The stars were out in full force for the UK press conference of Anna Karenina. Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen and Director Joe Wright gave us a valuable insight into this motion picture re-imagining of the classic story by Leo Tolstoy.
Set in late-19th-century Russia high-society, the aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the affluent Count Vronsky and sets into motion a devastating fall from grace.
Check out our press conference report below!
Joe Wright
You’ve pretty much broken the rules when it comes to making a period film in a brilliant and poetic way. Was that what you set out to do?
Joe Wright: Um, no. It kind of grew really. I’ve always wanted to make a film like this and I kind of held it like a little guilty secret. And as the film developed... we were originally going to shoot in various stately homes around England and palaces in Russia but I already had the idea that I wanted to stylise the performance style and was already talking to the choreographer about how to achieve that. And then I was kind of scouting places and in Russia they’d say: “Yes, we have shot several Anna Karenina’s here before.” And in England they were saying: “Yes, you were here before, don’t you remember?” And so I kind of felt like I was treading too familiar ground and then thought: “OK, well maybe this is the one to do it with.”
You’ve worked with Keira and Matthew before and, indeed, you work with a lot of people over and over again. Is that something deliberate?
Joe Wright: Definitely! I like the idea of a company atmosphere and I like working with the same actors and crew members – more so with crew. When Matthew [Macfadyen] was doing Pride & Prejudice he had to be very serious and sombre and I knew that there was another side of Matthew that I’d really like to engage with and so it seemed like a perfect opportunity for that.
You changed the accent of the final scene a little bit. As I recall, Anna was really mad when she was about to jump in front of the train [in the book]. What made you change the accent?
Joe Wright: Keira had a very interesting thought about the suicide. She described suicide as being a shy person’s homicide and I thought that was very interesting because, for me, there was a lot of anger in her suicide and I agreed with Keira that it shouldn’t be played like a victim; it should be played like an active gesture... not a giving up. And so we really went for that. It is mad to throw yourself under a train... or it seems very mad to me, so that madness needed a reality. One didn’t want a generic madness.
Keira Knightley: Yes, really, really, really difficult [laughs]! Luckily, I had a lovely partner! I think I’m quite quick at picking things like that up but I found this almost impossible. But Aaron [Taylor-Johnson] picked it up in about five seconds and just showed everyone up.
How was being reunited with Matthew Macfadyen again but this time playing brother and sister?
Keira Knightley: We just giggled. I think it was because we were trying to learn to dance and initially it was just us together. And we just found it absolutely hysterical so we brought that into our brotherly and sisterly relationship.
Matthew, it looked like you had a lot of fun with Oblonsky?
Matthew Macfadyen: Yeah, 90% of it was the moustache! It just sort of gave me a lift. No, it was a lot of fun.
READ THE ENTIRE PRESS CONFERENCE: http://www.entertainment-focus.com/news/press-conference-anna-karenina
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