Emma Badame: The three Brontë sisters are often referred to or treated as almost a single entity, as opposed to individuals. But they are so different, and their work is so unique. What was it about Emily, in particular, that drew you to her story and where Frances O'Connor: I read Wuthering Heights before I read Jane Eyre and I just really loved that book. I’ve always felt like Charlotte, and Mrs. Gaskell, edited Emily in a way that was just like ‘this is who she was, and she’s here but now let’s go on to the main star’, which is Charlotte. I mean, I love Charlotte, and she’s an amazing artist. But I strongly identify with Emily–I’m an introvert too. Sometimes introverts do get sidelined because they’re not demonstrative. So I guess it felt like bringing her into the light and just experiencing what is it to be an artist who’s introverted and has a lot of energy and power underneath that. That felt very evocative to me, and it could be a great story. So that was the opening idea. [...]
E.B.: I think Emma does such a good job of capturing all those different elements of the character. I wondered if you could talk a bit about how she became your Emily Brontë and how you worked together to bring your vision to the screen.
F.O'C:She was one of the first people who auditioned. I didn’t really know her work, and when the casting director suggested her, I was open to it, but I didn’t quite know what to expect. She just blew me away in the room. There’s something just about who she is. I think she’s just very authentic. Have you met her yet?
E.B,: Not yet. But she’s so interesting to watch. Really riveting in everything she does.
F.O'C: She’s riveting, exactly. She’s so intelligent, but she’s also very much her own person. A lot of the time with actresses, we just want to be loved. But she doesn’t really. There’s something about who she is where she’s just like, “I am myself.” Also, it helped that she also loves Emily Brontë. She was also a geek. So I felt like we both had something to say about her.
E.B,. I knew I liked her.
F.O'C: [laughs] Exactly. I knew I liked her too. She’s also just an incredible actress. Her presence on screen is pretty electric, I think. Then working on it together, it wasn’t at all prescriptive. We just talked about it and kept talking about it, and then when we were on set, we just kept exploring. We tried to keep it really fresh and moving and not telegraphing things like, “We’re heading for here.” We wanted to keep it really alive. That really helped me with the shooting style and everything too, I think. Because the main objective was to try and make her as real as possible. It’s not historical. It’s relatable. [...]
E.B, Like you were talking about earlier–feeling it as opposed to viewing it through glass like a historical artifact at a museum.
F.O'C: Yeah. You’re in there with them, and it feels very real. Then Abel [Korzeniowski, the film’s composer] and I talked about the music reflecting Emily Brontë’s mood and her emotion. If it’s really big, then go with that. Then you have these quite brutal cuts in sound to complete silence.
E.B, Speaking of going big: There’s one scene in particular that comes to mind in terms of Emily’s intensity of feeling. The scene where each character takes a turn wearing an old mask as a sort of game. Each person’s go-round is quite comical until Emily puts it on and things become quite serious and dark. Can you talk about filming that scene? I imagine it was maybe one of the more challenging ones to do, both because of the intensity and because it’s quite intricately shot.
F.O'C: I knew it was one of the big set pieces. It felt very ambitious, and you’re right, there were a lot of shots plus all of the sound and music. The balance was going to be really crucial. We really did a lot of prep for that scene in terms of Nanu [Segal, the cinematographer] and I working out exactly what the best way to shoot it was, to tell the story we wanted to tell. We rehearsed it a lot too with the ensemble until it was really firing on all cylinders. My ambition was to create a very long scene. I love long scenes. Where you think it’s one thing, but as it progresses the characters and the audience realize they’re in a different scene altogether. So it was a challenge, but it was actually one of our favourite things to work on. [...]
E.B.: Charlotte was so young when she had to take charge of the family too. Because their mother was gone and someone had to take on the responsibilities. She felt constrained too, but in a different way from Emily. But they were both victims of expectations.
F.O'C: She was always the one who said, “We’re going to need to make some money to support ourselves.” Whereas Emily really just wanted to live in the house with her imagination. So that had to be very tough for Charlotte. But I slightly push the narrative there in terms of showing Charlotte as being more controlling because I think it helps this particular story. The narrative became its own thing where it had its own requirements.
E.B.: It definitely helps to reiterate Emily’s unique connection to the house, Haworth, and to the land. It was clear that her friends were her family and the house was where she needed to be. As an introvert, it seems to be where she got her energy and her creativity. She couldn’t survive being apart from that. I wanted to ask a bit about the location too because it is so essential to her story–and to all the Brontës. All of their books speak to their love of the Yorkshire moors, in particular. How important was it to find the perfect place to film? And where did you finally choose?
F.O'C: We did actually shoot in Haworth, in their town, and near the parsonage. But the moors around there are quite trampled now. So we went to a place called Dent, where it’s still very wild and beautiful and how you would, in your imagination, think of Brontë Country. But it also presented some challenges in terms of shooting. But it was so worth it. It was very important to create an environment that felt very evocative, and that could make you feel like you were really there. To do that, we looked pretty hard to try to find places that were going to do all that for us. It was fun too because it’s so beautiful up there and you’re like, “Oh, my God. We’re so spoiled for choice.” But having to narrow it down to what was realistic for the shoot was tough.
E.B.:I travelled to Haworth and to the parsonage when I was about nine. That’s when I really fell in love with the stories. But I was interested in the location you choose for the reason you mention, because the original area has so built-up in comparison.
F.O'C: It’s still beautiful, though, right?
E.B.: It’s absolutely beautiful.
F.O'C: Then going to the parsonage. Isn’t that just a crazy moment when you go in there?
E.B.: It was such an integral part of who they all were, so it really feels like you’re connecting to them directly.
F.O'C: Like you’ve come in, and they’ve just left. [...]
E.B.: What do you think it is about the Brontës that has captured people’s imagination for so long? It’s been 175 years since they passed, and there are still regular adaptations of their work and hundreds of websites and blogs dedicated to them. There are so few novels, to begin with, but the interest never seems to fade.
F.O'C: They’re just brilliant stories, but also there’s something about them that’s just very real. There’s something in that I think, that you feel a connection. I think people feel like they know them and they feel a slight ownership over them too. The work feels very personal for something of that era. It’s surprising. I feel like that probably happened because they were quite isolated and didn’t have the influence of society. It was only after they published it that they realized, “Wow, we’ve actually done something slightly risky.” Something out there. Charlotte just went into damage control mode at the time as I’m sure you know. But that’s interesting too, I think.
E.B.: It is interesting because Charlotte is the only one who lived long enough to see the real popularity of their work–the criticism too–under their own names and the celebrity that then followed.
F.O'C: Yeah, to see famous people take an interest. But the Mrs. Gaskell biography was really an exercise in publicity, so the whole of Victorian society would realize, “Oh, look, she’s very decent.” (Emma Badame)
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