Acclaimed actor O’Connor’s (Mansfield Park, Blessed) feature directorial debut stars Emma Mackey (Sex Education) as Wuthering Heights author Emily Bronte who struggles to find her voice as a young woman.
The film was funded by a UK distribution deal with Warner Bros for the UK and a raft of pre-sales through Embankment Films. Ingenious provided gap funding and there was support from the UK tax credit as well as Tempo/BeaglePug Films, with additional investment from Automatik and Spitfire for the music publishing. Bleecker Street distributes in the US and Sphere in Canada.
What made you want to tell this story?
I’ve always loved Emily Bronte and I think she’s quite an intriguing character. She was an introvert, she was socially awkward, and yet she wrote one of the greatest pieces of literature. The juxtaposition of those two things was really interesting. I just thought there could be a great story in there about how do you find your voice and how do you maintain authentically who you are when you don’t see that reflected back at you? That was my starting point.
When and where did you film?
We filmed it right towards the end of the second lockdown in April last year. We shot for six weeks and then we edited over the summer. There was a delay with the mix because of Covid and people’s schedules. We filmed slightly north of Haworth in Yorkshire, which is where the Brontes grew up. It’s very kind of wild and robust up there, virgin Yorkshire Dales. We felt it was a better fit because if you’re shooting in Haworth there are a lot of telephone wires.
Covid didn’t interrupt the shoot?
No, partly because we were shooting out in the middle of nowhere and it was impossible for people to go home. We got very lucky in that no-one got Covid. Our DP Nanu Segal tested positive on day three and that was a false positive. Apart from that we were very lucky. We shot for 34 days, with a couple of six-day weeks.
Emma Mackey is terrific in the lead
Yeah she was one of the first people who read for it and she just kind of blew me away in the room. There’s just something about her. Like Emily she’s very authentic as a person. She’s a very bright girl. I really felt like she loves Emily Bronte as well. And she went to university up in Leeds and she knows that area. The way that character is written, it’s quite a big arc in terms of where she starts at the and then comes into her power and writes the novel. I thought Emma traversed that really beautifully.
How did your experience as an actor inform your approach to directing?
It’s really important to create space for the actors where they feel very comfortable and valued. From that I think you can get great storytelling. So we did a lot of work in rehearsal every morning just to kind of get them out of their heads. We sang church hymns and then we did lots of improvisation. We had about two weeks and [the cast] all stayed together in this big old house in the countryside so all of that kind of contributed to the fact that you can feel their connection.
Were you the actor who was always picking up directing tips on set?
When I started I was just so in love with acting I really didn’t see anything other than that. [Over time] I was the person around the monitor asking, ‘What lens are you on?’ I was kind of surprised how different it is when you’re actually on the other side of the camera. It’s a totally different thing, but a great thing. I love it. It’s really creative in a different way from acting.
Are there any directors who helped you or influenced you?
I do have a lot of friends who are directors, like Tom Shankland, who directed The Missing. He watched some cuts of film, which was really helpful. And my best friend from Australia [Daina Reid] directed [episodes of] The Handmaid’s Taleand a lot of high-end television. She watched a cut of the film, and Oliver Parker helped. I’ve got a lot of really close friends who have been directing for a long time and they were really instrumental in giving me their opinion.
Is the theatrical experience important to you?
I grew up going to the cinema so for me, I feel like that’s the way to watch films. I think it’s great people can access films through watching at home but I really do feel that especially this film lends itself to the cinema.
How have you found it as a female creator – particular challenges?
Regardless of whether you’re a man or a woman, getting your first feature made and getting people to believe that you can do the job is challenging. I don’t know whether my sex played into that in terms of some people saying, ‘We’re not going to back you’ or ‘We’re going to back you’, I’m not sure. I think it’s quite an exciting time. There’s so many really great female writer-directors coming through now and it’s feeling pretty diverse. It feels like a positive time. It’s going to take some more time but it definitely feels like there’s been an acceleration in the last even two years.
Do you want to direct again? What’s next?
Yeah I do, I just really loved processes and especially editing, which is so interesting and fun. I’ve written my next thing and I’m just working with my story editor. I’m trying to get that into shape over the summer.
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