Interesting video-preview of Chéri coming from ComingSoon.net and besides interview with director Stephen Frears and screeneriter Christopher Hampton together.

ComingSoon.net | Interview with Frears & Hampton

You can read here the parts referred to Michelle Pfeiffer | the whole interview at ComingSoon.net

CS: Which one of you threw out the idea of having Michelle play Léa?
Frears: Well, it was sort of in the air really.
Hampton: It’s quite hard to remember. It was a very short list we had of possible actresses.

CS: Having been twenty years, was it easy to get right back into the relationship you had established 20 years earlier or was it very different?
Frears: Well, we’re all older and crabbier I’d say. We were like children when we made “Liaisons.” Look, I knew that she could play a European woman, which you’re halfway down the road like that.

CS: How did you approach her to play the part?
Hampton: We sent her the script and then we went to Los Angeles and talked to her.

CS: Had you been in touch with her over the years or did this script just show up at her doorstep out of the blue?
Frears: Every now and then I’d speak to her.
Hampton: Very occasionally. I had written a script in about 1990 from an Edith Wharton book called “Custom of the Country,” which she wanted to do and I wanted her to do, which never got married for the usual dreary reasons.

CS: So you already had this previous working relationship with Michelle. What about casting Rupert?
Frears: We tried to find an American man and failed. Young American actors are very good, but I think they just found the character so hard to understand, then Rupert just did a very good audition. He earned the part.

CS: In terms of working with Michelle again, there’s always this thing in Hollywood and the media about “recapturing the magic” whenever two people work together again after having a hit. Did those things concern either one of you or you just make the movie and pretend the previous movie didn’t happen? What’s the general mindset?
Frears: Well, in a way, I slightly wish the other film hadn’t happened, because I know perfectly well that’s what people will fix on, but to me, it was just a new job.
Hampton: I mean, of course, it’s us and Michelle and it’s set in France, and it’s a historical film, but actually, they’re completely different sorts of stories.
Frears: Yes.
Hampton: So the comparison isn’t very helpful I don’t think.

CS: You can just tell that they’ll work together by putting them together in your mind?
Frears: Well, the real question is, “What was the chemistry going to be like between he and Michelle?” Well, Michelle was in California, and he was in London, so you were only going to find out on the day and by the grace of… well, it really depends if you’re lucky or not. And if they hadn’t got on, life would have been a nightmare.

CS: Did Michelle want to meet this young actor or spend some time getting to know him beforehand?
Frears: No, because you could see the impossibility of it. You could see the problems. In the end, you’re either lucky or you’re not, and in this case, we were lucky.
Hampton: I think Rupert has been slightly underrated in my view in the response that the film has had so far, because he’s actually doing something rather difficult and he’s doing it very discreetly. He’s not apologizing for the character, and he’s kind of embodying this difficult boy in a way that is remarkable. I think he’s great.
Frears: Yes.

Source: ComingSoon.net

Related Posts

• Enero 15, 2010 | Preview of Chéri and interview with Stephen Frears during the promotion in Madrid (Spain)
• Junio 27, 2009 | A funny interview with Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend from Netherlands
• Junio 27, 2009 | Preview of ‘Chéri’ from CNN with Interviews the Cast & Crew
• Junio 25, 2009 | What film role would Michelle Pfeiffer like to reprise? according E!News
• Junio 19, 2009 | Michelle Pfeiffer interviewed at The Early Show