What did you learn about celebrity digging into this?
I’ve learned a bit about celebrity myself, which, I think what was interesting about going back into those times is that I think the nature of celebrity has changed a lot over the years, and there are certain elements that are the same. I think we’re less oppressed by the studio system and stuff than they were, but I think we’re in a much more confessional era. We’re in the era of Jerry Springer and Oprah Winfrey and psychoanalysis and taking photographs of stars' underwear hanging out of the back of their pants. It’s a very different kind of interest, I think, now. I think there was a mystique to a movie star in the ‘40s and ‘30s and ‘50s that nowadays it’s more of a culture of exposure. And that can’t help but make you, as a celebrity figure, much more earthbound than they seemed.
What was Martin Scorsese’s specific direction for playing this part?
It wasn’t really so much… I thought with this sort of legendary director like Marty, you sort of imagine a megaphone and a lot of shouting about definite stuff. What was so amazing to work with him was that he creates this collaborative environment where you definitely feel that you, him and Marty and Leo, you’re all making a very organic creative moment in that exact moment and everyone’s opinion is stirred into the pot at the same time. And what he does that’s so clever is he creates those conditions where everybody really can kind of bring out the best part of what they’re good at. I don’t remember really anything specific. I don’t remember one kind of major pearl of wisdom, but I do remember this incredible environment he creates that is unique.
What was your audition like?
Well, I’d been asked to not show up in UGG boots and a denim miniskirt and pony tail. They definitely wanted me to come with a slightly period vibe. I mean, I had really a day or so’s notice, so it wasn’t like I had to get my prosthetic chin fitted and turn up. I think I just wore a pair of pants and a jacket, but I had wavier hair and red lipstick and the whole thing.
Do you have an affinity for that era?
I think the thing is most British actresses, certainly when I started out, really mainly the films that we made in Britain were period pieces of some sort. So whether you were in a Jane Austen or a Shakespearean movie or ‘40s or whatever, you’re very used to having to adapt to that kind of thing. So I never see it as necessarily a big jump. I know I guess I’ve been known for doing that in “Pearl Harbor,” but no, I don’t have a secret ‘40s swinging obsession.
What do you think about the wardrobe and the Hollywood glamour of that era compared to now?
It’s very different. One of the things that was so great was that Sandy [Powell], the costume designer, was so attentive to detail and really just down to the panty hose and the underwear and the girdle and the pointy bra and every single thing that could possibly be authentic. And I do find that it makes you stand differently. I think the female body is definitely served up in a different way in the 1940s, which definitely helps. It may be a different kind of sexuality. There’s much less skin on show, that’s for sure. It was weird for me because it does make you - it gives you a kind of powerful, strong, sexy feeling, and yet also our blueprint for women who wear those kind of clothes is women in their ‘70s and ‘80s now. So there was a funny mixture between feelings of rather exhausting glamour and sort of fat, older women. I had to gain some weight for it as well. In the costumes, I felt great.
