IR Interview: Charlotte Kirk For "Duchess" [Saban] - Part I - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Actress/Producer/Writer Charlotte Kirk talks to The Inside Reel about focus, inspiration and evolution of character with her new movie, the action thriller “Duchess” from Saban Films.

Transcript

00:00♪♪

00:10♪♪

00:14Nicely done, Duchess.

00:16Duchess?

00:19She handled that with grace.

00:20♪♪

00:23Real power...

00:25can never be given.

00:27It has to be taken.

00:28♪♪

00:31You've got some balls on you, Princess.

00:33It's Duchess.

00:34♪♪

00:39You know, creating a character,

00:41but creating a character from the birth of it throughout

00:45is so important, I think,

00:46both for a creator and an actor.

00:48And I talked to, obviously, Neil about it before,

00:51but can you talk about seeing Scarlet?

00:53Obviously, your company is named for it.

00:56Could you speak to that and the key with her as a character?

01:01Yeah, so Duchess is an interesting one

01:05because obviously me and Neil had done two films previously,

01:08very, very different kind of films.

01:10One was an action horror and one was a drama horror.

01:14And we just wanted to make a very different kind of movie

01:19that we'd made before.

01:20And what was nice about this film was

01:23we focused on Scarlet as opposed to the genre.

01:29It was very character-driven.

01:31And it was kind of the first film that I'd done

01:34that the idea was based on a character,

01:38which was very, very exciting.

01:40And I think it shows through a lot.

01:42And I think with a lot of gangster films,

01:44great gangster films, the selling point,

01:47the driving force is the main character, right?

01:50Like Tony in Sopranos, Tony in Scarface.

01:53It's all that driving force of the character.

01:55So as Neil said, it was the funnest script he had ever written.

02:02He had the most fun writing the script.

02:04And it was just a blast because Scarlet is such an interesting,

02:09fun, tough, no-nonsense character.

02:13So it was definitely the most fun I had playing a role

02:17and writing it and developing it.

02:19It was very, very cool developing her.

02:23Come here.

02:24Whatever happens, I got you.

02:28I never meant to put you in any danger.

02:30Someone stabbed me in the back.

02:34It's going to be okay.

02:39To really understand where this all started,

02:41we have to go back a bit.

02:46So this is me, named Scarlet.

02:48Got some nice moves.

02:50That's Rob McNaughton, the future lover of my life.

02:54Well, with films like, obviously,

02:56it also speaks not just to Scarface and those,

02:58but like obviously Lock, Stock, Snatch,

03:00those things like Guy Ritchie did.

03:02But the great thing about those,

03:03they always had humour and perspective.

03:06And that's the great thing that Scarlet has,

03:08is that you see her perspective, but her humour shines through,

03:11even in the darkest situations.

03:12Like, well, I should do it.

03:14Doesn't matter.

03:15Could you sort of talk about that and finding the voice,

03:17both dialogue-wise,

03:19but then just the whole package of her, per se?

03:22Yeah, I think, like, every film,

03:25it's nice to have some comic relief or some humour to it,

03:28some dark humour.

03:29I think that's very important.

03:30Like, there's some real tragic moments in Duchess.

03:33Real tragic.

03:35But then it's, I think, with this film in particular,

03:38it's almost like a rollercoaster of emotions.

03:40So, and you need that relief of a funny line,

03:45a funny moment, a funny scene,

03:47because it is otherwise very heavy.

03:50Her story overall, her, you know,

03:53almost her rise to power.

03:55This film is her rise to power.

03:56So, and it's, I think, actually,

04:01a lot of gangster films have that in a way, right?

04:03Just to add that flavour to it.

04:05And it has definitely got that Guy Ritchie feel to it

04:08with the whole, you know, freeze frames and the voiceovers.

04:11I love a good voiceover.

04:13One of my favourite gangster films is Goodfellas.

04:15I just think, for me, the audience,

04:17it just automatically drags me in.

04:19It pulls me into it when there's a voiceover.

04:22It just automatically connects me with it.

04:26So, and it was, I had a lot of fun doing that.

04:29A lot of fun with the voiceover.

04:34Welcome to your new home.

04:37You must be Scarlett.

04:38Scarlett.

04:39Welcome.

04:40Tell me who you really are.

04:42I deal in diamonds.

04:44Diamond trade is dirty and corrupt.

04:48That's when I saw the real one.

04:56The man who killed for me.

04:59Because you were talking about,

05:00even when we're looking at Goodfellas,

05:01Neil and I talked about that too,

05:02is that it's sort of funny because it's the ironic element

05:05of raising the stakes of how dark this place they can be is in,

05:09and then just sort of flopping it.

05:11You know, can you talk about stakes in here?

05:13Because it's in, unlike the other two films,

05:15this is, and Neil said this too,

05:17is in the real world.

05:18So you have to take certain, even though it's heightened,

05:21it's more set in our world, per se.

05:24Yeah, exactly.

05:25That's so true.

05:26It's heightened, but we wanted to make it as real

05:29and as nitty gritty as possible.

05:31It's almost like a My Fair Lady story, right?

05:33Taking her from the streets, from a little fishbowl world

05:37to this incredible other dark underground criminal world.

05:43So, yeah, it was just, it was-

05:46Because you play with the tropes too.

05:48You play with the tropes, even with, you know,

05:50the way you dress at certain times.

05:53It's sort of playing against that, you know?

05:55Well, we wanted to make it as real as possible.

05:57I think that what I like about Neil's characters,

06:01when he writes them, is he makes,

06:03she's not a superhero, she's not a spy,

06:05she's an ordinary girl in extreme circumstances.

06:09Extraordinary circumstances.

06:10But we wanted to make her as real and relatable as possible.

06:13Remember, she's an anti-hero.

06:15So for the audience to really like and connect to this character,

06:18she has to be relatable, I think.

06:21And I think she is.

06:22You know, and then, obviously, for our-

06:25And another really important thing was,

06:27the revenge comes quite late in the film,

06:30which I think is very important,

06:32because a lot of these revenge films now,

06:34they happen within the first five, 10 minutes.

06:36So you don't really get to connect or love

06:39or care about the characters.

06:40No, you see the romance here,

06:42and you see why she's drawn in, you know?

06:44Exactly.

06:45And a big inspiration for this one was Man on Fire,

06:48Denzel Washington.

06:49That doesn't happen until halfway through the film.

06:51So you start to love and care about these characters,

06:54and then it happens.

06:55Then you care.

06:56So that's why a part of it, again,

06:58we wanted to make it as real as possible.

07:00You wanted to, the audience wanted to be on her journey,

07:03falling in love with Robert.

07:05So when stuff happens,

07:06then the audience really feels it as well.

07:08And then you're on her path with her,

07:10on the revenge path.

07:13I'm going to kill all the men that betrayed me.

07:16They will eat you alive.

07:20Do your worst.

07:23It's not enough to be as good as a man.

07:27You have to be twice as ruthless.

07:31And ten times a bitch.

07:32Oi.

IR Interview: Charlotte Kirk For "Duchess" [Saban] - Part I

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