The Duchess
So you have assembled your cast and the script is all ready to go the finishing touches to a movies come with the locations and the costumes and for period piece The Duchess this is especially important.
The team moved around Norfolk visiting a range of halls including Holcombe Hall and Kettlestone Hall as well as visiting the Chatsworth estate as director Saul Dibb wanted his cast to get a feel for the lives that Georgiana, Bess and the Duke would have lived.
'It was something that I was certainly very keen on, to shoot in the real places if possible or real locations that were as grand and wealthy and fantastic as the originals and if I had had ten times the budget I would still have done it and I hope it helps the actors too.
'The reality of Chatsworth is everything is priceless you can’t put a light up, you can’t touch anything and you can’t move anything so filming inside is pretty much impossible so we recreated most of the interiors in other houses that we thought had the same sort of feel. I think we shot just one day in a studio.
'Everywhere we went they were very accommodating and obviously they are very protective of the building that they work in and they are priceless if you break something it really can’t be replaced.
'So we did have quite a lot of, what we thought, were strange rules somebody would come in with a measuring stick and you could be ninety centimetres away from the wall and if you any closer a group of little old ladies would usher you away.
But the Bullet Boy director knew the area well as he spent is University years in Norfolk. 'I knew that hall from being at university it’s a very rare place and it was great. What we tried to do with Devonshire House was to make this outsized bachelor pad for the Duke which was beautiful, cold and austere.
'We had Kettlestone Hall and Holcome Hall and we thought lets put them together. We also went to Norfolk because I wanted to find a piece of England that didn’t have modern trappings so it gave us those kind of opportunities.'
But as well as providing a beautiful backdrop for The Duchess the buildings allowed the actors to get under the skin of their characters as they got to experience first hand the places their characters would have called home and it proved to be a huge help.
'Just being in those enormous houses, particularly for me, it helped with the sense of isolation that I thought Georgiana was going through. And the sheer scale of them and the beauty of them is quite amazing, says Keira.
Dominic also found them to be a huge help to understanding his character and the society in which he lived: 'I always think that when you enter those buildings there’s a feeling of what those walls have seen and been through.
'It’s very difficult when you go and do your research and look at all these beautiful eighteenth century paintings you can understand that these people existed, but it’s always hard to truly believe that and not make them too stilted, but when you go into the actual buildings you really get a sense of them and a feeling of them, it’s like going into the houses of parliament and feeling the history there and the changes that our building has made to our country and the decisions that have been made there.
'And those buildings are like a costume it’s the final touch, after you have done all the research and all the work on the scenes you enter these incredible spaces and it’s like when you have finally talked your costume through and you slip on the shoes and you really feel the part. Plus they are places that you would never ever go and see, sadly, and you luckily get the chance too when you do a job like this it’s great..'
'Yeah I agree,' Hayley continues 'It’s very helpful because it does all of the work for you because you walk into these houses and you are asked to inhabit them and breath into them and I felt that there is a big difference for me, who visits these places as a tourist, and then spend time thinking if this was my home and you would have this enormous sense of entitlement and status and the comforts of having to relax into these large rooms and feel like it’s your own but not feeling particularly cosy at the same time.'
But filming in these houses was, at times, difficult as Keira explains: 'Was it Chatsworth with the marriage scene? Saul had planned this shot where the Duchess is walking with all the candles and they wouldn’t let the room get too hot because of the ceiling of the paintings so we all had to shut down and let the room cool down so I had never done that before.'
Saul says: 'There are perimeters but they want you to film there obviously because...' 'They need the money,' chips in Dominic. Saul continues:'They need the money whether it be the National Trust or Chatsworth, which is privately owned, but they exist through people visiting and well know that if a film is made in a particular place then... 'They get loads of money,' laughs Dominic.
As well as location the costumes play a major role in a period film such as this and on board as the costume designer was Michael O'Connor who has worked on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and The Last King of Scotland.
'The costumes were completely fantastic she was a very famous fashion icon and the chance to work with Michael O’Connor, who is a tremendous talent, was amazing says Keira.
'They were not particularly comfortable I don’t think it was very simply when you wear a corset you can’t catch your breath so any emotions are much more heightened because you can’t calm them down so they were very helpful in the portrayal of the characters.
'They took two and a half hours to put on and sometime we would have to be sewn into some of them, which they would have been they would have been sewn in and cut out.
'Which is very difficult in a moment of passion to undo at rapid pace without looking ridiculous. Sorry,' adds Dominic.
'They were very heavy as well because there were so many layers to them and so much detail and having to find different gestures and postures to stand and sit in that could be sustained for a long period of time without hurting ourselves,' Hayley explained.
'But it’s absolutely extraordinary that this is the way that they used to dress every singe day. And then at the end of the day, because the wigs were so intricate and beautiful, you could’ just rip them off as I so often wanted to do and get out of it all you had to stick and unstitch yourself so it took just as long to get out as it did to get in.'
But while the interview is in progress it's easy to see that the cast get on so well and have just had a ball as Keira lets us in on filming the sex scene.
'During the sex scene I was lucky enough to keep my clothes on and he got to wear this skin coloured nappy.
'These scenes are never the best and you are supposed to be supportive of one another and he came out in a skin coloured nappy and I just couldn’t stop laughing I’m so sorry. And Saul actually had to come over to me and say come on pull yourself together this is serious work.' (laughs)
But relationship off camera between Keira Knightley and fellow actress Hayley Atwell, who stars in a second period piece later this month with Brideshead Revisited, helped bring to life the most interesting relationship in the movie, that of Georgiana and Bess.
I think that’s the credit to the complexities that Georgiana and Bess had within their relationship what starts off as you think what are Bess’ intentions here is she a social climber is she trying to get into the household to further her status or get custody of her children?' explains Hayley.
'I think that it’s proof that she spends the rest of her life with and eventually becomes the next Duchess of Devonshire that shows there was a lot more genuine affection between them than was first implied and that it was possibly misunderstood, her intentions at the beginning. But it’s far to say that she becomes the mediator between the Duke and the Duchess she understood them in a way that they didn’t understand each other as their personalities clashed.
'But the sexual awakening scene we wanted to be delicate with it to show an aspect of their relationship that wasn’t sexual, it was a at time when you wouldn’t label it there were no homosexuals there were no labels.
'Marriage then, especially amongst aristocracy, was one based more on a business deal than love and passion and so you were able to have your love affairs elsewhere. With women teaching women how to enjoy themselves and their bodies sexually shows how beautiful their relationship was but you could also say it was Bess having a sexual power over G, as well as other forms of power, it’s complicated.'
Keira adds: 'I was fascinated by the relationship between them when I read the script the first thing that struck me about Georgiana was just how incredible this woman was and constantly surrounded by so many people yet so alone.
'And I decided that she was very much someone who just tried to grab onto any kind of love and attention that she could possibly get and the friendship with Bess comes at a point where she has been living with this man that doesn’t talk to her they have no relationship for a number of years and all of a sudden this woman comes along who wants to talk to her and teach her things and who shows her love.
'I thought the sexual part, and it’s very much Bess teaching Georgiana that there is enjoying to be had in an act that I think she had never realised there was no pleasure in whatsoever. I think it was a really interesting turn within the relationship, especially being a woman, and I decided that she did lover her very much that’s why the portrayal of Bess sleeping with the Duke is so absolute.'
The Duchess is released 5th September
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