Tanya Wexler
Tanya Wexler is back in the director's chair this week with her new movie Hysteria, which sees her team up with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy.
I caught up with the filmmaker to chat about the new movie, working in London and what lies ahead.
- Hysteria is about to be released into UK cinemas so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
Hysteria is a romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England and it has been a really fun movie to make.
- Jonah Lisa Dyer and Stephen Dyer have penned the script so how did you initially get involved with the movie? And what was it about that script that interested you?
It was presented to me as a two page treatment so it was really a synopsis and someone just said to me ‘I think I have your next film’.
I had made two little art house films and then I had had four small children so I really was on mommy track for a while. I was developing things but I wasn’t fully engaged I would say and she said ‘I have this crazy film about the invention of the vibrator’ and I was just like ‘oh my god I have to make that.’
So I brought Stephen and Johan Lisa on board and we have been working together since the very beginning.
- The movie is set in the Victorian era so what was it like bring that to life and what were the challenges of a period piece?
It was really good fun. One of the best things about making a movie is about creating a world. My fear really was that for me the big joke for me in the movie is not ‘haha vibrator’ but it is really about denial and the only way that that works is if you have some kind of authenticity.
I knew that it was a British film that I happened to be an American on rather than it being a film that just happened to be set in Britain and so we went about putting together a list of independent producers that we thought would really get it and want to be involved.
When Sarah Curtis cam on board - she had made Mrs Brown and The English Man Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain - she just knew British film and costume drama so well that she became my trusted right hand.
She was a safe place in terms of getting all that right and then I could bring my obnoxious New Yorkerness to it all and it seemed to work out (laughs). Then that was rounded out by Judy Cairo and she helped us close the suit case as it were.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce and Rupert Everett are just some of the actors on the cast list so can you talk to me about the casting process?
We were just incredibly lucky to get such a fantastic casting director and she had impeccable taste in relationships.
I had had seen quite a bit of theatre and knew both from being a great fan of British theatre and film of the kind of world of actors that were out there. I am really a bit of a fan girl when it comes to British actors.
Really the revelation of these dream cast that I had managed to bring together was Felicity Jones and Sheridan Smith. When we were casting Felicity was still shooting like crazy and she hadn’t had the breakout film as yet.
And for Sheridan my producer said ‘I want you come and see this show in the West End’ and I was like ‘well it is a bit camp and it is not the right tone’ but she said ‘I just want you to come and see this actress’ - I loved the fact that it was my thoroughly proper British producer who was calling me a snob (laughs).
So I went a long to see Legally Blonde and I was like ’I am going to cry - how is she doing that?’ And I put it all down to Sheridan because even in her comedic genius she was still very human and accessible.
To have these women come and audition for me and want to come and join our band on this insane project was just a great.
Jonathan was the first actor who came on board I had a two hour drink with him as he tried to suss out just how mad we were and if we were going to make Carry On Up The Vibrator.
We had a chat and then Sarah showed up and he looked at both of us and he was like ‘I think you are both mad but I will do it’ (laughs). So it all worked out well for us in the end and everyone was on my wish list.
Maggie came on board when Judy Cairo came on the team as she had made Crazy Heart. She was helping me put the finances together and all of that and she just said to me ’would you mind if I passed this on to Maggie?’
And I was like ’do I mind?’ I was really grateful because I was really looking for who was our modern Catherine Hepburn and she really does top the list.
- You have slightly touched on my next question really as Maggie plays Charlotte and she is a very modern and forward thinking woman—is there anyone she took inspiration from or you encouraged her to look at when she was developing this character?
I think she basically got her on the fundamental level when we sat down and talked about the script in the getting to know you phase.
And she said ‘from my point of view I see Charlotte as this beating heart and this emotionally true human being’ and I was like ’that’s right’.
And I do think that she is very modern and very modern in her passions and her pursuits and I think that she is a character, at least I feel this way, I don’t think she was out there thinking ’I should do this or do that’ I think she is that character who feels like she has to do this or has to say that - much like I felt about the movie.
And I think that Maggie just got all of that as the core and that was that and she was the only character that I contemplated having - though being played as British - played by an American or Australian or whatever.
- They are such a talented bunch of actors how did you find working with them?
It was awesome! I know that everyone wants the sordid details of divadom and torture and while it would be great to have those stories it wouldn’t be so great to work on.
People were incredibly conciencous and professional but I did keep it very light on the set and we did have a lot of fun - even in our limited time together.
As long as I was prepared and we could move quickly because we were always up against it, then we had fun as we kept it light and jokey. The film is about not taking life too seriously and the filmmaking process had to reflect that.
- You filmed on location in London so how did you find that?
It was amazing. Sometimes it was loud for a costume drama (laughs) but you had to wait for the plane of the bus to go by.
But it is such a great city to photograph as there are just so many great building and pieces or architecture and nooks and crannies and I feel like it is this great labyrinth that I love to wander.
All through pre-production and even in post-production one of the ways that I would sort things out was to go for a walk in some new and undiscovered nook and cranny and I just loved it.
- But what challenges did shooting in London pose for you?
Well aside from the noise or when you are trying to do a costume drama and you are saying ‘right this building is great but this one is just wrong’ that can be a bit tricky.
But for the most part it was fine. I think everyone does talk about traffic but in any big city that is a big one but really that was it. But filmmaking is always an challenge and it is always tricky but we had such a good team.
Making a costume drama here is great because so many are made here and people really know how to make them.
- I was reading that you took some inspiration from some of the comedies of the thirties and forties so which movies did you look at and what did you take from them?
The Merchant Ivory and The Laurentian Trilogy was very informative. For some reason Cold Comfort Farm by John Schlesinger just always stuck with me and even Monty Python to some extent as there is a bit in The Meaning Of Life the sex-ed class scene that has always stuck with me.
So it runs from the Merchant Ivory - the more romantic and serious costume dramas - through to more recent British comedies.
- Finally what is next for you?
Good question. I have quite a bit cooking and I am dying to know which one will be ready first. I have a bio-pic that I am very excited about but I can’t name it yet but it is about a big named and awesome actress.
It is exciting because it is an awesome story and it is going to shoot here in the UK as well as in the U.S.
We are just getting the script together now and I am excited. And then I have a surreal dramedy about a guy who tries to win his wife back from himself and it is called The New Me.
I am meeting on a lot of things so hopefully I will have a real announcement when I am back in London, which should be before the opening of Hysteria.
Hysteria is released 21st September
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw