Renee Zellweger |
Who birthed Peter Rabbit? The hypnotic, renowned and artfully illustrated Peter Rabbit stories didn’t just sprout to life on their own. A diligent writer--an authoress, in fact--was the cryptic scribe behind-the scenes; but just who was she? Miss Potter uncovers a buried tale about this 20th century risk-taker who became one of the world’s most successful children’s writers, during a time where women of her class were expected to marry successful men--and settle down.
Oscar-winner (Cold Mountain) Renee Zellweger deftly plays English writer and artist Beatrix Potter, a talented and independent woman living in the intellectually and socially confining circumstances of Victorian England. Finding a publisher for her books becomes an arduous task until she finds an enterprising firm that agrees to give her stories a chance, and a visionary editor, Norman Wayne (Ewan McGregor), who develops her books and shares a zest and enthusiasm for her creations. Hollywood.com caught up with the stars of this innovative period film that will slyly capture your heart.
Hollywood.com: Beatrix Potter’s books have long had an impact on children’s lives. Do you remember the books as a child?
Renee Zellweger: I knew a couple of her stories. I didn’t know all of them, and I knew absolutely nothing about the woman. I remember the images. I remember Peter Rabbit being there. My mom read the books to my brother and I, but not all of them. There were other children’s books and authors who were more prominent in our adolescence.
Ewan McGregor: I had them [the stories] read to me as a child, I’m sure. I don’t remember the particular stories from when I was a kid, but like Renee, and like all the rest of us, I’m very familiar with her illustrations, the images.
HW: Do you feel Beatrix and Norman both went beyond their own stereotypes and developed their own individual voices?
EM: I think there’s something interesting about Norman that when he meets Beatrix, his brothers have said that they’re going to publish her book and immediately [Beatrix] insists, “…Well it must be like this, like, this and like this.” And I imagine she must have been quite a tough cookie to deal with. So when she meets Norman, he’s so nervous about being a publisher, but he immediately meets her demands of enthusiasm with those of his own because he seems to be like a perfect match in terms of their passion towards her work. I don’t get the sense that he was trying to prove himself.
HW: Do you think Miss Potter’s eccentricities helped her become a great artist?
RZ: Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure. [Pauses] I don’t know how to answer your question, from a general perspective. I could only tell you from my own experiences--and I wouldn’t answer it very eloquently because I’m not that self-aware. Well, I had a lovely conversation with Ewan the other day, about anything that might be strange about myself. I wish I had something to blame and then I thought oh wait, “I’m an actress!” [Laughs]. Now it all makes sense! I don’t know which would come first, I don’t know. I have met a lot of actors. I have worked with a lot of creative people who need their medium. They need it. It’s their basis of foundation here. It’s what helps them cope. It’s how they channel their emotions or their inability to deal with other things. It’s the way that they communicate. It’s an outlet. It gives them stability. It gives them purpose. I’ve met those people. I don’t think that I’m one of them. It’s an important creative medium for me, and it stops there. I don’t know that it is my first medium, this one, the acting. It was more accidental, but it has become very important to me in my life and I do need it. I can’t explain to you why.
HW: So perhaps it was more that Beatrix needed her art--to really live a full life?
RZ: As far as my perceptions about Beatrix, I just imagined that she had such a rich imagination because she had such an isolated adolescence and that she was living within such rigid parameters that were set by her mother in terms of expectations that didn’t interest her or didn’t come naturally to her. But that was my perception of it anyhow: that she needed the characters as a creative outlet.
HW: Do you think it’s strange that Beatrix speaks to her characters?
RZ: I don’t think she’s weird. I had this conversation earlier. I don’t think it’s strange at all that she speaks to her work when she’s in that creative place, when she’s conjuring this world in her mind--this imaginary world. [Smiles] It’s not strange at all to me. I love her eccentricities. I think she’s brilliant. I think she’s completely complicated in the most wonderful way and I would have loved to have known her.
HW: Can you tell us about your decision to work together again after Down with Love?
EM: When Renee and I were making Down With Love, we had a fantastic time in that movie and I think it’s safe to say we’re both really proud of it and certainly love it, and we had a great deal of fun. But, the humor in the film was a very specifically kind of ‘60s type of comedy and kind of went against the grain a little bit for us. And it is difficult to learn, and if you didn’t “time it” absolutely perfectly, it didn’t work. So, it was quite hard work and occasionally we would be struggling through a scene and look at each other and go, “Gosh, we wish we could just be doing something so straightforward playing a scene!”
RZ: It’s all true and I agree we had the best time. It was hilarious because we were working in a different way when you’re doing stylized work like that. We had no point of reference whether or not we had nailed it because there’s no way to tell. [We’d hear], “O.k., cut! Moving on…” and we’d look at each other and say, “What do you think? We got it? I don’t know…uhhh…I don’t know uhhh…” [Laughs] … We thought how great would it be to just ‘act’ and see what happened and so…there was a bunch of [projects], and then I read the script and Chris and I had been discussing.
HW: What authors have inspired you in your real life?
RZ: That’s really interesting. I don’t know specifically. It changes, you know. You pick something up and find it completely inspiring because it’s a different kind of prose. I like African-American writers and I like Southern writers. There are elements of the subculture that are exquisitely rich, just historically. There’s a musicality to Langston Hughes’ work that just jumps off the page and it makes me think, I need a pen, I need a pen! He’s probably my favorite. There’s just so much emotion. It’s kind of like in Latin Culture; you find this kind of passion for all elements of life. I find that the same in African American writers, just this passion for things. Love… I need a pen! I need a pen! [Laughs].
HW: Do you consider Miss Potter to be a “chick-flick?”
RZ: I don’t think this is a chick-flick at all. I think it’s far more complex than that. It’s not meant to be ‘female entertainment’. It’s an important story and it’s a beautiful story, and I don’t think I’ve met a guy yet who has seen it who didn’t connect to it or cried. It’s just real. It’s a human story. I think it’s the most powerful kind of story to take advantage of the impact this medium can have in terms of moving a person…making yourself aware in a way…making you recognize something different…making you question things…learning something, growing as a person. I don’t think it’s a chick-flick. I think it underestimates it in a terrible way. I think we should hear what the rest has to say.
HW: Can you talk about Beatrix’s environmental interests and contributions?
RZ: She was a founding member of the National Trust. I was very surprised. I knew nothing about it and just recently I was reading about the things that she did with the girl scouts in terms of accommodating them--helping them to learn how to survive on their own in the wild. I just didn’t know the magnitude of the contributions she had made. I didn’t know that [as a land preservationist] she was responsible partially for the future of [farming]. Still, I can’t tell you too much. I kind of stopped with gathering my information that pertained to this part of her life, because it was such a finite period--and there was just so much information.
Photo(s) by Adriana M. Barraza- © 2005- Hollywood Media Corp.- All Rights Reserved