Lily James is posing for the latest editon of Harper’s Bazaar to promote Rebecca, out on October 21 (Netflix). The photoshoot is delicate and stunning and the interview is really interesting. Check it out below:
HARPER’S BAZAAR – Like many aspects of this year, this interview with Lily James has taken a turn for the slightly surreal. I’m by a loch in the Highlands, a stag wandering into view to the left of my laptop; James is Zooming from deepest Somerset and apologising for sounding unexpectedly aristocratic. She’s currently filming a BBC adaptation of The Pursuit of Love, down there, directed by Emily Mortimer and co-starring Dominic West, hence is still in Mitford mode, despite being out of costume and wearing an inconspicuous T-shirt, her tumble of conker-brown hair tucked behind her ears.
After she has taken me on a virtual tour of the cottage and garden, the British actress – who has captured hearts as Cinderella, Downton Abbey’s Lady Rose, Natasha in War and Peace and Winston Churchill’s secretary in Darkest Hour – settles down at the kitchen table and manages to return to her normal voice, to the relief of us both.
We have not been allowed to meet in person today, as James must isolate in a production bubble during filming; but last year, we encountered each other at Hatfield House on the vast, slick set of a major Working Title and Netflix collaboration: the new adaptation of Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier’s beloved 1938 gothic novel. As in the original, a naive young woman working as a companion to a wealthy widow is swept off her feet by the dashing and mysterious Maxim de Winter. He brings her home to his family pile, Manderley, in Cornwall, where the unnamed bride finds everyone apparently still under the spell of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, who has died in unexplained circumstances.
Starring opposite James is Call Me by Your Name’s Armie Hammer, with Kristin Scott Thomas playing the manipulative and sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers, and Keeley Hawes as Maxim’s sister Beatrice. This interpretation, directed by Ben Wheatley, who is best known for his horror films, is a heady clash of genres. “I love how he’s mixing a romance with a psychological thriller,” James says.
Both those elements were in play on set that day when I watched a pivotal scene in which James’ character attends Manderley’s costume ball and commits a devastating faux pas. What struck me the most was the actress’ extraordinary physical and emotional vigour: over and over, she acted out the agonising confrontation between husband and wife, sprinting back up the stairs each time to start again, barely a second wasted between takes. On screen, James always comes across as vital and effervescent, with an appealing determination, but this poise belies the strenuous effort that goes into making those perfect cinematic moments.
It helps that she is working with such vivid source material. “The first time I read the book, on a sleeper train in India, it had a huge impact on me. I took the role partly because this person’s journey is so profound, and I love that she sides with a murderer – I mean, that’s screwed up,” she says with a low peal of laughter. “I just thought: I want to get inside that woman’s head.” Initially, James treated the book as gospel, reading it time and again, keeping it with her everyday on set.
However, to honour the story and give it greater resonance with a modern audience, who might be alienated by such a submissive bride, she resolved to present the new Mrs de Winter as “less of a damsel in distress”. Her interpretation of the character is subtly bolder: ordering 12 oysters for breakfast; adopting a certain flirtatiousness with Maxim; and literally wearing the trousers in the form of slacks, a relatively daring sartorial choice for the Thirties. The power dynamic between the couple is also made more palatable by their reduced age gap, and by Hammer’s more sympathetic portrayal of Maxim compared with the book.
Yet the changes are slight, not radical, because ultimately, the themes of the novel – love, jealousy and the search for identity – do not date. What makes Rebecca a film for 2020 is the human story at its heart: this is a tale populated by conflicted, ambiguous characters whose cryptic relationships continue to entrance readers today. “Exploring the different extremes of womanhood shown by Rebecca, Danvers and Mrs de Winter is so exciting,” says James. “And I think it remains such a bewitching story because it preys on all our fears, insecurities and sense of longing. Imagine living in the shadow of your lover’s past – it’s sort of terrifying and erotic.”
Despite giving Mrs de Winter a greater sense of agency than she has in the book, James remains skilled at evoking her rapt, rabbit-in-headlights quality. To summon up the sense of being spellbound by a man to the point of losing one’s sanity and sense of self, she developed a habit of reading Sylvia Plath’s ‘Mad Girl’s Love Song’ on set most days and can, as she shows me, still recite it by heart. She also ended up absorbing some of her character’s neuroses. “Mrs de Winter doesn’t know if she’s in a dream or a nightmare, and that just made me so confused,” she says now, suggesting that conjuring up the imposter syndrome of her fictional counterpart came all too naturally.
This admission of vulnerability is something of a surprise, since James is usually presented by the media as a happy-go-lucky English rose, blessed with a sunny demeanour. In reality, she observes, she too has her share of obsessive and self-critical tendencies: for instance, she continually puts herself through the experience of watching and admiring other actors’ performances of parts she is playing. “That was an easy headspace to find myself in– I can slip quite easily into negative self-loathing,” she acknowledges. At other times, she found the character’s timidity and paranoia highly frustrating. “It was like a brick wall that I was always bashing my head against,” she says. Later, she adds frankly: “I am actually really glad it’s all over.” But although James may have pushed herself to the point of discomfort, it pays off; this is one of her most nuanced performances to date.
Rebecca may also mark a turning point in her career. In the past, James has struggled to distance herself from a role after filming has wrapped – a tendency that has prompted her growing interest in becoming part of the bigger picture. “Making a film is such a crazy experience, and suddenly it’s done, and you have no control over it,” she reflects. “I think that’s why I maybe want to direct and produce, because I’d like to be more involved.
She has, in fact, already started: currently, she is co-producing The Pursuit of Love, while also playing its irresistible protagonist, Linda Radlett. For her fans – who are legion and span every generation and gender – it’s good news she’s appearing in the film at all. Like many of us, James found that the pandemic threw a lot of life’s certainties into question; in her case, whether she even wanted to continue her acting career. Switching off from fame for a few months gave her the opportunity to spend time considering her priorities.
“Lockdown forces you to confront things about yourself, and part of stopping was realising that repeating yourself is the death of creativity,” she says. “I just know that I want to try to stretch myself and become another person… I hope that’s what next year will bring.”
It’s certainly looking promising. After The Pursuit of Love, James intends to steer clear of literary heroines for a while, with forthcoming roles including the Nineties Texan bank robber Peggy JoTallas in Cowboy Bob and a leading performance in a television series that is yet to be announced. (“Imagine the furthest from me you can think of? I’m playing that.”)
She is eager to take on parts that require her to lift the protective layer she sometimes constructs around her innermost self. “Your pain, your happiness, your grief are all part of who you are,” she says. “This idea that we should always be happy is probably setting us back: often in life, we don’t take our pain seriously, as a way of coping, but it’s obviously there and you have to examine it.”
