The Other Boleyn Girl Interview

03-03-2008 11:15

While the story of Henry VIII and the down fall of Anne Boleyn may have been told many times first time movie director Justin Chadwick is once again bringing the Tudor period to the big screen.However a new character has been added to the story Anne's little known sister Mary, one of the King's lovers and the woman who bore him a healthy male heir.We are in the Dorchester hotel in London were actresses Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman and Australia actor Eric Bana, who has the role of Henry VIII, are here to promote The Other Boleyn Girl which, based on the novel by Philippa Gregory, tells of the Boleyn sisters' rivalry for the affection of the monarch and provides two strong female roles for actresses Scarlett and Natalie. 'It is so rare to find a script with one role that is so complex as either one of these but to have two in the same film and for women of the same age is completely unheard of so it was really exciting,' explains Natalie.'I wanted to play Anne because it was just so different to anything that I had done before it was just such an amazing opportunity to get to work with Scarlett who I have admired since we were kids.'

Both incredibly rich roles but would you have liked to swapped the roles because they are both , I didn't count the screen time, they were both in their own way as fascinating was there any discussion?

Scarlett - Well no because when I had signed on to do the project, when I was even approached with the project, Natalie was attached to play Anne, and I had been a fan of Natalie’s for a long time, and I just saw the role of Anne as being Natalie’s so I never really thought about it.

But like you said they were both very complex characters and it would have been a challenge to play either role really.

Henry VIII has been portrayed so many times on the big and small and small screen that actor Eric Bana had a lot of material to work with when preparing for this role: 'Originally when I read the script I wanted top play Anne but Natalie was already attached,'jokes Bana. 'No I thought that would be too dangerous, I had some friends email me saying I heard you are playing Henry VIII you have got to see this guy’s and that guy’s portrayal, and I deliberately stayed clear of that it’s restricting enough to as it is to play a real person to then be restricted by some other actor’s interpretation is kind of crippling I think so I stayed clear of it completely. I’m looking forward to seeing it now.' Unlike Scarlett who, playing the lesser know script had almost nothing to work with when researching her character: 'As far as my research I tried to find anything other than land ownership or things like this husbandry things that were just factual information it was impossible for me to find any record of what is so funny?

'Landownership I love that here is something very relevant to my character landownership,' laughs Bana.

'What I’m trying to say is I only had the book really to reference because I couldn’t find anything, other than the fact that she one if not two children by Henry VIII, and that was really it so I just used the book,' explains the actress.

'Obviously there is so much information about Anne,' says Natalie. 'As far as surprises go I think the big surprise was probably you are just continuously reminded how biased history is and how history is always someone’s version and always some sort of fiction.

'You can see people’s agendas behind their depictions of Anne whether they had some sort of feminist agenda or an agenda, at the time, to depict her as this which who had put a curse on their beloved king that helped them understand something in their lives and their version had something to do with that.

'I think it was nice too that we present our film it is so clearly a fiction it’s so clearly an imagination of events even though the timeline is relatively accurate.'

In order to help the actors understand the period an etiquette advisor was available on set in a bid to bring authenticity to the movie.

'Well I think it was just helpful just to have the etiquette supervisor on the set, how should I carry my hands? How deeply should we courtesy? Would I nod towards this servant or hand maiden how close would our relationship be? This kind of thing was very interesting to find out and added to the freshness and the authenticity of the period,' said Scarlett.

'Yeah definitely, especially in terms of bodily contact and what is appropriate between with you father, with your sister or with your lover in public in private, all those kinds of things are really helpful to have someone who knows all those details that you can’t read from books,' explains Natalie.

But for Eric things were a little different being the King he didn't have to abide by etiquette rules.

'Well that’s right etiquette was for everyone else to follow I guess. It’s always great when doing these sorts of movies you learn a lot about the stuff you weren’t paying attention to in school and it’s always really interesting and this was no different.'

But as well as dealing with etiquette for a time that is foreign to all the cast they also had to tackle the issues of accent.

Do the accents require more work when playing someone of elevated station?

Both are difficult, for Natalie and I as Americans, it places restriction on the intonation it’s something no matter what the intonation, if it’s an upper crust accent or a common or whatever you want to call it , is still very foreign,' says Scarlett.

'Americans tend to emphasise every single word that we say were as there are choice words placed delicately for emphasis in either dialect so it’s a challenge but it’s a fun one.'

Natalie continued: 'It was definitely an extra challenge but we were lucky enough to have a great dialect coach, John , on the film who really guided us through which was amazing.

'I actually think that doing a more posh because it’s sort of an exaggeration of what we think of as British that it’s almost more clear in my head than doing a more modern urban dialect.'

Eric in an attempt at a cockney accent: 'Well I know I thinks it’s hard because everytime I go to a movie I have to get rid of it all (Australian accent) it’s no different really it’s just another feather in the bow.

'It’s always hard, more so than the girls because they are lucky enough to be American, everytime I go to work I have to do it so it just becomes part of the job but it is an extra challenge it’s also an extra tool that you have to really think consciously about getting into the character.

I think, although it does require more work, it is an advantage to a degree because it forces you to switch it forces you to consciously into and out of the character.'

One of the long standing themes of this film is the use of women to elevate a family's station. In a way both girls are pimped off by their father and uncle to the highest bidder in order to further the Boleyn name. A concept that many twenty first, independent woman may be horrified to discover.

'Well it’s interesting because I think, although obviously women have made a lot of head way since then, maybe women were made to have sex or marry for money or position and today a lot of women choose to have sex or marry for position or wealth so we still see it today there are still vestiges of those societal limitations on women, explains Natalie.

'I tend to think that has to do with opportunities that are available that it says a lot that is still the sometimes the best opportunity for a woman to be able to advance herself.'

Scarlett continues: 'And it would be silly to assume that that doesn’t still happen in other parts of the world. Travelling and seeing the limitations that are put on women in certain countries it’s just you really feel thankful to have grown up in a society where both my parents always encouraged my sister and I that more than being a woman with limitations they were like you are your own person you can do what you want we were never limited because of our gender.

'It is interesting, Natalie and I have had a lot of questions were people say ‘God women have moved so far from this period’ and the truth of the matter is in some parts of the world it’s not that way.'

Natalie says: 'In Saudi Arabia women aren’t allowed to drive cars and in the United States I mean if you look at the number of CEO’s of companies and congress people it’s still in the dark ages so it’s not so different in our own societies.'

To convey the Tudor surroundings of the time The Other Boleyn Girl filmed around cathedrals and Castles in the UK spending a substantial amount of time at Ely Cathedral in East Cambridgeshire.

'I shot a movie last year in Ely Nevada, a random like town, and I remember thinking oh this is where it was named after they made it to Nevada somehow, the middle of the desert,' laughs Natalie.

'But all the locations were incredible and being in these sixteenth century halls and manners.' 'Was Ealy when we came back to do the baby at the end?' asks Scarlett.

'I don’t know I wasn’t there, replies Natalie'

'We shot in so many castles and cathedrals it’s hard to remember which is which but I think it was the end with that big sweeping shot, explains Scarlett. 'Remember we shot that scene where we had to confront each other in the hallway.

Scarlett and Natalie also spent sometime shooting at Dover Castle where, in typical British fashion, they didn't experience the best weather.

'Well the thing was we had to shoot the beheading there so of course everyone was outside and there were many background cast and lots of crew and big crane shot. And I guess the locations advisor denied telling us that there would be a wind vortex at certain hours of the day, I don’t think that you were there for that delightful moment (to Eric), laughs Scarlett.

'It would just come three o'clock it was like ‘all right everyone inside’ and we would just have to pack up and people were being blown up the hoop skirt and oh God it was unbelievable.'

Natalie went on:'I think they left it to the end because they wanted to go chronological in some way, you know for the beheading we had already lived this whole experience together, but it was a really bad weather our crew had like hard hats because it was so dangerous to walk through this and the two of us were sent through bare headed in our wigs and stuff it was funny.

While the cast may not have been overly impressed with the British climate the Manchester born, first time movie director Justin Chadwick gets their seal of approval.

'He was brilliant, the thing I love about working with first time directors is it’s quite shocking how little difference between them and directors that have been working all their lives, says Eric.

He continues: 'I love working with people who have television experience because I think there is a real kind of efficiency and methodology that comes from that background and having seen Justin’s background, his work on Bleak House, I knew that he would be incredibly well prepared and interesting stylistically and that was most definitely the case.

'It’s very liberating, and I can only speak for myself there, but he creates a very loose environment and is a great collaborator and I loved working with him. He was very smart in how he assembled people around him and had a crew who he knew very well and a wonderful DP Kieran McGuigan, who he had worked with before, and camera operators who he had worked with before so it was very comfortable on set I never felt like I was working with a first time director.

Natalie chips in: 'Yeah Justin and Kieran were like mad professors with their, because the film was shot digitally which is really unusual for a period film, I think it might be one of the first period features to be shot digitally. So they were like always figuring out the shots so meticulously and watching in this darkened tent and I think that they succeeded on such a grand scale making it look as beautiful as it could look on screen because digitally I think it’s so hard to make it not look to sharp.

'He was just a lovely , lovely human being and he brought the pace and the real emotion it doesn't feel as removed as some period films can feel I think.'

Scarlett too was also a big fan of Chadwick's way of working: 'I think what attracted me to Justin when we first met, I had seen the Bleak House series and it was so riveting I loved it, he said to me "Look I have been an actor before and I want to make certain that, even with the craziness of the story and the costumes set and locations, we really find the humanity of the story" he was like "I don't want to make a Men In Tights masterpiece theatre type of thing I really want to find the human quality of the story."

'And I think he was successful in that and I appreciated that he maintained that integrity through the production and was really always trying to find the humanity of these scenes as opposed to just the melodrama, rivalry he wanted to find the deeper human connection between the characters.'

This summer Scarlett Johansson returns to the period drama with her new film Mary Queen of Scots which commences filming later this year.

'Yes it’s Mary Queen of Scots and Philip Noyce is directing it and I think we begin shooting in the summer time. It will be an adventure that’s for sure it will span from her return to Scotland to her execution it’s a lot to get into two hours.'

But there are more stings to this young talent's bow as she steps away from acting for a brief spell to release an album.

'Yes I’m very excited about it was a really great project that I had the opportunity to explore and I couldn’t really pass it up, my friends would kill for that opportunity to record a full album and work with Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio, it was a really inspiring career change for a bit.'

The Other Boleyn Girl is released 7th March

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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