Emma’s wickedly fun time at the court of Queen Anne
EMMA Stone has revealed how she got up to some raucous antics with her co- stars olivia Colman and rachel Weisz in the runup to making a riotous romp of a film about Queen anne. ‘it was a unique rehearsal process, where we were being ridiculous with each other . . . for two weeks,’ the oscarwinning star said of working on The Favourite, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. The film — a heady mix of fact and fiction — explores life at the court of Queen anne, and the rivalry between two courtiers: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough (played by Weisz) and the lowly abigail Masham ( Stone), who sets out, with ruthless determination, to supplant the duchess in the monarch’s affections. The performances run the gamut from delicious to delightful. Stone, who won a best actress academy award for La La Land, explained that the director’s pre-filming preparations were designed to make them feel relaxed and comfortable in each other’s company. ‘it was an interesting way to learn that we’d be safe with each other,’ Stone said, mysteriously. Lanthimos, who made The Lobster and The killing of a Sacred Deer, added that the three main characters are ‘complex and complicated, and at any given time in the film they can be doing things you don’t necessarily expect from them’.
The filmmaker was being marvellously understated — because the events that take place in the picture are so wonderfully wicked that much of their cavorting i simply can’t describe in a family newspaper.
Let’s just say that what Queen anne and her ladies in wanting, sorry waiting, get up to certainly wasn’t discussed in any of the history books i read at school.
Some of the ‘facts’ (amid the fiction) in the Film4 picture are referenced in the more scholarly biographies of anne.
it will be screened at the BFi London Film Festival from october 18, and has a general release on January 1, 2019.
‘i’ve forgotten some of the things we invented,’ Lanthimos told me, airily.
‘except anne didn’t really have any rabbits.’
in the film, the Queen has a pet rabbit to represent every child of hers that died. i counted 17. ‘We tried to make these women not one-dimensional,’ he added, ‘ and you understand that they’ve been through a lot — and then go through a lot more.’
Stone joked that she and the other actresses were ‘mutually shocked’ by what went on inside (and outside) anne’s private apartments.
The U.S. actress told me: ‘Your royal history wasn’t so picture perfect! Henry Viii beheaded his wives.
‘and there were certainly things going on during other reigns that were violent and sexual.’
Colman, who won the best actress prize at the Venice Film Festival for her portrait of anne, is now shooting the third series of the netflix hit The Crown, in which she portrays elizabeth ii. Her work in The Crown will be streamed on netflix next autumn.
i can’t wait to view Colman’s queens one after the other. There are bound, for reasons that will become clear once you’ ve seen The Favourite, to be giddy moments of discombobulation.