Rachel McAdams and Patrick Wilson look back at the morning TV experiences which helped to create Morning Glory. Steve Pratt reports.

US actor Patrick Wilson knew exactly who to ask for advice about playing a US television news anchor in the new comedy Morning Glory – his own family.

Both his dad and his brother are anchors on the same station. “I think my brother is waiting for my dad to retire so that he can take over the slot,” he jokes.

And what did they think of the movie about an ailing breakfast TV show that employs an embittered news reporter (played by Harrison Ford) in a bid to boost ratings but who objects to having to do “fluffy” items on cooking rather than hard news stories. “They loved it,” says Wilson, whose movie roles have ranged from Little Children opposite Kate Winslet and Watchmen to Raoul in the film of the musical Phantom Of The Opera.

“I remember there was a time my dad was switching channels. He’s been a nighttime anchor for over 40 years and when he was switching channels he had to go and do the noon news – and that wasn’t even a morning show. But just to go and do the noon news was quite hilarious, just to see my dad up, much less speaking, at 11 or noon.

“That was one of the thing I said to Roger (Michell, the director) when I first met him, I said ‘For what it’s worth this is a pretty accurate description, certainly that attitude of the evening. My dad’s not nearly as crotchety as Harrison Ford’s character but I certainly think the attitude of the evening news man towards morning fluff is pretty accurate.

“The good presenters and anchors are the ones that can listen to someone yelling in their ear while sitting there talking and telling the news. It’s absolutely insane,” he says.

“The good ones are the ones that don’t get rattled, or if the teleprompter screws up are able to speak and not just be automatic. So, I certainly had a different perspective than most.”

Rachel McAdams, last seen opposite Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movie, co-stars as the executive producer charged with making changes to the breakfast show to boost ratings.

She’s seen such programmes from the other side in the past, as a guest promoting her latest movie.

“I watched a lot of morning television growing up as a kid because I skipped school all the time. I didn’t play hookey to go out and smoke pot or do normal things. I wanted to watch daytime television.

“So I’ve had a fair amount of experience with what you see in front of you, but not so much behind the scenes. It was fun to go on these shows and see the anchors with their fluffy slippers on underneath the chair, with all their accouterments beside them, just off camera.

“And then from the point of view of the control room – I mean, it’s completely crazy, very dramatic, fastpaced, technical yelling. I had a hard time following it when we first got there. It’s so fast and a story is over before you’ve even acknowledged it.

So I have a lot of respect for what happens back there and how much energy and vitality you have to have to make it through the 3am and 10am shift and then do it all over again the next day.”

These days she’s more of a radio listener than daytime TV viewer. “I found radio a really nice way to start the morning, so I’m not that up on television,” she admits. “I think I wore it out when I was younger, I overdosed on it. But I really like CBC – I still live in Canada – so I listen to CBC radio every morning.”

The movie sees her acting with Diane Keaton, who plays a female TV anchor, for the second time. It was a strange shift because she played her daughter in a movie, The Family Stone, a few years ago and is now playing her boss in Morning Glory.

“And a boss she doesn’t like. I went from being her baby in that movies, where she was so lovely and we were on the same team against Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, and then suddenly she’s like throwing jokes in my face and making fun of me and calling me Gidget. I was like ‘this isn’t fair’. But it was great to get those two very different experiences with her because she can do so much.

“I love being around her as an actress and as a person. She’s one of those people who comes to work in nine-inch high heels. She’s just a fabulous person, even at 6am.”

She loved the fact that her character in Morning Glory is a very physical one. “She kind of throws herself into everything with full force,” she says. “But I’d learned that executive producers can be that way – they’re just sort of running around in high heels..

“I really loved the way Aline (Brosh McKenna) wrote her. I thought she was really hopeful and energetic and there was lots of room for physicality, which is something that I love to do. Roger encouraged that a lot.

“ I certainly met a lot of producers, not many women in this world because it’s a really taxing job and difficult to balance with your personal life. But I liked her energy and gusto.”

* Morning Glory (12A) opens in cinemas tomorrow.