Potts' luck on screen

Potts' luck on screen

The dramatic rags-to-riches life story of Paul Potts - a shy mobile-phone salesman turned opera-singing star - has been made into a movie, One Chance.

But the British singer, who won the first season of popular reality television series Britain's Got Talent in 2007, will be the first to tell you that the film is not 100 per cent accurate.

"I was very determined that the movie shouldn't be a documentary, the movie should be a comedy," the 43-year-old says in a telephone interview from London. "I think that sometimes when you make a documentary, people might feel that they are being preached to. It's a feel-good comedy, there's no cliffhanger, we know how it ends."

The film, to be released here in January, is directed by David Frankel, the man behind Hollywood flicks such as The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Marley & Me (2008).

Potts says that talk about turning his story into a movie started during his Britain's Got Talent days, but the plans solidified only when Frankel signed on to helm the film in late-2010.

One Chance is now showing in Britain and playing the film festival circuit in the United States to mixed reviews. The Hollywood Reporter called it "an utterly formulaic but sweet movie that does what a crowd-pleaser is meant to do". Meanwhile, British newspaper The Telegraph dismissed it as "one of those biopics with a totally canned story arc and as many head-slapping moments as intentional laughs".

The plot traces the singer's insecure youth: As a young man, he was plagued by bullies but harboured dreams of becoming an opera singer. British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Tony award-winner James Corden stars as Potts.

"I left him free to do how he felt it should be done," Potts says of Corden's portrayal. "It's not meant to be a gospel-true reflection of me, it's always going to be his take of who I am and what I've been through."

He says the more factual account of his life will be told in his autobiography, One Chance: A Memoir, which is set to be released next month.

Watching the final cut of the movie with his wife of 10 years, Julie-Ann, 33, when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month felt like a dream. The couple have no children.

"I kept saying to my wife, 'That's not me', and she said, 'Yes, that's you'. Watching them shoot the wedding scene was incredibly surreal."

The film also includes the pivotal moments in his life - being rejected by late opera star Luciano Pavarotti in Venice, a bicycle accident that nearly killed him and the life-changing decision to take part in Britain's Got Talent. More than just a hit among the show's viewers, his rendition of tenor aria Nessun Dorma during the auditions became a viral online hit, and has since chalked up more than 116 million views on YouTube.

Potts, who was heavily in debt and almost had his house repossessed when he joined the competition, went on to win the £100,000 grand prize and a recording contract with the show's creator and music mogul Simon Cowell.

Besides singing at major events such as the Royal Variety Performance in front of Queen Elizabeth II, Potts has also appeared on popular talk shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show. He has since released three albums, One Chance (2007), which went to No. 1 in 13 countries and has sold 3.5 million copies, Passione (2009) and Cinema Paradiso (2010).

On Monday, he will release The Greatest Hits, an album of his most popular renditions, including Nessun Dorma, Con Te Partiro (Time To Say Goodbye) and Godfather theme Parla Piu Piano.

And while he is now a multi-millionaire who does concerts around the world, and with his own movie to boot, Potts says that there are still some parts of him that have not changed.

His shyness has not completely gone away, for example: "As an artist I think I've grown quite a bit. My confidence is a little bit higher, but I'll never be that supremely confident person and never have been. I don't think that would change.

"And I'm comfortable with that. I know who I am and I know what I'm like, and I know that I am essentially quite insecure."

Being insecure, however, is helpful, he adds. It makes him challenge himself and not just accept things as they are.

He hopes that his life story will inspire people to "move forward in spite of what happens to you".

"Being somebody who is always anxious about taking risks, stepping on that stage was huge for me. I'm not a risk taker, I've never placed a bet on anything," he says.

"In life there are no signposts, but sometimes you have to take a chance."

dinohadi@sph.com.sg

Paul Potts' The Greatest Hits album will be released on Monday while One Chance will be shown in cinemas here from Jan 9.


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