Dan Stevens is a British actor to keep an eye on over the next twelve months has he has some exciting and diverse film roles on the horizon.
One of those films comes in the form of Summer In February, and that is set to hit the big screen this Friday.
We caught up with the actor to chat about the film, working as a producer for the first time and what lies ahead.
- Summer In February is set to be released this week so can you tell me a little bit about the film?
It is based on a novel that is based on a true story that happened down in Cornwall in a bohemian community of artists in 1913. The novel was written by a mentor of mine; he directed me in a lot of school plays and was a teacher at my school.
So the novel has been with me half of my life and it is a very haunting and beautiful story; particularly the leading female as she is a very haunting character.
People has always raved about the book, felt very passionate about it and always said that it would make a great movie; Jonathan Smith, who wrote the book and our screenplay, always said that I would make a great Gilbert Evans.
So when I left university he introduced me to a guy who wanted to make the film and so I became a producer on it and have been developing it for seven or eight years. We worked at transforming this really gorgeous novel into a working screenplay. A couple of years ago we got to work and we shot it last year down in Cornwall.
- As you say this book has been with you a long time and while you do have a personal connection with it what was it about the story that you thought would make a good movie?
What is so extraordinary about it is that is has so many elements of the classic narrative about it and yet it really happened.
There are certain things that happen in life that are even stranger than you could write; why would a woman try and commit suicide on her wedding night? So looking and those kinds of things and extending them into a full narrative was really an extraordinary thing to get your head around.
It’s that classic dilemma that we see in Jane Austen and Bronte, a woman who is fleeing something and falls in love with two very different kinds of men; one if the more respectable upstanding nice guy while the other is more roughish and slightly unsuitable. Of course they always fall for the unsuitable one, sometimes with heartbreaking and tragic consequences.
So this had a lot of those elements and yet it was based on this extraordinary real group of artists that actually lived.
I met the son of the character that I play and he discovered his father’s diaries and letter and a photograph of Florence and he had kept this story secret his entire life.
So it was an extraordinarily exciting thing to explode this footnote of history and this story that so few people knew about and get to grips with it.
- Jonathan Smith has penned the book and the screenplay so how great has it been to work alongside the man that you just called your ‘mentor’?
It has been amazing. We have worked together before as he has written a number of radio plays for the BBC that we worked together on. It has been amazing journey.
I have known him for half of my life and he really did nurture my love of acting and theatre. It has been amazing to give something back, I suppose.
It is always a painful process for writers to see their work translated on to the screen - it was amazing to hold his hand through that experience at times.
It is amazingly excited to see it come together this week and be released into cinemas this Friday.
- The movie sees Christopher Menaul back in the director's chair so how did you find working with him? And what sort of director was he?
He is quite a force on set. The Cornish weather conditions got him down at times. But he came on board and really captured the spirit of the book and we were very lucky to have him.
- Dominic Cooper and Emily Browning both star alongside yourself so what the feeling like on set as you did have the added pressure of telling a true story?
I felt an obligation to Gilbert’s family. One of the things that I was keen to do as a producer was to make sure that all of the actors involved really got the spirit of the piece.
We were lucky enough to live in the hotel where a lot of character’s lived and we drank in the pub where they all use to drink and so the community vibe was nurtured while we were on set.
It was important to me that filming was as happy and as positive an experience as possible. It is a tragic and dramatic story but it was a huge amount of fun to make.
- We are going to see you take on role of Gilbert Evans in the film so how are we going to see him develop throughout the movie?
I suppose he represents that classic nobility and honourable gent. It is a tragic narrative for me as he courts the girl too slow and she falls for the more passionate and roguish artist.
It is a story that we see played over and over again in novels and films where the underdog and the nice guy who loses out. They do try and rekindle some passion towards the end but it ends rather sadly and rather tragically.
It’s a film that many people do seem to respond to quite emotionally; it is exciting to make a film that makes people feel something.
- As you said you are serving as producer on this film so how have you found that side of things?
Yes it is my first time producing a film. It has been really exciting to develop the script and to see the story evolve and change; we take elements from real life and elements from the book and some we leave.
It was very exciting building such a lovely cast and we were so lucky to get all of the actors that we got in the end.
Hattie Morahan is one of the leading actresses in this country and she is going to be a huge star in the future. She played Laura Knight so beautifully.
In post production being very intimately involved with the actual shaping of the film and the look and the sound was also great. It is something that has really ignited a desire to do more behind the camera.
- So is directing now something that you have an eye on for the future?
Possibly, but it is a way off. It has definitely raised a question in my mind and I may try it one day.
- The movie is released at the end of this week so how have you found the response to the film so far?
It has been phenomenal. Audiences have really been hooked by it and many people have been very very moved by it; as I say it is very rare these days that films make you feel anything. So I have been really proud of that reaction.
We have had a very positive response so far and it is going to be an exciting week to see more and more people go and see it.
- Has Gilbert Evans’ family had a chance to see the film? And if so what did they think of it?
They have, they have and they are very proud of it. David Evans, Gilbert’s son, was incredibly sweet about it and was very moved to see it come to life about twenty years after he discovered these diaries. It is quite an amazing journey.
- How keen were the family at the initial idea of having the book made into a film?
We had to get their permission; Jonathan had to get their permission to write the book in the first place. Had they wildly objected nobody would have tried to make it.
David came and visited set - I wouldn’t say that he was an advisor - but I certainly went and sat with him and listen to the stories of his father and looked at some of the artefacts from his father’s archives.
David himself actually knows a huge amount about Cornish art and the artists that lived at that time so he was an incredible resource.
- Cornwall is such a huge part of the film, it is almost a character within itself, so how did you find working down there?
Yes it is. It was phenomenal as the locals were just amazing. The landscape is also so dramatic and beautiful and so dynamic as well; every cove and bay is different and some of them even have their own weather systems.
It is an amazing part of the world and for such a small island we do have a very diverse landscape and it was really exciting to explore down there.
- You have worked predominately in TV during your career but you are now taking on more and more film roles so how have you found that transition?
It has been very exciting so far and I have lot of different roles coming up. I am really relishing the challenge.
- The Fifth Estate is one of those roles, it will be released at the beginning of next year, so can you tell me a bit about that?
It is a story that I am fascinated by - I am a small part of a very large ensemble.
It was just a piece I wanted to be a part of as it does ask some very interesting questions; actually this week with the GCHQ story and Prism the moral and ethical questions surrounding that are on-going. I like films that ask big questions.
- Finally what is coming up for you for the rest of this year - it looks like it is going to be quite a busy one?
It is. After Summer In February has come out I will be heading back to the States to shoot an independent film.
Then I am back to the UK at the end of the summer to film a feature adaptation of Swallows and Amazons, another classic novel, and I am really excited to be a part of that. I loved the book as a child and it is really exciting to get to bring that story to a new generation.
Summer In February is released 14th June
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