“Jane Austen always got much better with her father than her mother, just like Elizabeth Bennet. Her mother was a hypochondriac, like Mrs. Bennet and wasted a lot of money in Bath on quack doctors for imaginary illnesses.”
“Mrs. Bennet is not some sort of broad comic dowager, silly creation. She´s terribly funny. But she´s a sort of heroic character because she´s got five daughters and, within a very short period of time, before they become date-expired, she´s got to marry them to save the family.”
(Deborah Moggach, Screenwriter)
Did you bond with the other Bennet sisters?
Oh yes, totally! You know this was the first time for me that I worked with girls my own age. It was just lovely for me to work with people who shared the same interests cause I´ve never had that before. I´m still friendly with a lot of the people who worked on “Pride and prejudice”. It was a really special experience cause that rarely happens on a film set where everybody just loves each other and I think that you can really see that in the film as well.”
(Keira Knightley)
“She is just so funny and she´s brilliant telling stories. I´m glad she´s my mummy. She´s a lovely mummy to have. She´s very mummyish.”
(Talulah Riley, Mary Bennet)
“The idea that all the women should be dressed in white at this ball was Jacqueline Durran´s idea. Was an idea she came up with in the interview that we had. And that was the idea that made me decide I wanted her to design the costumes. There was a massive fashion for wearing white at the time.”
(Joe Wright, Director)
DELETED SCENE.
The Bennet´s carriage is stopped in its tracks by the MIlitia who are marching en masse through town. Lydia cannot believe her eyes as row after row of soldiers pass by the carriage with not a few of the men looking in at the Bennet girls with some interest.
Lydia: I can´t believe it, there must be a thousand of them!
Leading the one troupe of Militia is Wickham, a very handsome blonde officer. Lydia spots him and swoons.
Lizzie: (to the coachman) Please, drive on.
“This was fun stuff to shoot as well. It´s really a masterclass from Brenda Blethyn here. I love that moment that Lizzie hides from Darcy. It´s a visceral, physical shock to her. He affects her in the solar plexus. And she now can´t breathe.
Jane is obsessed with ribbons. She carries two or three ribbons with her wherever she goes.”(Joe Wright, Director)
“I just love Brenda (Mrs. Bennet) in this scene, just hating him. `My small rectory abuts her state´. I always think that line is really rude. I don´t know why but it just sounds rude. `A parsonage of no mean size´sounds rude as well. I think Mr. Collins has got a filthy mind. He´s all about sex, Mr. Collins, really. Or, rather, sexual frustration.”
(Joe Wright, Director)
“I said to Joe, I would love to play this part, but you’re not going to make her a caricature, are you? I think you have to understand her problem. He said, ‘absolutely. I wouldn’t want you to play it that way, I’m asking you because I think you won’t do that.’
Mrs. Bennet’s concerns are compounded by the fact that women had no status then. The inheritance laws mean that her husband’s estate, her family’s home, will be inherited by a distant cousin when Mr. Bennet dies. That means, she and her daughters could be cast out to fend for themselves or even sent to the workhouse. So the solution is, for at least one of her daughters, to marry a man wealthy enough to take care of all the family. She is trying to solve the problem as best as she knows how.”
(Brenda Blethyn)
