Now that’s what I call a crowning glory...
Saoirse ronan was gifted the role of Mary Queen of scots six years ago, aged 18. Directors came and went, but it wasn’t until Josie rourke was signed to direct the film that everything clicked into place. ‘i didn’t have the measure of Mary when i was 18,’ ronan told me before she’d finished work on the picture, which had its world premiere in Los angeles last night and has a gala here on December 10 before opening on January 18. ‘By the time we were filming, i’d grown up enough to understand Mary’s strengths, doubts and fears.’
The young actress gives an outstanding portrayal of a monarch whose reputation, according to rourke, has been unfairly rubbished.
‘she was heavily conspired against,’ rourke said — mostly by men, including Lord Cecil, Queen elizabeth’s top minister; and John Knox, who wrote disparaging pamphlets about the scottish queen. ‘He wrote how terrible Mary is. How sexual she is. she was this nasty woman, according to them.’
What shines through in ronan’s performance, and rourke’s stunning directorial debut in Mary Queen of scots, is that Mary was savvy. it was the men in her court — and elizabeth’s (an almost unrecognisable Margot robbie) — who were determined to drag her down.
When we met for tea and coffee in Fitzrovia, i asked rourke why men are so afraid of powerful women. she smiled, and said she thought women were afraid of powerful women, too. History hasn’t been kind to women who lead, she pointed out. ‘often we construct this myth around powerful women, where they seem completely impregnable, where we just see the surface.’
The performances she has elicited from ronan and robbie show the enormous power wielded by the queens, but also their vulnerability: ‘The cost of what it is to lead.’ rourke, outgoing artistic chief of London’s Donmar Warehouse Theatre, reflects some of her own experiences in the film.
she remembers attending all-male meetings at the royal shakespeare Company, and taking a deep breath before walking to the table.
in the film, we see ronan nervously twisting her hands before going through a door to meet imperious courtiers. ‘i wanted to display the humanisation,’ rourke said. When Mary arrives in scotland from France, she’s with her ladies-in-waiting, nicknamed ‘the Maries’, or ‘the Four Marys’.
Jenny shircore, the oscar-winning hair and make-up designer, gave Mary and the Maries funky hairstyles that changed as the film progressed. ‘Like a girl group,’ rourke said.
Costume designer alexandra Byrne, who won an oscar for Cate Blanchett’s elizabeth: The Golden age, was revolutionary on the sewing machine. ‘all the costumes, bar one or two, are made from denim,’ rourke said, adding that they still had all the renaissance corseting.
some silhouettes are influenced by the fashions of the Forties and Fifties, ‘as women started to enter the workplace’, because Mary and elizabeth were working women. The men wore denim, too; but not down to their ankles. ‘it’s a period obsessed with men’s calves,’ rourke said. ‘They are effectively wearing little hot panties, showing their legs off. There are some superb men’s calves in this film — but not all men look good in tights.’
RourKe had screenwriter Beau Willimon include birth and menstruation scenes. ‘it’s a period drama where Mary gets her period,’ she said. When early versions were shown, ‘some people had a visceral response to that...They were shocked by it, but as a woman it’s not shocking. it’s just not seen in films’.
rourke had the backing of Tim Bevan, who runs the British film company Working Title with eric Fellner. she said Bevan and his colleagues at Focus Features trusted her with a big enough budget to make the film she wanted: with a stellar cast that also features David Tennant, Guy Pearce, adrian Lester, Jack Lowden, Brendan Coyle and a particularly striking ismael Cruz Cordova (an american) as Mary’s italianborn courtier David rizzio.
rourke pursued Margot robbie ardently. ‘she has enormous humility,’ she told me, adding that Blanchett is robbie’s heroine, and she revered her elizabeth. ‘Do you think that’s something i can do?’ she recalled the actress asking.
Bevan knew rourke was right for the film. ‘she has run a building; she knows about budgets, history, actors and putting a story together.’
The director told me the greatest compliment her Yorkshire mother could pay anyone is to call them ‘a bag of sense’. Ms rourke is definitely a bag of sense.