“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” cast members talk about upcoming film
– By Cate Marquis –
The mash-up novel “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” takes Jane Austen’s classic sets it in an England beset by zombies. As the bestselling novel gets ready to debut on movie screens on Feb. 5, cast members Lily James (Elizabeth Bennet), Matt Smith (Mr. Collins), Bella Heathcote (Jane Bennet), and Douglas Booth (Mr. Bingley) spoke by phone with a group of college journalists. Here is a portion of that interview, with all questions pooled, and edited for clarity and length.
The Current: “How surprised were you when you first heard the title?”
Matt Smith: “Well … I was very surprised, actually. I think, actually, it’s quite interesting if you add zombies to any story, somehow it makes the stakes more dynamic and then we picked up—well I picked up the script and I read it and I thought it was an interesting spin on a classic tale.”
Lily James: “Yes, I was pretty surprised, I thought how could this possibly work and then I read it and I loved it. And I loved the film as well so all’s well that ends well.”
Douglas Booth: “Quite surprised. But I had heard of the book because it was a New York Times best seller…and a lot of my American friends were big fans of it so I’d heard of it but I hadn’t read it so I really wanted [to do that].”
LJ: “I thought it sounded terrible and then I read it and thought it was wonderful. It’s bizarre how it works and it’s rare that you get a script that you sort of love that much. It was pretty exciting.”
TC: “This question is directed to Matt Smith but everyone can answer it. What were some of the lines and moments that were not in the script that was improvised?”
MS: “Well, there were a few moments, actually. There was some stuff about muffins, and just generally sort of playing around really and I went back to the book which was the original book as a source material to try and sort of make things up in an attempt to build up my part but yes, there was quite a lot in there and actually, Burr, the director was really good. He allowed a platform and an environment where you could take risks and sort of throw things out there that weren’t in the script so it was, it was an enjoyable experience for that for me.”
TC: “’Pride and Prejudice’ is, for many people, Jane Austen’s magnum opus, and a lot of people will go see a movie if it has the words ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ But how do you sell the concept of ‘and Zombies’ to those Austen purists?”
LJ: “Well, I think that there’s been a lot of ‘Pride and Prejudice’s before in the past. It’s been done very, very well and I think it’s always interesting, especially if you love something to see it done in a different way and what we all found was kind of crazy; was that put something so, so surreal and strange as zombies in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and somehow some of like the scenes and relationships in the book become heightened, become really clear, like Liz Bennet gets to beat the crap out of Darcy which is really a sort of a physical expression of all her sexual frustration and I mean that’s a very basic analysis but it was just interesting how the zombies kind of contributed.”
Bella Heathcote: “Yes…Jane Austen’s all about female empowerment and this film is too and it just has a cynical expression because we get to beat the crap out of zombies so there you go. I think they’d like it.”
LJ: “Girl power! Jane Austen would love girl power and so would Jane Austen purists.”
MS: “And also they’ve probably seen it done so many times. It has been done and near perfectly a few times as well so it’s kind of cool for them to like just see it in a different way.”
TC: “What are you hoping that audiences, mainly students that are fans of Jane Austen, [that] they’ll take away from such a modern twist on a very classic story?”
BH: “That it’ll kick ass.”
LJ: “Yes.”
MS: “I’m hoping that what they’ll take away is—well I just hope they have fun, really. Do you know what I mean? It’s a really fun movie…”
LJ: “And also the zombies—what’s cool is that you get both. You get Jane Austen and you get Pride & Prejudice and that story, especially the love story, Liz and Darcy and Jane and Bingley, like that all really remains the heart of the story and it’s a romance, it’s a drama, but then throw into that every time you’re maybe getting a bit bored, a big zombie attack so it really just makes it very, a sort of exciting romp and quite scary and funny and I don’t know, somehow it just all holds together, doesn’t it guys?”
BH: “Yes. It’s like Austen but a bit less nutritional value, a bit more candy on top.”
TC: “This novel has had a kind of long, slow road to the screen and had gone through a number of different directors in particular, and writers, and I was wondering if any of you had any trepidation about this production prior to the beginning the shoot? If you had any fears that, once things got underway, were soothed?”
LJ: “Well, to make a film happen, I’ve learned is such a long journey. Films are in development for like 13 years, I think ‘The Danish Girl’ this year was in development for 13 years so that didn’t worry me that the script had been around for so long, in fact it really drew me into the project because when you hear—I think at one point, Bradley Cooper and Scarlett Johansson were going to do it and another point it was Anne Hathaway… These are people that I would really sort of respect in the [business] so I think it—there’s obviously something special about [it]. Yes. And we hoped that sort of an alchemy came together this time which is why it happened with Burr Steers, the director, and there’s no rhyme or reason to why things happen when they do but we’re really happy that it did with this lovely cast.”
BH: “Yes. It was meant to be.”
TC: “This being ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ and putting that modern twist on a classic tale, what classic tale would you like kind of… or what would you guys think would be interesting to see turned into a supernatural/action tale?
BH: “All of them! Go on.”
LJ: “All of them.”
MS: “What would I? I think ‘Macbeth and Zombies’ could be interesting, or if you apply it to any work of Shakespeare…”
LJ: “Yes. ‘Romeo and Juliet and Zombies.’ ”
MS: “Yes. That could be quite interesting.”
DB: “Or the [movie] ‘Warm Bodies,’ the Shakespeare story?”
BH: “Oh, yes.”
DB: “Was it?”
BH: “No, it was. It was.”
DB: “’Warm Bodies’ was meant to be Shakespeare-like… ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Wasn’t it the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ story?
BH: “I think it was… I heard that.”
LJ: “I actually think that you can put zombies into any story and it would just be better.”
MS: “Yes. It’s as if the stakes suddenly becomes infinitely more interesting.”
LJ: “Yes. But when stories are set at war time and…”
MS: “War, Peace and Zombies?”
LJ: “War and Peace and Zombies. Yes. But, yes, like the stakes are higher. Everything’s life and death and that adds a sense of excitement and danger that makes things more…”
BH: “Arguably, anything that’s a romance is great with zombies because when the stakes are high and the love’s there as well, you want them to end up [together].”
TC: “So obviously this is an immensely subversive take on this story and that gives you guys some leeway to kind of bring in maybe less traditional takes and this is for anyone, less traditional takes on these classic characters. Was there anything that you specifically put in to subvert these characters or our expectations of them or that you just thought was a particularly interesting twist that is provided by this kind of project?”
DB: “Headline.”
LJ: “Good question. I didn’t purposely try and subvert her because—I’m Lily, I played Liz Bennet. I didn’t purposely try and subvert her because so much was just done anyway in the story, in the plot and the circumstance, but because of that I think my Liz Bennet is much angrier, much spirited, sort of she says what she [thinks]… she manifests what she feels more, she can’t hide it as well as, I think, Liz tends— does in the original and so I think Matt played Parson Collins and you were pretty subversive. You can talk about that.”
MS: “Yes. I think because there are zombies in the film, like somehow eternally that allows you to … sort of make bold choices because the laws of the universe are slightly heightened and the characters that exist in it can therefore be slightly heightened, I think. And I just think it’s interesting as well, I think maybe subversive is the right word or the wrong word but just to reinvent characters that have been played before much like you would play Hamlet and every actor gives that their spin. I think with Jane Austen and this work it’s a similar idea. You’ve got to bring something new to the table which everyone did, I thought.”
LJ: “And because it’s a period genre and because it was zombies it meant that we could be way more free. Like we had knives hidden in our knickers, like we could do anything we wanted.”
DB: “I actually had a badger down my pants the whole film or so I thought. Cold, cold days so very interesting on all fronts.”
TC: “I was just wondering like why you chose to take on these roles and how maybe this film has compared to your other projects? Like Matt, many people know you from ‘Dr. Who,’ Lily, many people know you from ‘Cinderella,’ so like what was different or like were there any similarities from other projects that you all have done in the past?”
LJ: “What a very loaded question!”
DB: “I really think … what was different was, there was actually quite a lot of us who knew each other before. I had worked with Matt before, I had known Lily through drama school and we actually really get on, we’re really good friends and made really great new friends, Bella, I think, here and everyone so it was just such a joyous job really and yes, it’s [nice]. So it’s not that the other jobs are not fun but this is particularly a really, a really cool, young fun cast.”
MS: “Yes. I second that.”
LJ: “Yes. We had riot and especially because we got to like fight and stuff and we all [are] like sisters, we all became like a girl band.”
DB: “With swords.”
BH: “Ninja Spices. Now, I wanted to take it on because it’s pretty rare that I get to kick a**. I usually get cast like the girl-next-door wallflower or something, so it was nice to … have a physical role and actually get to beat the crap out of someone and get to rescue the boy for once.”
LJ: “Yes. And especially for me because I had done ‘Cinderella’. Obviously, her strength came from within but was very peaceful and so it was fun to sort of scream and scratch and bite and kick and beat. Strong in a different way.”
TC: “What was it like to act among fantasy-like creatures and what kind of training did you guys have to go through to fight off all those zombies in the movie?”BH: “The girls went through quite a bit of training—I know because I trained with them. I did about three months by myself in L.A. and got really into kung fu, and then came to London and met up with all the other girls and we did lots of different skill training with weapons and choreography and got very into it and I liked being on set with the zombies even when they scared me.”
LJ: “Yes. I did like boxing and swung a bat against a punch bag for months and I was very unfit and very lazy prior to shooting so I had to do a lot to get into shape and I loved it. We had such a fun time just yes, beating the crap out of zombies who were very frightening on set, especially when you’re trying to eat your lunch and the person opposite you face is melting into their meal.”
MS: “I remember Mrs. Phillips saying, have you seen this film? The woman that kind of like played with her face as it was falling off. It was really amazing prosthetics that she had on; that she actually looked like that and we were trying to eat lunch…”
TC: “This question is mostly for Douglas and Bella but all of you can kind of go in. In the book, Jane and Mr. Bingley’s relationship is kind of, not strange, but Jane doesn’t express herself very well and that becomes a problem when Mr. Darcy becomes involved.”
BH: “I think she just is, like, shy. I mean, I guess she has to be in this version as well because the relationships are the same as they are in the original in the sense that you want them to be together and everyone else can see that Jane and Bingley should be together, but I think Jane has to be shy because Bingley has to be convinced that maybe she doesn’t love him for the whole story to work? That way you reckon, Doug?”
DB: “Well, I think … Jane is similar but even though she’s reserved in her fighting style—like, to me, [that] kind of reflects her character, even the way you fight. Like each Bennet sister has a different fighting style that reflects their character.”
LJ: “That’s good. Yes. That’s true.”
© The Current
