“Socially, Mr. Bingley is not as sure footed as Darcy. He comes from a family that only made its money one or two generations before so they have a more delicate social position. His sister is very aggressive because she feels threatened by her roots”.

(Joe Wright, Director)

“Caroline’s such a bitch. It was delicious playing her, although when you go in and do these small roles you’ve no idea whether you’re any good or not. I still feel that film is something I’m only dabbling in.”

(Kelly Reilly)

“I find empire line dresses are very ugly, so I did some research. Although the novel was published in 1813, Jane Austen wrote her first draft of “Pride and Prejudice”, then called “First Impressions”, around 1797. So we used the fashions of the earlier period, where the waist on dresses was lower and more flattering. When Caroline Bingley appears, she would obviously be wearing the latest creation. But Mrs. Bennet’s dresses are earlier than 1797, and Lady Catherine’s are even earlier, because those two would have best clothes from previous years in their wardrobe.”

(Joe Wright, Director)

“The wider world is seen through tiny chinks. For instance, Caroline Bingley is reading a letter and she remarks, in the script, `Lady Bathurst is re-decorating her ballroom in the French style. A trifle unpatriotic, don’t you think?’ I put that in as a tiny acknowledgement that all these events were going on in France.”

(Deborah Moggach, Screenwriter)

I never saw such a woman. She would certainly be a fearsome thing to behold.

Wright went with the Darcy he saw in his head, a vulnerable young man with big responsibilities after the death of his parents who suffers from a lack of social graces.

“He put on a suit of manhood that didn’t quite fit him, and Elizabeth teaches him how to be a man.”

(Joe Wright, Director)

What percentage of the screenplay can be attributed to her personally and what to Miss Austen?

“It’s a fairly good question. Most of it comes from Austen. I sort of put a comb to it, like running a comb through hair. Other people were involved, too. An example of that would be the line: ‘Charles, you cannot be serious!’ That sounds like McEnroe on the tennis court. It’s mostly Jane Austen, but sometimes simplified and compressed. Emma Thompson did some dialogue, and Emma’s a wonderful Jane Austen writer.”

(Deborah Moggach, Screenwriter)

  

“Austen wrote the first draft of the story in 1797, and it wasn’t published until 1811. I felt that the earlier period looked more interesting, it was a more interesting period socially and therefore those social changes were reflected in everything including costumes. The Empire Lines were just coming in, so high society such as Caroline Bingley, would be wearing an Empire Line dress. Whereas the Bennet girls might not be, so the waistlines could be a little lower.”

(Joe Wright, Director)

Footman: A Mrs. Bennet, a Miss Bennet,a Miss Bennet and a Miss Bennet, sir.

Caroline Bingley: Are we to receive every Bennet in the country?

“The contrast between the genteel but down at heel Bennets and the glamorous, fashionable and wealthy new arrivals at Netherfield was crucial to the plot of the book but something she feels had become blurred in the previous film (starring Laurence Olivier in 1940) and the television adaptation.

Unless we see the difference in the two families’ circumstances, the boisterous overcrowded assembly dance in the village where Darcy is so devastatingly rude about Lizzie, we have no possible understanding of Darcy and his London crowd. Of course he would be bored stupid there. The Bennets wouldn’t have been the most fascinating companions in the world. They couldn’t be, there was nothing for them to do but visit their neighbours and endlessly trim their hats.”

(Deborah Moggach, Screenwriter)

“One of the wonderful things about Jane Austen is that the canvas on which she painted was very small. Now, that has also been cited as a criticism of her work; she has been accused of ignoring other social classes of her time, and contemporary world events. But she did not deny it; she was observing the small piece of the world that she inhabited. For example, there is no scene in any of her books where men are alone in a room together. She either didn’t know what they might be talking about, or she wasn’t interested. The wider world is seen through tiny chinks”.

(Deborah Moggach, Screenwriter)