Toby Stephens talks about Rochester

Some days ago, Ruth Wilson was interviewed about her upcoming appearance in the new Jane Eyre BBC production. Now, her partenaire in the series, Toby Stephens, is the one interviewed in The Times. Among many other things he talks a little about what it is like to play Edward Rochester.

Brooding, fiery, enigmatic — the object of Jane Eyre’s desire has caused a million female hearts to flutter. Enter Toby Stephens, heart-throb in waiting.
This could be the Mr Darcy moment for Toby Stephens. Eleven summers ago Colin Firth was just another good-looking British actor. Then came the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice. Firth, as Darcy, dived into a lake and emerged, wetly, in a clinging shirt, a star. In a few weeks, the BBC begins its four-part adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Toby Stephens plays Rochester, the heroine’s mysterious lust object.

Apparently Mr Stephens is a bit of a recluse when it comes to promotion, etc, so if his word is to be trusted we won't be seeing him much despite the foreseeable media impact the new version of Jane Eyre will have.

His director on Jane Eyre, Susanna White, responsible for the second half of Bleak House, is trying to find his decision to scarper amusing. He admits that Sandy Welch, the adaptor, is appalled.
“She and Stephen Poliakoff (her TV dramatist husband) have this attitude that you want to be there and enjoy the whole thing, watch it go out on TV. I have an absolute terror of that.”

But now for the juicy bits - what he has to say about playing Rochester:

The contradictory aspect of this is that Stephens knows what Jane Eyre could mean for him. He says he grabbed at the chance with both hands. He then worked extraordinarily hard filming it, mainly at Haddon Hall, over a particularly cruel Derbyshire winter. “I remember sitting in the main hall thinking: ‘This is f***ing torture.’ My face was frozen in this kind of rictus and I thought: ‘This is going to be Rochester’s expression. I can’t move anything.’ It was horrible for about three, four weeks and then it slowly started thawing out. By the summer it was the most beautiful place on earth.”
He appreciates that, rictus grin or not, his Rochester will not satisfy all of the book’s devotees. “Every woman has their own idea of Mr Rochester. I’d had this image in my head of him being this rather remote, enigmatic, taciturn figure. And I read the book again and, actually, he never shuts up. He just grinds on and on and on, and he’s actually quite theatrical.”
In the book Rochester has to adapt to a female personality as wilful as his own. Susanna White says that Stephens exhibited no comparable agonies working for a female director.

Poor man - you have to wonder what he has heard about Jane Eyre "devotees". Perhaps that's his actual reason for going into "hiding". He doesn't want to face the masses - for better or for worse :P But he seems to have actually got past the concept most people seem to have about Rochester. So that's already a point in his favour.

I doubt that Brontë lovers will be objective about his Rochester. Controversy may also surround Ruth Wilson, the unknown whom White chose to play Jane. At least, however, having met her briefly on location in the spring, I can confirm that she looks the part. But is the world ready for a ginger Rochester? “Oh, he looks very different from me, I promise. I wore hair extensions and have black, curly shaggy hair. In the book the both of them are quite plain physically. At the time, what was seen as attractive was somebody slim and fair in a cavalry uniform; he was this shaggy, dark, blue-chin, person. But she finds him handsome.”

To judge from the few pictures we have seen - it doesn't seem like we're going to be disappointed about his looks. Nor about Ruth Wilson's.

And the article ends with this statement:

Jane Eyre is to be broadcast on BBC1 next month

That is September, so if the screening in London takes place on September 16 we are guessing this might be airing the weekend after that but more probably the last weekend of September. We will see.

Categories: Jane_Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV