BECOMING JANE
Q&A with Anne Hathaway
and director Julian Jarrold		 Search all of phase9.tv






Continued from page 1

Did you keep the accent when you weren't filming?

ANNE HATHAWAY: I did for the most part. The only person I broke it for was my boyfriend. I disappeared for several months, off into the Irish countryside and it was bad enough that we did not see each other. He tried for a few weeks but eventually he just said, “Look, it's bad enough that I can't see you, but I can't even hear your voice. Could you please just sound like you for five minutes?” So I went out of the accent for him but everyone else just had to lump it. It was the first time ever in my career that I stayed in character for pretty much the whole time; I alienated myself from my friends and turned off my cell phone and stopped being myself for a few months. Everyone liked me much better - so that was worrying. Then at the end when I slipped back into me at first that felt like a character. It was a strange condition. But it was a nice experience to commit so fully.

JULIAN JARROLD: It was a complete shock at the end of production, when we had our wrap party and when I had a drink with Anne at the bar and I thought...who is this person? Not just her accent but also the whole character, the way of holding yourself and speaking was so completely different. For me it was quite a shock at the end.

How was using pen and ink?

ANNE HATHAWAY: I did not find it very easy. To this day it still kind of baffles me. You imagine you need huge quantities of ink and you don't. I practised by writing letters to all my friends.

How did you find working with Julie Walters and Maggie Smith?

ANNE HATHAWAY: I adore both of them and I was hopping with excitement when I found out that I was going to get to work with them. I held off watching EDUCATING RITA till after filming and I was really happy that I did because I would not have been able to talk to Julie. Maggie was just wonderful. Put her in any situation in life and she will make the most wry, cleverest observation. It was great to be around them and hear their stories. The thing that is lovely about both of them is that they will be laughing right up until they say 'action' and all of a sudden they turn and they are completely in character. They give the most complete performance, grounded in the most excellent technique. It is terrifying. And then we cut and they are back to being themselves. So that obviously is the goal to reach for. The whole cast was unbelievable.... James McAvoy is the best actor of his generation, Anna Maxwell Martin is scary brilliant, Lucy Cohu is gorgeous and of course Ian Richardson, let's not forget the other legend in this. So it was a wonderful experience.

There is a trend for Brits to play Americans and vice versa. Is this an artistic or commercial decision?

ANNE HATHAWAY: There are two trends...Americans playing Brits and American actresses having babies and I decided to go for one and not the other. So for me it was purely commercial.

What positives might we have learned from the 1790s?

ANNE HATHAWAY: We have accomplished so much without sacrificing any sense of freedom that we have nowadays. There are some positive aspects. Obviously not everyone but I think back then the literate were more literate. But in order to go back there you would have to sacrifice so much that is worthy and so hard won. But back then there was a grace and that would be the only thing. Not being distracted by cell phones and televisions and the sound of lorries going by. We live in a very loud time right now. But I will take loud and free over sedate and oppressed any day.

How difficult is it to make a period piece on a limited budget?

JULIAN JARROLD: It was very difficult. We had to make it work in the locations that we had as efficiently as possible. Fortunately we found a wonderful house that was very like the original house and we hot very fast and everybody got into as rhythm. We honed the script as well to make it as practical as possible.

You said you were terrified of failure. Can you say more on that?

ANNE HATHAWAY: I spent a month becoming Jane Austen and during that time I had to forget about the fear, focus on something else and commit to the character, because it [the fear] was becoming paralysing. I couldn't focus because I was so frightened. It was not that the fans would not care for my performance but that I would be playing someone that I think was a legend and whom I admire so much and that I would fail. So it was putting a lot of pressure on myself and I forgot about it when we were making the film and then - inexplicably -about a month after we finished the film, I started having panic attacks while I slept. I had bad dreams about being chased around, about being stabbed to death by Jane Austen with quills. So I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would be sweating and breathing very heavily. That stopped when people watched the film and they liked it. That placated me. So I guess I still need other people's approval. I am just happy that people got the performance and they like the film and we did her justice - because it really would have broken my heart to have messed this one up.

Since you have played Jane Austen does this mean you can't portray any of her heroines?

ANNE HATHAWAY: I don't know. I'm a hack. I love to work. I would to play any of them. I would love to play Anne Elliot. They are doing another PERSUASION after Amanda Root did such a perfect job in the BBC version. There have been definitive performances of her heroines...think of Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. I would love to do it. It would be nice to focus on one book instead of having to be responsible for them all.

Was there a bible on manners and etiquette in the 1790s to which you had to refer?

JULIAN JARROLD: We had a number of advisers to tell us what we could and couldn't do. We had a very good choreographer for the ball scenes. She gave everybody lessons on how to sit and how to drink tea and greet people. That was part of the fascination of entering into that world. We had endless discussions about how they bowled in cricket. We rang up Lords and they said one thing and the consensus seemed to be that it was half way between under arm and over arm.

ANNE HATHAWAY: There is a really helpful book on that period. It is called What Jane Austen Ate And Charles Dickens Knew. It was recommended to me by Ang Lee. It was my bible on this production It answered every possible question.

Had you phoned Ang Lee about this?

ANNE HATHAWAY: Ang Lee did not convince me to do this movie. I did not need convincing. But I was at the Golden Globes where Ang Lee was nominated and I was just hanging on. I told him I was really nervous about this project and did he think it was a good idea. He said absolutely. He asked if I could curtsey and I said of course, who can't curtsey! So I showed him and he said it was wrong. So then right there in the middle of the Golden Globes he taught me how to curtsey properly. Which was nice because George Clooney was looking on, wondering what we were up to. It was lovely, a very glamorous moment in my life.

Did you decide to keep anything from the Englishness you absorbed for this film?

ANNE HATHAWAY: There is. Beside introducing to my vocabulary the word bosom, which is lovely, when I went to the British Library I studied Jane Austen's letters to understand her handwriting - an amazing and sacred thing to see, if felt kind of holy to be sitting in front of letter that she had touched - I saw she made her ‘d’ like a sweeping wave. So now when I write I use a sweeping ‘d’ – which is a part of Jane that has stayed with me.

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