ABOUT THYME
The latest charming rom-com pairing is Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan. The stars discuss the appeal of Wild Mountain Thyme with GEORGIA HUMPHREYS
‘UNIQUE and lyrical and beautiful,” is how Emily Blunt describes her latest movie. Wild Mountain Thyme is a romantic drama written and directed by New Yorker John Patrick Shanley – who created the classic rom-com Moonstruck, starring Cher and Nicolas Cage.
Set in the bewitching Irish countryside, the film sees London-born Emily, 38, play Rosemary Muldoon, a headstrong farmer with her heart set on winning the affections of her neighbour Anthony Reilly – played by Jamie Dornan – who she has loved since they were 10 years old.
“It had this other-worldly quality to it; it’s this sort of heightened old-school, fairytale-esque romance,” notes Jamie, also 38, who was born in Holywood, Northern Ireland.
“I really hadn’t read anything like Wild
Mountain Thyme before, and I think I speak for Emily when I say that too,” the
Fifty Shades of Grey star continues.
“They were such unique, complicated, and really loveable characters who really needed each other for different reasons – and one of them could really see that and the other one couldn’t.”
Indeed, that’s where the problem lies for Rosemary.
Anthony remains oblivious to his beautiful admirer – in fact, it seems that everyone in their farming community knows they are meant for each other, except him.
Stung when his father Tony, played by movie legend Christopher Walken, decides to sell the family farm to his American nephew Adam (Mad Men star Jon Hamm), the situation becomes more complicated for Anthony when Adam comes to visit, and is obviously interested in Rosemary.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter Emily, famous for her roles in Marry Poppins Returns, A Quiet Place, and The
Devil Wears Prada, called it “serendipitous” that the Wild Mountain Thyme script came her way.
“I had been saying to myself, ‘Oh, I’d love to do something intimate and something a bit left of centre.’
“So it came in at just the right time, and I was completely bewitched by it when I read the script. I mean, I knew because it was (John Patrick) Shanley. You know you’re going to read something singularly unique, and I just loved it. I fell in love with these bizarre, lonely farmers.”
She adds: “It’s almost like a long poem on how you can express love without ever saying ‘I love you’, and I thought it was so magical and funny. I remember John Patrick Shanley said, ‘This is almost like a farce about a caution’ because of how cautious they are and how bad they are at expressing what they feel and what they mean.
“That makes a lot of sense to me, coming from
What actor doesn’t want to work with Emily Blunt? We have a very similar way of taking on the work and we just have a load of fun
Jamie Dornan on working with co-star Emily Blunt
England, where we’re sort of reluctant to say what we feel. And so, I found the whole thing so touching because it reminded me of my family, and people I know and where I’m from.”
Jamie had lots of research to hand when it came to the rural filming situation. The actor lives in the Cotswolds with his wife, Amelia Warner, and their three daughters.
“I’m sort of surrounded by farms and by nature and fields and animals,” says the star, who terrified viewers playing a serial killer in the BBC thriller, The Fall. “And I’m from Ireland; I didn’t grow up in the city, I grew up in what a lot of people would consider a very rural environment, and my mum’s family were pig farmers.” Emily, who lives with her actor and writer husband John Krasinski and their two young daughters in Brooklyn, New York, suggests it’s the chemistry between the two leads that makes a romantic comedy one you really remember.
She explains: “They put their fingerprints on you because you’re desperate for them to get together, or figure out their own c**p that they’re trying to go through... you genuinely don’t know what’s going to happen between these two, or what they’re going to say to each other.
“And that’s also the beauty of John Patrick Shanley’s writing... that it’s so surprising, it’s so unexpected; you never quite know what or how they’re going to express themselves to each other. I think that makes for a really entertaining experience, watching this.”
It certainly seems like the pair had a great time working together, Emily describes her co-star as having “a lightness to him that makes you want to be around him” while Jamie smiles: “What actor doesn’t want to work with Emily Blunt?
“We have a very similar way of taking on the work and we just have a load of fun.”
Emily adds that Jamie “has played so many leading men who seem to have it all together, but I think Anthony is a lot closer to who he really is”.
“Jamie really understands the introverted, reluctant, fearful elements of Anthony,” she says, full of praise.
Indeed, the actor calls Anthony the least “normal” person he’s ever played.
“I’ve played some very dark characters, but never anyone as unworldly as Anthony,” he reflects.
“He is just slightly in his own world and while it wouldn’t take much to make him very happy, he hasn’t been able to muster the right energy to make that happen and be fulfilled.
“I had to let all my insecurities and lack of understanding of certain elements of life come to the front with him. I feel like I’ve exposed myself more than I ever have in any other role.”