Women flex their muscle in ‘U.N.C.L.E.’
Female leads strong and enigmatic
It’s called “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” but the slick, 1960s-set spy thriller from writers Guy Ritchie and Lionel Wigram is just as much about the women.
The female leads played by rising stars Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki — alongside Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer as the aforementioned spies — are like Bond girls in that they’re both strong and enigmatic.
But unlike Bond girls, their sexiness isn’t their main quality. And they’re not just the sidekicks.
As Debicki put it: “There were no bikinis. Thank God.”
“They’re very intelligent, they’re quite manipulative but they don’t use their beauty to push them forward in the world,” added the Australianraised former dancer.
“They use their brains, and that’s a really appealing thing to watch.”
Said Vikander: “It was very much a female revolution that happened during the ‘60s and I’m so happy that Guy and Lionel decided to write in those very strong female characters.”
“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” which opened Friday, is inspired by the hit 1960s TV series.
Cavill stars as suave CIA agent Napoleon Solo opposite Hammer as uptight KGB agent Illya Kuryakin. Former foes, they must now team up to stop a criminal organization from developing nuclear weapons.
Their key contact is Vikander’s Gaby Teller, a sharp, feisty and tomboy-ish East German auto mechanic whose father and uncle have ties to that organization.
Debicki plays Victoria, the wealthy and glamorous head of a shipping empire that the spies are trying to infiltrate.
“Credit to Guy and Lionel for writing these two women in a genre where they don’t often exist in that form,” said Debicki, noting they didn’t realize their characters had such an impact until they started doing press for the film in London and journalists commended them.
“It was a kind of revelation for us in a way, because I think we looked at the script and went, ‘Oh, they’re great roles, and yes, let’s work with Guy Ritchie and these two wonderful male actors,’ but I don’t think either of us went, ‘It’s an anomaly,”’ said Debicki.
“But in a funny way it is and I think that it’s a wonderful thing that it’s working and people want to see it and people are commenting on it, because we need more of it in our industry.”
Ritchie, who also directed, invited some of the cast members to his house in London for rehearsals before shooting in Rome and Naples, Italy.
It was a relaxed environment where “you just pull up some chairs, some bottles” and have lunch, said Vikander, noting the chess board that Hammer’s character uses in the film came from the home.
“I love the fact that he uses his home space as a very collaborative and artistic place for people to meet and work. I think that’s part of his personality,” said Vikander, a Swedish star who will next be seen in “The Danish Girl.”
“To get everybody to be able to do a good job, actors need to feel really safe and secure and just by inviting people ... you kind of grew into the work in a very natural way.”
For all their parallels, the characters played by Vikander and Debicki hardly have any scenes together.
“We have a ‘hello’ and then we have one scene where I say, ‘Put her in a cell and if you don’t hear from me in 20 minutes, kill her,”’ laughed Debicki, whose next project is “Everest.”
“That was the extent of our onscreen time together.”
Added Vikander: “That was probably the biggest letdown, that we didn’t have more scenes together.”