These sound like the words of someone who has the philosophy thought through, but perhaps not yet implemented. "I think that’s why I maybe want to direct and produce, because I’d like to be more involved. "Making a film is such a crazy experience, and suddenly it’s done, and you have no control over it," she reflects. In the past, James has struggled to distance herself from a role after filming has wrapped – a tendency that has prompted her growing interest in becoming part of the bigger picture. Rebecca may also mark a turning point in her career. Later, she adds frankly: "I am actually really glad it’s all over." But although James may have pushed herself to the point of discomfort, it pays off this is one of her most nuanced performances to date. "It was like a brick wall that I was always bashing my head against," she says. At other times, she found the character’s timidity and paranoia highly frustrating. "That was an easy headspace to find myself in– I can slip quite easily into negative self-loathing," she acknowledges. In reality, she observes, she too has her share of obsessive and self-critical tendencies: for instance, she continually puts herself through the experience of watching and admiring other actors’ performances of parts she is playing. This admission of vulnerability is something of a surprise, since James is usually presented by the media as a happy-go-lucky English rose, blessed with a sunny demeanour.
"I just thought: I want to get inside that woman’s head." Initially, James treated the book as gospel, reading it time and again, keeping it with her everyday on set. I took the role partly because this person’s journey is so profound, and I love that she sides with a murderer – I mean, that’s screwed up," she says with a low peal of laughter. "The first time I read the book, on a sleeper train in India, it had a huge impact on me. It helps that she is working with such vivid source material. On screen, James always comes across as vital and effervescent, with an appealing determination, but this poise belies the strenuous effort that goes into making those perfect cinematic moments. What struck me the most was the actress' extraordinary physical and emotional vigour: over and over, she acted out the agonising confrontation between husband and wife, sprinting back up the stairs each time to start again, barely a second wasted between takes. "I love how he's mixing a romance with a psychological thriller," James says.īoth those elements were in play on set that day when I watched a pivotal scene in which James' character attends Manderley's costume ball and commits a devastating faux pas. This interpretation, directed by Ben Wheatley, who is best known for his horror films, is a heady clash of genres.
Starring opposite James is Call Me by Your Name’s Armie Hammer, with Kristin Scott Thomas playing the manipulative and sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers, and Keeley Hawes as Maxim’s sister Beatrice. He brings her home to his family pile, Manderley, in Cornwall, where the unnamed bride finds everyone apparently still under the spell of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, who has died in unexplained circumstances. As in the original, a naive young woman working as a companion to a wealthy widow is swept off her feet by the dashing and mysterious Maxim de Winter. We have not been allowed to meet in person today, as James must isolate in a production bubble during filming but last year, we encountered each other at Hatfield House on the vast, slick set of a major Working Title and Netflix collaboration: the new adaptation of Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier’s beloved 1938 gothic novel.