How would you take care of a friend after a dating disaster?
I don't know, I'm no better at it than anyone else.
Everything about period dramas just looks simply perfect,
the costumes, all the carriage rides.
How much of that is true,
or is there a lot of gaffer tape and gritted teeth?
Actually, it's all more or less true.
There's a bit of gaffer tape and there's a few
bits of clips and elastic around,
but no, the costumes are brilliantly put together
and they are all entirely functional,
as are the carriages, as are the horses.
It's all for real.
The costumes were designed by Alexandra Byrne,
the Oscar-winning costume designer, and she really delivered.
- Yeah, they did look really good. - Yeah.
I'm sure plenty of people will agree with Emma
when she says, 'Employment is a consequence I do not want,'
and it's something that I'm going to have to deal with in a few years.
What do you love and hate about being employed?
Well, one of the reasons I was drawn to acting,
like a lot of people, was because I flunked school
and I didn't have any qualifications for anything.
- Me in a few years. - Well, there you go.
And it's a refuge, acting is a refuge for people who flunked school.
People used to say it's a very uncertain job
and there may be long periods of unemployment,
to which I had to keep a straight face
because that's exactly what I wanted to do.
It's much more free and nice like that.
A little bit, yeah.
We just talked about keeping a straight face,
and I felt like you managed to uphold this regal air throughout the film.
Have you got any tips for keeping a straight face
during the more comedic scenes?
It's very, very difficult,
particularly if you're working with Oliver Chris who is in this film.
He's one of those people, there aren't many of them,
and you just can't look at him.
And he's not doing anything in particular, except he is.
He won't get caught because he's got a poker face
but he does, he emits something which is irresistibly funny.
Judi Dench has it as well, and she will be looking at you
as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but she just does it to you.
I've done whole scenes with actors back to back.
Once you go, it's-,
and it's not even funny,
but it's because you're not supposed to laugh,
it becomes like the funniest thing you've ever experienced.
There are so many mistaken affections in this story,
so I wanted to know, how would you take care of a friend
after a dating disaster?
I don't know, I'm no better at it than anyone else.
I feel like you're very wise, though.
The trouble is, you see, when you get to my age,
you are quite regularly mistaken for someone who knows what's happening.
Oh, okay.
I mean, there's nothing-, age is overrated.
(laughter)
One thing that I noticed with Mr. Woodhouse,
he makes sure all his creature comforts are taken care of.
Do you live a more luxurious lifestyle,
and if so, what's your most extravagant habit?
My most extravagant habit is I eat out all the time.
Oh, nice.
Because I live alone and I don't have an oven.
Okay, well, yeah.
So it is extravagant but I do it,
and I go to a cafe every morning for my breakfast.
The other extravagance, I'm a dry-cleaning freak.
(laughter) I get that.
I love things coming back in cellophane and pressed.
Like presents?
Yeah, exactly, like presents. So that's an extravagance.
I always think I don't live extravagantly,
but quietly I manage to, you know-,
You think little bits, maybe?
Yeah, I nickel-and-dime it, as they say.
- Thank you so much for your time. - Pleasure.
That was an absolute pleasure.
Thank you Mia, that was really lovely.
- Thank you so much.
If you could have asked Jane Austen any question about Emma,
what would you have liked to ask?
- Uh-, - Sorry to put you on the spot.
Oh, I know what I would ask her.
I'd be like, 'Who was your Emma, or are you Emma?'
Who is this, because it's obviously-, it's so well-written.
I think maybe all of us-, how old are you?
- Seventeen. - You're seventeen.
I'm 50 and I still remember every single person
that hurt my feelings when I was seventeen.
- (laughter) - Me too, unfortunately.
Well, that doesn't go away, I'm just letting you know.
Oh, great. (laughter)
But I think that I probably would have wanted to know
who she was writing about, because I heard that Jane Austen
really only wrote about what she knew,
what she'd experienced or observed,
and so I feel like there must have been an Emma.
That one person, yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah, or I kind of wonder if it was her, or maybe her desires.
Who she wanted to be?
When she wanted to behave badly, yeah,
what she was really thinking inside.
You know, I think that would have been interesting.
That would have been nice to know, I'd like to have known that.
Something that really stood out for me
was how just beautiful the film was aesthetically.
And I was wondering, given your background as a photographer,
whether you added these picturesque moments in naturally
through your talent, or whether you specifically chose to put them in?
I think it's both.
I think I do see the world that way,
I probably notice all the strange, magical things
happening in our mundane world, daily life,
or maybe I've practised finding them and looking at them.
I love magic
and I love a movie that sort of helps you escape into another place,
and colour is such a wonderful way to do that, and design.
With the colour, the red capes of the girls,
was that a reference to The Handmaid's Tale or a red herring?
Well, I think that-, I don't want to speak for Margaret Atwood,
but those red capes are historically accurate
for young girls in that time period, in the Regency period.
Little Red Riding Hood, I think, you know?
In looking at the historical paintings
of girls in these red dresses,
I did think about The Handmaid's Tale,
and I thought, 'This is so interesting.'
I thought it was a really good symbol for these women
who basically, in that school,
if they didn't marry up or marry well or at least marry in their class,
they would have nothing.
And so I did think that some people might connect
The Handmaid's Tale to it and I thought that was kind of cool,
and I thought it was a quick visual symbol
for maybe the time limit on their freedom.
Yeah, you definitely did see all these little symbols going through it
which was really cool and interesting.
- Cool. - Yeah.
- Thank you so much for your time.
They were my favourite questions of the day, thank you.
Well, you might be my favourite of the day.