Hazel, who inadvertently finds herself in a conversation with the robot.
American audiences are most likely to recognize Brealey from the series “Sherlock.” The film’s Hazel has faith in Brian much like Brealey’s Molly Hooper has in Sherlock Holmes, but there’s little more connective tissue between the two characters.
“She does look very similar. If a bit older,” joked Brealey. “There’s nothing arrested about Molly. Whereas with Hazel … there was something slightly stunted about her. You know, she dresses as sort of something between a child and a little old lady.
“She’s very much stuck,” she continued, pointing to the “vaguely abusive” relationship between Hazel and her mom, with whom she still lives. “And I think Brian and the feelings she has for Brian free her into a version of herself which might not be everybody’s idea of a fully realized life, but for Hazel, it frees her.”
The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, has an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Brealey believes audiences have responded so well to “Brian and Charles” — warmer than the “intensely bleak” short — because it’s an escape from the “hellscape fever dream” in which we’re currently living.
“We’ve all suffered a collective trauma and the world went totally t--s up,” she said.
And though there might not have been “a conscious attempt” to lighten the film from the and its message, Brealey believes the edit brought that tonal shift about.
“I think that’s one of the reasons it’s fast becoming the little film that could, because it’s chiming with something. I think it’s the same part of us that responded to ‘Ted Lasso,’” said Brealey. “There’s a sort of ... comfort. And it’s a simple world where love will out.”
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