The Last Station is a historical drama that delves into the tumultuous latter years in the marriage of Countess Sofya and War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy. The film examines the battle between Tolstoy's supporters and Countess Sofya as they fight over Leo's decision to rid himself of his earthly possessions, including the rights to his literary works (which he wants to go to the Russian people).
Mirren reigns as one of the most respected actresses of her generation, stepping into the shoes of queens and other powerful women onscreen. And The Last Station's Countess Sofya ranks right up there with her more memorable characters.
Asked what appealed to her about tackling this particular role, Mirren said she loved being able to get into this "volcanic creature." Plus, the timing was perfect. "I was sent it very soon after I’d done The Queen and, you know, as an actor your dream is to get something that’s the opposite of what you've just done. And obviously The Queen is such a repressed interior and doesn't show anything, emotions are things you do not show to other people. It’s distasteful to do that, you know? Sofya is the absolute opposite. So that's always an attractive proposition. And it was a beautifully written script, beautifully. It was just great, really great."
Sofya is no shrinking violet, using any means necessary to fight to retain her husband's literary rights for her children. And in other hands, Sofya may have been a character taken too far over the top. Mirren understood that that could possibly be an issue, and worked closely with writer/director Michael Hoffman to make sure they didn't push it too far.
James McAvoy, who co-stars as Valentin Bulgakov - a devoted supporter of Leo Tolstoy's and the Tolstoyan movement - agreed the real Sofya often acted hysterically. "I think we play a fine line because sometimes we go, 'Is she or has she totally got a point?' There's more evidence to suggest that she totally had a point that we didn’t put in this film," explained McAvoy. "It was one of the guys, the kid who looked most like Tolstoy was not hers. [He] belongs to the woman who milked the cows that he had an affair with for years, and it drove her mental. I mean the guy had kids coming out of his ears that didn't belong to her, and this thing that she was hysterical and all of that...I don't know, I think she totally had a point."
McAvoy added, "From Valentin’s point of view, he's in love with the idea of Tolstoy and he slowly has to realize that this most tactile of creatures, this amazing sort of ball of energy that seems to be completely at odds with every thing Tolstoy and everything he believes in and loves about the world, he has to accept that our place in this world is deserved. He has to accept who she is and ultimately love her for who she is. I suppose that genuinely was, part of coming to that place was really integral to Valentin’s journey."
"And yes, you're absolutely right, that was the danger, because she is such a drama queen, you could alienate the audience really fast and that was the challenge in playing it was not to play the drama full-on emotionally all the way there but not to become arch or self-conscious or theatrical with it, never to feel that she was acting it," said Mirren. "You know, you had to feel that this is just how she felt. This was real for her, whatever it was, all those things were absolutely real, of the moment."
Mirren's her own harshest critic though, pointing out there is a scene in which she believes they took things too far. "When I watched the film there's one moment when I blow it and it does become slightly arch and I look at that, you know, those awful moments when you see yourself and you go, 'Oh, I blew that. That's wrong, wrong, wrong,' and there it is and you can't take it back," revealed Mirren. "But, in general, we avoided that."
"We also sort of toned it down. You know, there was one scene that I suggested to Michael that we cut because I thought it was just a step too far and I thought it would just push the audience away from the character, when she tries to commit suicide again with some poison. She says, 'This is poison, I'm going to take it. I'm taking it now, and if you don't stop me I will take it.' And then he doesn’t and then he says, 'Go ahead, take it.' She says, 'Well, I'm not going to take it.' But it became, it was just too much and I think the audience would have gone, 'Oh please, this woman is just ridiculous,' you know? So it was really important to keep the audience. You don't want them necessarily to like her or love her but to go along with her."
McAvoy says the entire film is quite emotionally charged, from Mirren's Sofya to Plummer's Leo Tolstoy, on down throughout all the many characters. "Even though I think the Countess is at the highest end of the scale and when it goes, it really goes. For most of us, when we're feeling something in the film for Chertkov, for Dushan, for Valentin, for Masha, for Sasha, when they feel – and for Tolstoy, as well – when they feel something they feel it, you know? And whether it’s a happy thing, a sad thing, a confused thing, a subtonic thing, whatever it is, and they fill the whole room with it, don't they?"
"Totally," agreed Mirren.
"And I think the whole thing felt a little bit heightened, in a nice way," said McAvoy.
