Director Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball") recreates the life and times of J. M. Barrie during the period in which he wrote "Peter Pan." With Johnny Depp as Barrie, Radha Mitchell as his wife, Mary, and Kate Winslet as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, "Finding Neverland" takes audiences on a emotional journey filled with the wonders of childhood as well as the harsh realities of adult life.
Radha Mitchell's starred opposite some of Hollywood's hottest men - Denzel Washington in "Man on Fire," Colin Farrell in "Phone Booth," and now adds Johnny Depp to that list with "Finding Neverland." Despite the male star power, she's never just simply window dressing. Her characters are always interesting and three-dimensional, a credit to the talented actress who will next be seen starring in Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda."
In this exclusive interview with Radha Mitchell, she discusses reuniting with her "Everything Put Together" director, Marc Forster, and working with Johnny Depp.
INTERVIEW WITH RADHA MITCHELL:
What drew you to the role of Mary Barrie?
I think, to be honest, what really hooked me on the character was the film in its entirety. When I read the script I was really kind of moved by it. And it stood out in relation to the scripts that I’d read at that time. Knowing Marc [Forster] and knowing what kind of director he was going to be, I could see the potential of the film. So I was interested just to be involved in the film, in general.
The character, I found her interesting because there was so many different ways to play her and the idea of how likable she was supposed to be. I guess it’s easy to judge a character who’s not sort of the fun one. I didn’t want to judge her. I wanted to understand her and see what she was about. It seemed to me that it was about being in love with somebody who wasn’t present. And ultimately this character was feeling smaller and smaller in that relationship. As much as she didn’t want to leave it, it was going to be her only option if she was going to evolve as a person.
I think you begin the story when their relationship is sort of already frozen. It’s kind of over so you’re just waiting to see how it will resolve itself.
This must have been a real tightrope for you to walk. She’s not a bad person, yet she’s the one we don’t relate to as much.
Right. We don’t relate to her too much because you don’t want the heroic character to not be heroic. And at the same time, you have to understand her or the movie would just be like this clichéd bad and boring girl. So you have to understand why she’s so repressive. I felt the reason why she was is because there was no alternative for her. The only way she could really connect to her husband was through his career because she didn’t, at that point, really understand his inspiration. She felt, in many ways, that he hadn’t let her into that world. And maybe that had just become a habit in their relationship, and people do respond in strange ways the longer they stay in these things.
I just thought it was important not to judge her but also not to try and make her likable, especially in the beginning. Just to allow her to be the bad guy, and then to gradually understand what it was that had put her in that position. It was interesting to see how she was going to get out of it.
What type of research did you to play this woman?
For me, even just being English was a whole sort of experience in as much as I’m Australian. I hadn’t really spent any time [in England]. There was a lot of dialogue coaching to do. Then, in relation to playing the woman, there was some desire to interpret her as she probably would have been. But at the same time, it was a story and I was more interested in the character’s role in the story.
I did read some letters between her and James, and I guess some diary entries. I was aware that she was an actress at one point and that’s how she met him. In the beginning of the film there’s a play called “Little Mary,” and that was written about her in real life – or it was inspired by her. So there was obviously some artistic connection that they had that brought them together, and that had somehow dried up, I guess, in real life. We don’t really know why or what happened. But you can just see from the outside that she was the one who ended up leaving him and instigating a divorce. So as much as she was the person who was the voice of conformity and trying to repress his spirit, I think that was just reflective of the sort of negative dynamics that go on when people are not feeling loved. She was actually the one to do this radical thing and call for the divorce. At that time, it was a big deal.
