Jessica Biel's Virtuous role

Taking the helm of a classic Noel Coward play is a daunting task for any director - especially when the last person to adapt it for the big screen was the late cinema legend Alfred Hitchcock.

When you're Stephan Elliott, however, you tend to take a different approach to bringing 'Easy Virtue' to a wider audience.

"There's not a lot of Coward left to be honest. We took a few of the best lines from the play and the rest is our own Coward-esque stuff," he says. "And the original Hitchcock film is just b****y awful."

While the film keeps the period setting and general plot, the fresh script - penned by Elliott himself - breathes new life into a story which may otherwise have been lost on modern cinemagoers.

Jessica Biel's glamorous American widow character Larita - who is also a champion racing car driver - heads to England to meet the family of her new husband John ('The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian' star Ben Barnes).

While the new addition to the family is like a breath of fresh air in the stuffy English household, John's mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) takes an instant dislike to Larita - causing a battle of wits and one-upmanship to begin.

"I've got to be honest," says Elliott, "doing a film like this would never usually appeal to me. I actually don't like what we call 'drawing room dramas'."

However, after his initial scepticism, the director realised he had a project he could run with. His many creative flourishes are evident, with plenty of perfectly timed physical set-pieces and a soundtrack of 30s-style covers of modern classics including 'When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going' and 'Sexbomb'.Production began without any rehearsal, so the all-star cast - including an on-form Colin Firth as 'man of the house' Mr. Whittaker - were given ample opportunity to make the characters their own."Everybody winged it a bit," admits Elliott, "which made for an energy that really works. Except with Kristin, which was just scary."Despite praise all-round from Elliott, British comic star Kris Marshall - who plays long-suffering butler Furber in the movie - was less than impressed with one actor's abilities.He said: "The dog was s**t."Following his recovery from his accident earlier this year ("It was fun. Got pretty p**sed. Crossed six lanes of traffic. Got hit by a car. Collapsed lung. Pretty good."), Marshall - the star of British TV show 'My Family' - was easily persuaded to take the small part."Stephan called me and said, 'Hello mate. Want to play a butler? Oh, and apparently you look like me.'"It's not just looks the pair have in common.Before 'Easy Virtue' came along, Elliott was dead set on giving up on his film career after his own tragic accident.'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' director said: "I basically made two bad movies. With one, the financers took off with the money halfway through and I lost everything. I lost my house. I lost the lot. At the end of that I said I was never going to work again."And then I broke my back in a skiing accident. It took me four or five years to learn to walk again. It was the perfect way to turn 40 - which was on morphine... I don't remember any of my mid-life crisis - apparently I was spectacular."Nevertheless, the idea of adapting a Coward play eventually tempted Elliott back into the director's chair.And it didn't take long before a slew of A-list actors followed - including Barnes, who didn't take much persuading.He confessed: "Do you know what? People always say to you sex scenes are not sexy because everyone's watching and blah, blah, blah..."You can't pretend that kissing Jessica Biel is a bad thing. You just can't."Perhaps a comment best left out of a conversation with Biel's partner Justin Timberlake, who became a regular visitor on set. And sadly for Barnes, it was not his own lip-locking skills which first attracted her to the movie, which was shot in England.Biel said: "I loved the food, the curries and what else, probably the beer - it's good beer in England!"'Easy Virtue' provides the perfect platform for Biel to shine.By her own admission, the actress - who jumpstarted her career with the critically-planned horror remake 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', which she openly regrets doing - was in danger of becoming pigeonholed after a string of no-brainer genre blockbusters ('Blade Trinity', 'Stealth', 'I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry'.)She said: "For a long time, I wasn't thought of as anyone with credibility in the film world. But this part was exactly what I was looking for, something I could throw myself into where everyone was expecting me to fail."I knew I could do it. That's the joy of this business. Shaking it up. Surprising myself. Surprising everybody else. Otherwise people put you in a box."And the production was wonderful - so scary and terrifying and intimidating, but at the same time such a lovely learning experience and a major challenge."Though it seems the biggest challenge for the 26-year-old star may have come with her fiery co-star Scott Thomas - who is famed for struggling to control her temper while filming - after their relationship began in a similar fashion to their on-screen alter egos ("She was difficult, full stop," says Scott Thomas).Elliott recalled: "Jessica is fantastic. She doesn't give a thing away."Kristin had a lot of problems with this, saying Jess didn't give an inch. They didn't cross the line by becoming friends, they just circled each other. And you can see it on screen."The frosty relations between Scott Thomas and Biel wasn't the only problem the director had to overcome with his Hollywood cast.There was also the small matter that Colin Firth - who performs an elaborate tango in the film - was terrified of dancing."He was horrified," Elliott laughed. "He just froze. He said, 'I can't dance. I've never danced.' He really wasn't comfortable at all. But he got there in the end."By the end of his 'traumatic' experience, the 'Bridget Jones' Diary' star was apparently keen to stay on the dance floor to practice his newfound throwing skills. But getting the jitters in front of the camera have never usually been a problem for the actor, who is perhaps most well known for starring as Mr. Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'."Nerves are the enemy all the way through your working life," he professes, "But I just don't give a s**t. I used to. I think that comes with experience."I mean, maybe it'll come back and I'll be terrible tomorrow, I don't know. But the camera's just there and it's a piece of junk."Shunning legendary predecessors, "difficult" starlets and overly confident leading men - modesty was certainly not a virtue easily found on this production.'Easy Virtue' is released worldwide from this week.By Joshua Saxon.

Taking the helm of a classic Noel Coward play is a daunting task for any director - especially when the last person to adapt it for the big screen was the late cinema legend Alfred Hitchcock.

When you're Stephan Elliott, however, you tend to take a different approach to bringing 'Easy Virtue' to a wider audience.

"There's not a lot of Coward left to be honest. We took a few of the best lines from the play and the rest is our own Coward-esque stuff," he says. "And the original Hitchcock film is just b****y awful."

While the film keeps the period setting and general plot, the fresh script - penned by Elliott himself - breathes new life into a story which may otherwise have been lost on modern cinemagoers.

Jessica Biel's glamorous American widow character Larita - who is also a champion racing car driver - heads to England to meet the family of her new husband John ('The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian' star Ben Barnes).

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