I couldn't figure out why Ivan kept getting interrupted by the automated voice telling him he had a call waiting. The first time it happened it seemed to have been from Donal who had to call Ivan again because, according to him, the call had been cut off.
After that, however, I kept hearing the automated message but Ivan never switched to any other pending call. Why is that?
If you read through the trivia, this is explained:
The BMW used in the film is installed with a "low fuel warning" alert and would make a noise whenever the car was running out of petrol. The noise disrupted Tom Hardy's performance during takes, but director Steven Knight kept the actor's frustrated reactions in the movie and substituted the car's noise with "you have a call waiting" instead.share
Thank you! It never occurred to me to read the trivia section. It's still pretty lame, in my opinion. Did the director think the audience wouldn't notice all those warnings and then the character never actually taking the calls?
shareI assumed it was Gareth (aka Bastard) calling to tell him not to talk to Donal and to have Donal answer Gareth's/the new Foreman's calls. Both Ivan and Donal were avoiding those calls. Thus, calls waiting but not answered.
shareI think you are looking at too simplistically. He could've asked the person on the person in the phone to hold a sec so he could take the other call. But he didn't want to take the call most of the time because he was in deep with each of them when the new call alert came in. As a Southern friend used to say, "I'm up to my a$$ in alligators! Call you later." The calls were intruding when he was trying to work out some really tough problems. In each call, when the signal interrupted it, things were at an extremely tense moment. His patience and emotional strength were wearing thin and the interruptions were extremely frustrating and trying. The director hit on the idea after filming to leave in all those very real reaction shots from Hardy, whose concentration was probably broken, when the petrel warning sounded. Hardy probably assumed the scene would have to be reshot, so small wonder he was frazzled and exasperated. The director improvisation-ally had the great instinct to leave Hardy's reaction shots in the scene, using the call waiting signal over the low petrel warning bing. Couldn't you just feel how crazy the intrusive calls waiting were making him.
shareWow, I'm surprised Hardy was actually driving. I assumed it would be on a tow truck surrounded by cameras.
sharei assumed it was for tension, to heighten the sense of the problems piling up on top of Ivan, one thing after another that all needed more attention than he could give stuck in his car on the motorway, hence his growing frustration, given the kind of orderly guy he seems to be, or want to be.
share^this
shareYeah, that's a good explanation.
shareMore importantly, while he was on a call why would there be an audible "call waiting" message which would be heard by the person he speaking to.
shareI never pick up a call waiting. Not so unbelievable to me!
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