P&P cast talks about their characters.
How did you find working with Donald Sutherland on “Pride and prejudice”?
Well, one of my favourite films is “Don´t look now” so working with him was totally terrifying! My mum and dad were like, `he is the legend´! But we had three weeks of rehearsal before we started shooting and he just clicked with everybody. And I suspect Donald really liked being surrounded by six women !
(Keira Knightley)
“We sent Donald the script, he read it and said this is an absolutely wonderful script but I´m too old, too tall and too canadian.”
(Paul Webster, Producer)
“I didn’t want to cast people who looked like each other though. What I did rather, was to find mannerisms that they all shared.”
(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)
“You have no idea, you know, when you come into a picture what Keira Knightley is going to be like. And it turns out, she is as extraordinary an actor as I’ve ever met in my life. Rosamund was…it’s indescribable how ethereally beautiful she was. Talulah was…oh, I just embraced her. Carey… they were like children, you know. And Jena, she just became this silly child. They were wonderful. It was just a wonderful family, you know. Headed and embraced and supported and catalysed by Brenda Blethyn.”
(Donald Sutherland)
“I like the difference between this breakfast and the previous one. They´re all hungover. Mr. Collins coming out of the darkness. To declare himself. No one actually listens to him. The only one who listens to him is Mary. Cos Mary´s actually in love with Mr. Collins and wishes that he´d asked her. But he is too stupid to notice.”
(Joe Wright, Director)
I’m getting dreadfully into it and I want, you know, I want it all to be real and I want to be Mary. And I want us to all live in the house together and us all to be really sisters and it all to really happen. And then it doesn’t, and then Joe (Wright) says, you know,`check in the gate´and then it stops and I’m thinking, `oh, what happened?´.
(Talulah Riley)
“We had big ideas of how to end the film, and big kind of, you know, weddings, and lots of extras and big flashy stuff, but really, at the end of the day, what’s important is the tender, honest emotions. And she’s gone. Elizabeth disappears from the film so fast. I like not lingering on her at the end of the film.”
(Joe Wright, Director)
The two endings
Mr. Bennet: If any young men come for Mary or Kitty, for heaven’s sake, send them in. I’m quite at my leisure.
Mr. Darcy: And how are you this evening Mrs. Darcy? Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy…
“In America, it ended in a rather sickly scene at night. It just didn’t work. The end in England stopped more abruptly, not so sugary. The end was so messed about. We didn’t want to end with a big wedding, because we didn’t want Elizabeth to come off as the girl who became a queen at this lavish wedding, or for it to be corny. Donald was great and I think Donald liked that ending best because it landed on his face.”
(Deborah Moggach, Screenwriter)
“He’s a powerful guy, he’s the proper alpha male and I needed someone with that strength to control those five daughters. We entered into a long email correspondence in which he quizzed me on the history of agricultural farming in the late 18th century and the beard growth in the French Revolution, and also my relationship with my father and also what I thought the relationship between Mr. Bennet and Mr. Darcy might be in the future. All this stuff. Long, long emails, and in the end he said,`OK, I´m getting on the plane´.
(Joe Wright about Donald Sutherland)
