Actress Camille Rutherford and Writer/Director Laura Plani talk to The Inside Reel about character, the aspect of dating in the modern world and the definition of romance in regards to their new film: "Jane Austen Wrecked My Life" from Sony Pictures Classics.
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00:00The
00:15literature is like an ambulance speeding through tonight to save someone.
00:30It's me.
00:32Well, hello.
00:34You want breakfast, Miss Robinson?
00:36Should I leave it on the table?
00:42What's going on then?
00:43I think what was important also when we talked about the character is that
00:49Camille was obvious for me as an actress for this role
00:53because I was looking for the opposite of like the glossy,
00:57obvious rom-com, you know, character.
01:01Camille, she carries a kind of melancholy.
01:05She's clumsy in a poetical way, you know?
01:10And so we used also, you were inspired by your sister,
01:13but you were very much also using who you are somehow, your doubts, you know?
01:19The fact that what I love about her is that she's so beautiful,
01:23but she's not playing with that.
01:24She's not interested into playing with her beauty.
01:27She looks like a Quattrocento painting, but she doesn't put,
01:31you know, she will hate hearing that.
01:33But it's true, but it's not what is interesting about her.
01:36There is some depth.
01:38There is some, you know, like inadequation.
01:41Weirdness.
01:42Yeah, you have some weirdness that I love.
01:45That's okay.
01:46That we worked around.
01:48So have you been working a long time for the Jane Austen Residency?
02:00I'm Jane Austen's great, great, great, great nephew.
02:07Wow.
02:08Yeah, my parents set up the Jane Austen Residency,
02:12but I'm not really part of the fan club.
02:15I'm just helping out because my father recently lost his driver's license.
02:20All right.
02:22And what do you normally do for a living then?
02:26I teach contemporary literature at King's.
02:27Sorry.
02:28You teach literature, but you despise Jane Austen.
02:40I just think her work is a little overrated.
02:42Well, no, because there's this one scene, I think, when it's you and Felix,
02:47he says something, you wipe your nose on his sleeve, and then you drop to the floor,
02:55and you're like, I was born in the wrong century.
02:58And there's something so accessible about that, and yet so awkward.
03:03I mean, could you talk about that energy?
03:06Because that can be a pinpoint direction, or it can be an instinctual thing in that kind
03:11of scene.
03:12How did you approach those scenes in that way?
03:14It felt very relatable, too, because I've never been on social media myself.
03:18Never had any social media, and I've tried Tinder once.
03:23It was at the time, it was called Adoptamec.
03:26Adoptify.
03:27And it didn't work at all, and I didn't like it.
03:33And then it was like a supermarket.
03:36Ikea on the phone.
03:38And then I was like, I met someone while working,
03:43and I'm still with my boyfriend.
03:45But yeah, when she says that, I understand.
03:48And at the same time, I felt for all these people who don't have the choice.
03:52They don't have anybody in real life, so they have to go on these apps.
03:56But yeah, I don't know if I... I never feel like I'm not from the right century.
04:01I know that I'm very pragmatic, concrete more than her.
04:08I feel like I'm from... I wouldn't want to live in the past, but I feel very...
04:16But still, I understand. I get when she talks about Tinder and the...
04:20But what I'm saying is that what I personally ask of whether they're writers or painters or musicians is...
04:28Is that poetic spark that doesn't exist in real life.
04:31What I want literature to do is to remind me that I'm only human and...
04:36And help me to understand my fears and my sadness and my struggles in life and...
04:42That's ridiculous, Oliver. You'll have to agree with me, won't you?
04:45In the history of literature, the interplay between the figurative and the literal...
04:50Has given rise to many definitions and semantic inventions that have quite...
04:55What are you doing?
04:57But that scene, I mean, that's, you know, sometimes with actors or through the writing...
05:03You find one line that is actually, what is at stake for the character, you know?
05:10And for me, I don't want... I didn't want it to be too demonstrative and, you know, like underlined.
05:16But when she says, I feel like I don't belong to the right century, I think it's the key.
05:21What is really interesting is sometimes you find a key for the character.
05:25Either it's you as you can relate on that or not.
05:29But just, I think that's what is interesting is that everybody had an experience in life where it felt like it was not the right century.
05:38Especially nowadays, like, especially these days, like, we all feel that, no?
05:41I guess it's healthy.
05:43We feel like we don't belong to the right century.
05:46Since we're married, I think it's only to you, so...
05:49To get rid of my situation, it makes me a little bit scared.
05:51It's normal.
05:52Yes?
05:56Well, hello!
05:59Um...
06:01Your breakfast, Miss Robinson, should I leave it on the table?
06:04Oh, no, no, no, no, nonsense, my boy!
06:07Leave this to me.
06:08Thank you very much.
06:09What is your name again, sir?
06:10Oliver.
06:11Oliver.
06:12Nice name.
06:13Thank you, Oliver.
06:14Have a nice day.
06:15You know, for the super beautiful story.
06:17Ciao!
06:18So...
06:19But we all want to believe in romance.
06:21That's my last question.
06:22What the idea of romance is.
06:24Like, there's one shot when you're walking away, Camille, and the guy who plays Oliver is in the back and just waiting for him to return.
06:32You know, I won't give that away, but the notion of romance.
06:35What does romance mean now in the modern thing?
06:38I think this movie asks that question.
06:40Yeah.
06:41Yeah.
06:42Good question.
06:44I think...
06:45I think...
06:46I think it's a question...
06:47It's a different question for everyone.
06:49Yeah.
06:50That's the beauty of, like, touring with this film.
06:52From Greece to Spain to France to America is that I get to have, like, so many definitions of what is romance with the Q&A's and everything and the expectations.
07:03But I feel that, for me, romance means vulnerability, you know, being able to take a risk and being at risk and taking the risk of, like, being wounded.
07:20And that's what the very, very important genre romance, because it looks like it's a girly, girly genre, but it's a very political genre romance.
07:30You say a lot about the time we're living in through romance, how people desire each other, love each other, hope for love stories and everything.
07:40That's what I would say.
07:45Welcome to the Jane Austen Residency.
07:47And we're delighted to count amongst us this year a new recruit.
07:51Welcome.
07:52Welcome.
07:53We hope you will be inspired and we look forward to reading your work.
07:55I believe that some books become part of our lives, because they reveal to us our true nature.
08:05I'm a very, very, very good friend.
08:07I like my best friend.
08:10What are you waiting for, actually?
08:12MacDarcy?
08:13MacDarcy.
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