Great Expectations

By starrymag | March 26, 2023

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) First of all, congratulations everybody. I’m really enjoying the show. This novel was written more than 150 years ago and dealt with some really deep social and political themes. As we’ve seen, 150 something years has gone by and those social and political themes are still there. As you were filming this, how much did you correlate to t- things that are happening today that this show was kind of really putting the spotlight on?

 

Steven Knight: I mean I can speak to that in the sense that any, I think any great work of literature is pretty timeless when it deals with, you know, the human condition and the way things are, but I think it’s particularly, um, timely in the sense that sort of quite unusually and unfashionably at the moment, it’s about class, and it’s about someone who is trying to escape from their destiny, um, and I think in our society at the moment, I’m speaking for England and maybe for the US as well, but things are getting pretty tough, and things were pretty tough for Pip, so I think it is very relevant.

 

Fionn Whitehead: Yeah, I’d second that and say that just following on from Steven’s point, that particularly in the UK at the moment there’s been a lot of divisive politics, which have been widening the gap massively, and so this, this is kind of  just extremely relevant at the moment.

 

Q) Ms. Colman, this is for you. Uh, was this, uh, on a bucket list? Did you want to play this role at some point or, you know, is it just, uh, the opportunity arose, and how do you choose which of these parts you do do?

 

Olivia Colman: [laughs] No, I hadn’t, I, I hadn’t thought of playing Ms. Havisham before, um, but, uh, when I heard it was written by Steve and, that’s “Awooh! Quite exciting!” And I was quite late on board, I think, um, uh, and it was, it came on the back of quite a long run of work, so I was a bit “Aw, I really need a break,” but I couldn’t say no, and it was (laughs), and, uh, I, I don’t really think about things terribly deeply. Sorry to disappoint you, but I just really saw the script, really liked it, wanted to play her and wanted to work with all these people, so that was, that was it really.

 

Q) Is the script kind of the entry point? Is that what you really need to know if you want to do a part?

 

Olivia Colman: I’m assuming that’s the same for all of us, but if you read a script and it’s rubbish and you can’t work out how you’re going to make it any better, then, um (laughs), uh, you don’t then go any further down the road of dis- discussing it, but, um, this, um, this was clearly great, and I, I’m sort of probably an oddity here, but I, I had never read Great Expectations. I’d seen, um, adaptations on the telly before, but so, I knew roughly who she was and everything, but it was just, I thought “Oh, she sounds great. I’d love to get my teeth into her,” and, yeah, that was, that was my thought process.

 

Q) Ms. Colman, this is such an incredible costume you wear and the makeup is fascinating as well. How much of a say did you have when it came to designing the look of Ms. Havisham and does it take you stepping into the clothing and that makeup to really embody her?

 

Olivia Colman: I mean, I’ve always said good hair, makeup and costume, that’s three quarters of your job already done before you leave the van, um, but Verity, the costume, she, I- I think she was my big, um, help, because she said “I don’t see her as dusty, I see her as rotting from the inside.” And so I thought “Oh my god, that’s it. That’s great.” So the costume, uh, it’s a shame you never get to see it really clearly in broad daylight, but it literally looks like her, it’s, mold is growing up it and you can see her heart is rotting, um, and I love that. Rather than dusty, she was dark and rotten, um, and so that, from Verity, that’s where I got my main sort of character, whatever it would be called, work. And hair and makeup, they bleached my eyebrows, and as you can see, I’ve got, I’ve got dark eyebrows, and when the wig came off and I still had no eyebrows, and Shalom [Brune-Franklin] was the same I think, but my little girl wouldn’t cuddle me for the entire duration of the shoot until I could dye my eyebrows back, um, but it was fun. I think it really works. I looked bonkers for weeks, but it was worth it in the long run.

 

Q) Steven, I read that your dad was a blacksmith, so I was wondering how old were you when you read the book? Did that strike you even back then about the class prejudice for, uh, for a blacksmith’s family? And extending on that, when you grow up and, and you’re working in a business that is full Oxford and Cambridge grads and stuff like that, has that kind of a class prejudice always been in your mind somewhere?

 

Steven Knight: Yeah. I mean, I was one of seven kids, five of us were boys, and my dad wanted all of us to shoe horses, and we used to, in the morning we’d get up for school and my dad would say “Do you want to go to school, or do you want to come with me?” And we’d say, “We’ll go with you.” And so, we used to go, we used to turn the handle on the forge and we used to cook breakfast on the coals and all that, and it was quite a very odd, um, upbringing, but my dad wanted us all to be blacksmiths, and he said – I don’t know how this works, but he said, “I can tell by the way a man takes off his jacket whether or not he can shoe a horse.” And I obviously was taking my jacket off wrong, because I couldn’t do it. I mean, I’ve sincerely felt like a failure, sort of, ever since, because one of my brothers did it, and did it all his life, and I could never do it. I could take the shoes off but couldn’t put them on.

 

So, my not becoming a blacksmith was a consequence of inability. Pip’s decision to not become a blacksmith is, is sort of the opposite, but, you know, I feel that situation where there is an expectation, which isn’t great, that you will do this and that’s what you’re going to do, and my only great expectation was to work somewhere I didn’t get wet when it rained, when I was a kid. Um, and so, yeah, so I, I feel a lot of em- not empathy, but understanding … and not in pursuit, but the un- understanding of Pip, but Pip doesn’t want to do … As far as I can tell in the book, he’s actually good at it, but he doesn’t want to do it. I was the opposite.

Q) Mrs. Colman. We are in the International Women’s Week and Miss Havisham kind of hates men, but also-she tries to teach Estella how to navigate a world where, a world that is made by men and for men. So, I was wondering if you would say that she could be considered a feminist icon in her own way?

 

Olivia Colman: Ooh. Yes, I suppose so, but my, uh, my idea of feminism is equality, not, uh, not hatred, and she does teach Estella to be a weapon and to pay back men and to hate men. And she says, “In a, in a marriage, you’re the winner if you don’t, if you’re not the one that loves.”

 

So, in a way, yes, she was ahead of her time and determined not to need men, um, but it’s not how I see feminism… And she allows men to hurt her, so, uh, again, that’s not really how I see it. But, yeah, she’s pretty, she’s pretty cool, forceful and scary and but again, I’m not sure any of those things are (laughs), are flattering towards feminists. I mean, I know plenty of men who are feminists as well and that’s just, it’s about equality and thoughtfulness and caring I think, I think.

 

Steven Knight: But probably now the way that Shalom plays that weapon, the way Shalom plays Estella, in such a way that it, it, it gives such a different perspective so that there’s all the stuff on the outside, but I’d love to hear how she approached it.

 

Olivia Colman: Yeah.

 

Steven Knight: It’s so good.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Oh, me?

 

Steven Knight: Yeah.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Me? You’re throwing me, uh, you’re throwing me out here now.

 

Steven Knight: Yeah (laughing).

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: In how I approach the role?

 

Steven Knight: Of being the weapon, and yet, there’s obviously some … Sorry I’m asking you a question; I shouldn’t be. But you’ve been raised to be a weapon, and yet, the way that you are fundamentally means that you’re not that, you’re something else.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Yeah. I think that was the most fun part. I think with Brady, we really explored the idea of, you’ve been raised a certain way and told and made to believe a certain thing, but then when you start to go out into the world and have a little bit of an experience of the world for yourself, you start to see that it’s not all these things that you’ve been told, and so you’re incredibly confused. But, again, I don’t think she has the tools or the ability to be able to understand and navigate her way through that world, because obviously Miss Havisham hasn’t given her (laughs) the best toolkit, let’s just say (laughs).

 

Um, yeah, so I think she’s always have, there’s always sort of an internal battle of what she is feeling versus what she is thinking she has to feel, if that makes sense.

 

Steven Knight: Absolutely. Yeah.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Yeah.

 

Olivia Colman:          Hmm, so I, I love those little moments when no one can see you and you’d let your heart be seen. It’s just beautiful.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Yeah.

 

Olivia Colman: Yeah.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Those vibes?

 

Olivia Colman: Well, it’s some kind of vibes.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin:(laughing)

 

Q) I’m curious, since Olivia mentioned that she hadn’t read Great Expectations, for the other cast members, whether you had and how it might have informed, you know, playing these, these, uh, sort of iconic Dickens’ characters.

 

Olivia Colman: That you-

 

Fionn Whitehead: Yeah, I hadn’t-

 

Olivia Colman: Oh.

Fionn Whitehead: I’m sorry, go on.

Olivia Colman: No, go on. I was, I’ve, I’ve just, uh, I bet you all did.

 

Fionn Whitehead: I hadn’t, I hadn’t read it and so then when, when, um, I started prepping for it, I listened to the audiobook. So I listened to Eddie Izzard, uh, reading, reading-

 

Olivia Colman:          Cool.

 

Fionn Whitehead: .. which was great. I think that this version sort of stands very apart from, from the original, because obviously, it is based on the original, but it is kind of its own thing, uh, in its own right. So yeah, I did use … There’s a lot of character traits obviously, between the Pip in the book and then the Pip that we see in-

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Yeah (laughs).

 

Fionn Whitehead :… this version that’s the most. I did kind of use it as a basis, but really, it was working more from the script because they are such different things.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Hmm. Oh, um, I was gonna say, the first time I read Great Expectations was against my will because it was in English class at school-

 

Fionn Whitehead:    Okay.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: … and I, I was so annoyed that we had to read Dickens. I mean, I … Yeah, that’s probably not the best thing to say. I was like, “Why can’t we read something more modern. This is so boring.” That was my first, um (laughs), experience of the novel. My opinion has changed since then, obviously, um, but that was my very first experience of it (laughs).

 

Ashley Thomas: Yeah, I, I hadn’t, I hadn’t read it. I listened to the audiobook as well, and the script’s different from the book, but I did take some of the character traits, like, uh, the cleaning of the hands and just making sure that in scenes, he was cleaning his nails and washing his hands, and just kept that as a through-thread throughout. But the scripts are so different. I leaned into the scripts more.

 

Q) First read the book when I was 12, and when I watch this, I just found a whole new story there about dreams and also being crashed. And I think that we live in a society where, uh, dreams don’t always manifest. So, I was wondering, when you were young, before you became actors, what were your dreams?

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Great question.

 

Olivia Colman: I wanted to be an actor (laughing) from, from the age of 16 anyway. Before that, uh, I thought I might be a doctor, but it turns out, I really didn’t have the brains.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: [laughs]

 

Olivia Colman: Um, yeah, so I, I feel like my dreams have come true. I feel r- really … and I wanted loads of kids. I haven’t got as many kids as I’d like, but, um, I’m very lucky (laughs).

 

Fionn Whitehead: I went to see a pantomime I think, when I was quite young, like, a sort of local pantomime with my family, and there was a character called … it was sort of a remake of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and there was a character called Benjamin Black and he was the villain. And then apparently, I spent the next few years walking around saying I wanted to be a baddie.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: (laughing)

 

Fionn Whitehead:    So, I wanted to be a baddie villain.

 

Olivia Colman:          (laughing)

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: That’s so good. I, I actually don’t know what I really wanted to be. I think when I was younger, I really wanted to go to the Olympics. That was my … I was obsessed with Kelly Holmes; I kind of wanted to be her I think. That was my … Yeah, that’s, I think that’s the first sort of dream I had (laughs).

 

Olivia Colman: (laughs)

 

Ashley Thomas: I wanted to be either an actor or a pilot, and, um, so my dream come true has, has happened as an actor, but a pilot. Maybe, maybe I’ll still go for it. I want to maybe get a pilot’s license, but, um-

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Yeah.

 

Steven Knight: Yeah (laughs).

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Yeah (laughing).

 

Ashley Thomas: I don’t think I’m gonna get there (laughing).

 

Q) Olivia, you were 16 when you realized you wanted to be an actress? What did you do about it and what did your parents say?

 

Olivia Colman: (laughs) I was 16 when I did my first play at school, and it’s the first time I’d, um, been able to do anything; I was so rubbish at school. And it was a few years before I realized I could actually be an actor, because I thought you had to come from that. Then, I met people who were just different to the people I’d grown up with, who said, “No, you can, you can work hard and aim for something and go for it.” I went, “Oh.”

 

And so I would think I was probably 19 or 20 when I realized, you don’t have to have come from that background. You can. I’m gonna do it, and my parents were terrified because they thought I should learn to … well, I did learn to type, but I should go and be a secretary, something sensible. I was a terrible secretary. I did that for a bi- long time, trying to keep my head above water, and terrible waitress, just rubbish at everything. Jolly, but not really good at it, and (laughs) enthusiastic.

 

I’m just really, I’m sort of grateful I couldn’t do anything else, ’cause I had nothing to fall back on, so I really had to keep plugging at it and, um, uh, and I love it. And I get to see lovely people like this. You get to go to work with these lovely people, so I couldn’t be happier.

 

Q) You did talk about how Pip is set up by Miss Havisham to suffer for the crimes of really, the male species. And there’s a broader discussion happening, um, in the world about how to separate individual men from patriarchy as a whole, and understand the ways that patriarchy hurts men. So, for Olivia and also for Shalom, I’m interested in hearing, you know, how you thought about your character in terms of their need to reconcile, you know, this urge to punish with hurting this very sweet boy, who they’re spending time with. Um, and, you know, I’m also curious if you felt the need to apologize to Fionn between takes (laughs).

 

Olivia Colman: (laughing)

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: I don’t know. I think for the character of Estella, I think pleasing Miss Havisham is her main goal I think; it’s more about keeping Miss Havisham happy. I think that’s obviously a really toxic and horrible relationship that she’s having to navigate and grow up in. And so I think Miss Havisham would have been a lot nicer to her if she just did as she was told and was cruel to this boy, and so she, she did exactly that I think.

 

Olivia Colman: I feel sad that Miss Havisham managed not to meet any really good, nice men (laughs), so she, she decided everybody was in the same mold as Compeyson and missed out on what could have been. She could have washed her hands of him and – moved on, given her and Estella a much nicer life. But, um, uh, and also, back in those days, of the, you know, really full-on patriarchy, they, they were stuck, they couldn’t work, couldn’t do anything so it was going to have to be marriage, and her only insight into marriage was horrendous.

 

So, poor Estella was sort of screwed from the offset really. Yeah, shame. Maybe Steve can write another one where she meets a really nice (laughs), they have a really-

 

Steven Knight: (laughs)

 

Olivia Colman: … happy life.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Lovely that.

Steven Knight:          [inaudible 00:25:54] and you get them all and they have a lovely life and-

Olivia Colman:          Yeah, the patriarchy doesn’t exist and it’s-

Steven Knight:          (laughs) Yeah.

Olivia Colman:          … it’s lovely.

 

Q) I have a question for Steven. You adapted Charles Dickens’ work before and I was wondering if you could talk about his work that appeals to you and how do you stay true to the story while making it your own?

 

Steven Knight: Yeah. I think that that’s a good way of putting it is stay true to the story, which is what I tried to do. And, and to not sort of deliberately set out to vandalize the thing in order to draw attention. Because that’s not the point. Because the story’s endured this long because it works. And the characters work.

 

So, there are a couple of things I tried to do. One is, when Dickens was writing, he wasn’t able to write about certain things because you just couldn’t write about those things at the time because they were considered to be not territory for fiction. And I wonder what Dickens would do if he had the liberty to write about the realities of what London was really like. I mean, he alludes to it in all of his novels but he can never actually go all the way into those dark places. So that’s what I tried to do.

 

I’m attracted to the way Dickens writes because it’s, it’s episodic and it’s meant to be episodic. And if he were around at the moment, I’m sure he’d be writing movies and, and streaming television because he has this rhythm to the work where there are these cliff hangers and things keep happening. And then you have to follow it on. And he does it so beautifully.

 

And the other thing is, with his characters, it was quite revolutionary to have working class characters speaking phonetically. So, they’re speaking in their own voice. Um, and the fact that he was, in his own sort of controlled way, furious about what was happening in the world and the way that people, um, who were self-evidently capable, were unable to make any impression in the world because of where they were born. I think that point in England, um, maybe in America, I don’t know, but in England that point can still be made, I think.

 

Q) Fionn, perhaps you can tell me, as a modern young man, does this make you want to explore what is already out there?

 

Fionn Whitehead: Yeah. Definitely. I think that as Steven was saying earlier, there is so many of these classic texts. The reason that as he said, the reason they’ve stood the test of time is because of the stories. Um, and it’s just a matter of kind of delving into them, I guess. Some of them, I think, are quite…some of them can be a little bit inaccessible for some younger people now, just because of the language, uh, and the way- the way that it’s written. Um, but when you can sort of decipher that, so much like getting a magic code, or when you can decipher that and actually get to the meat of the story, your eyes are kind of opened to this whole, whole new world that is exciting and interesting. And I think that is really important. And particularly important to open up to the generation of young people who might never- might never have had the chance of reading this kind of work or might never have had the interest in reading it. So, yeah.

Q) For Mr. Knight, you already touched a little bit on, um, the social commentary back then and today and how relevant and timely this story is. Would you mind elaborate a little bit more in regard to today’s Great Expectations which also, of course, would be wealth and happiness and love and all these things. They’ve become also, again, more unreachable. And you had just earlier mentioned the fury of Dickens being furious. Do you feel like fury in yourself as well? And do you feel that people will respond to this series, this limited series, similarly as they responded back in, in the Dickens’ times.

 

Steven Knight: Yeah. I mean, I personally have a problem getting furious, I must admit. I’m a- it’s not the thing that motivates me. Now I think the, the interesting thing about Dickens and I think one of the reasons he’s endured is that he either likes or forgives all of his characters, even the worst. He actually forgives them. You can feel it in the way he writes. That he’s got a great affection for all of his characters. And in the preface to David Copperfield he talks about when he finished it, he was bereft because he said he was losing these people that he really loved, who were the characters.

 

I try to do that if I can with characters in everything but especially in Dickens so that what the, the idea would be, um, you know, um, there you are either creating or interpreting these characters. But rather like an actor has to, has to find something in that character that they can live with themselves, as a writer you have to, I think, find out that, um, that character is doing a bad thing for a sort of obscurely good reason probably.

 

I think you make a decision, people are good or bad fundamentally. And I’ve made the decision people are fundamentally good unless they’re forced to not be. And I think Dickens is the same. And so therefore the fury is never at the, the individual who’s expressing the problem. The fury is with the problem that is causing that individual to be like that, if you see what I mean. And I think that was- that was probably the most revolutionary thing about Dickens that Tolstoy then sort of found and carried on with.

 

Q) We had already talked about when or if you had read the book. But there has also been a gazillion adaptations of this either for stage or screen. And I wanted to know if there were any particular other adaptations you had seen either before you got cast or after you got cast?

 

And then for Steven and for Shalom, Estella is not always the nicest person. It can be very easy to not root for her. So, I wanted to know a little bit about how you grounded her and made her at least not as cold as maybe, like, Gwyneth Paltrow did when she did the role.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: For myself, I don’t know if this was Steven’s intention. But I think there were clues in the script to me to show that she was somebody who was really hurting inside. She was somebody who was incredibly confused, had sort of been led down a very specific path, and wanted to escape from that. And so I think, again, I come back to the fact that when you’re raised a certain way, you always revert back to those things that you’ve been taught how to behave in order to navigate your way through situations. And so I think Miss Havisham has, has taught her that the colder you are and the, the less vulnerable you are, you’ll always have the upper hand in life. And so I think that’s how she, she goes through the world. But, at the same time, it’s those moments when nobody else is around, how she allows herself to feel exactly how she’s feeling inside, which is just very, very confused. She’s a very confused little girl, isn’t she? (laughs) But yeah.

 

Ashley Thomas: (laughs) Um, yeah, I watched a few versions, um, of the previous versions so that I could see how other people had really, um, interpret it. And, um, see their take on it and just see if I could get any clues from someone else’s version. And then, like I said, I listened to the book and wanted to stay true to the book and- as well as Steven’s script as well. So then have a marriage of the two of those. And I think what Jaggers does is represent London. So I was trying to look for clues of L- where London is spoke about for, like, Jaggers is London personified in this version of the story. And, um, yeah. That’s, that’s my-

 

Steven Knight: Jaggers is London. I think that’s a fantastic observation, totally.

 

Olivia Colman: I loved watching your journey as well, Ashley, just this, this tiny little sort of oops and heart showing. It’s really beautiful.

 

Ashley Thomas: Yeah. ‘Cause ultimately he’s human, right? So he has- he cares-

 

Olivia Colman: Yeah.

 

Ashley Thomas: ..and he’s had his own journey as well. He’s not this-

 

Olivia Colman: Yeah.

 

Ashley Thomas: … in the same way that London can be, and big cities, not just London, but can be these cold places that people go to to search and seek their dreams, but, you know, you can still in those- in these big cities meet people with kind hearts that love. And there are moments of beauty and, and people who care.

 

Olivia Colman: Yeah.

 

Ashley Thomas: So, I think Jaggers has that as well-

 

Olivia Colman: Yeah.

Ashley Thomas: … cold exterior, but if you search, he has those moments.

 

Fionn Whitehead: All right. I watched a few. I watched a couple of different versions. It probably put the fear into me more than anything to try and get it right. But one thing I was quite keen on carrying through, through the piece was just trying to make sure that the- that his background came through throughout the whole piece rather than it dropping the minute that he gets to London. Uh, which I think is like an easy thing to do, to sort of kinda switch from one, one place to another. But for me it felt more important to have the sort of refined gentleman speak and that way of behaving to be more of an act, um, that he is putting on when he’s in London. And almost trying to convince himself that he is and actually that he kind of carries through and can’t really change who he is.

 

Olivia Colman: I actually can’t remember the last version I saw. I was terrified because when my mate Gillian had played it (laughs). And when someone compares you to your friend when it’s just- well, it’s too late now. So, it’s scary. But because she’s amazing. But, as Steven said, what’s beautiful about this is… and I completely agree with you, it’s- it’s a situation someone’s put in, not necessarily, intrinsically their, their being. And they’re having to be tough, or they’re having to be- or they’ve learnt something and they don’t know how to go back. But you do love all of these characters. And Dickens and Knight have nailed it.

 

And I loved watching it. We got to watch a rough-cut version all of us before the blue screen and the green screen’s been sorted out. But the characters are so beautiful and they all- you love them all-

 

Olivia Colman: … and sorted out. But the characters are so beautiful, and they all… You love them all, because you know that, you they’ve all come from hard places and they’re trying their hardest. So, I prefer what Steven’s done with it. (laughs)

 

Q) So, as we’ve already alluded to, there are a number of like complex and timeless things that are present in Great Expectations. So, I wanted to know for all of the actors, which of these resonated most deeply with you as you either read through the script or you were performing?

 

Fionn Whitehead: For me the thing that resonated a lot for me with Pip, was this thing of being a sort of… I mean, being a young man, being 18, and f-, and feeling like you need to do everything on your own. And that you have to sort of forge this path and not ask for help, and not need help. And kind of repress a lot of stuff like a lot of emotions and everything else, and just kind of power on and keep going. And that, that it’s a form of weakness to not be able to do that.

 

I think that is a sort of universally relatable thing for, I mean, a lot, a lot of young men… And I’m sure women, but I can’t speak for them.

 

Olivia Colman: Well, I’m still struggling with the fact that it depends on where you’re born very much as to how people will see you. And I think that’s rubbish. And that this is still w-… As we’ve talked about, I’m so sorry to repeat it. But that it’s still very much a case for many people. And then they’re not given the opportunity to, to… Well, they didn’t have the opportunities that other people who were born with those different, that were born in a different place, have. That still resonates for me, and it’s still frustrating.

 

And that’s why I think I enjoyed watching it, that it’s also… And sort of found it frustrating. This is talked about so long ago, and it’s still happening. And but Miss Havisham, I didn’t necessarily find much personally to connect with. Other than I knew, I know what it’s like to love, and I know the pain she must’ve felt when that fell apart.

 

But I mean, to keep, to keep it for so long and not be able to talk to… I mean, if, if she’d had a good therapist – maybe she’d have a very different life (laughs). Or just a chum, a good friend. (laughs)

 

Q) This is question is for Mr. Knight about the producers. Because as a journalist and a fan of the movie making and storytelling, I’m very curious about… I know it’s a list of very impressive people, but will you please talk about Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott and David Zucker on board? And it will be just one line about what, having them on board. just one line (laughs).

 

Steven Knight: You’d rather have them on board than not on board. Vast experience. They know the industry. They know how to tell stories. So, to have people around like that, is always great. I’m keeping it short. But yeah, I mean, you’ve seen his work. That I think is the testament of who that person is.

 

Q) For Steven Knight, there are some very important changes in the final chapter, especially regarding Miss Havisham and Estella. And I wanted to ask, why did you find important to make those changes?

 

Steven Knight: I think that when you’re writing an adaptation you have to walk a tight rope, and I think I’ve walked that tight rope in a way that does justice to the spirit of the story while at the same time reflecting perhaps the way things have changed since then.

 

Q) I look at it what a poisonous influence she has on these two young people and how sick that relationship it. And yet you’ve been working with a lot of young people like in Empire of Light and “The Crown” and here. Can you talk about working with younger actors and what they bring to the table?

 

Olivia Colman: I hate them. (laughing) They’re flouncing their youth all over the place, it’s infuriating. That’s why Miss Havisham is great, because she, she puts them down. Um, no, I love working with anyone of any age. That’s what I love about a- the job we do. You can work with anyone from a baby, to someone in- who’s in their 90s. It’s a joy and you learn from each person. Everyone you stand across from and you look into their eyes, and whatever age they are, they bring something else. And it’s, uh… Yeah, I hope I never get bored of that. And working with Shalom, and Fionn, and Ashley. And just, a beautiful experience, and I loved it. And I, I hope I go on until I’m in my 90s.

 

Q) Do they ever come to you, to you for advice? And what sort of advice do you give them?

 

Olivia Colman: I’d be rubbish. (laughing) They wouldn’t. I think within a few moments, you know, there’s really no point. Asking me anyway (laughs)-

 

Fionn Whitehead: I think we were just having, I think maybe we were just having too much fun to,-

 

Olivia Colman: Ah, that’s nice.

 

Fionn Whitehead: … to ask for advice from you.

 

Olivia Colman: Yeah.

 

Fionn Whitehead: Uh, maybe some jokes and stuff in between takes, and just-

 

Olivia Colman: And I, maybe I’m naïve, but I like to think, uh, after just the first minute of meeting each other, we all feel like we’re the same age. But maybe, maybe I… Just don’t, don’t tell me that’s not true. Just lie.

 

Shalom Brune-Franklin: (laughs) No, I’m not gonna say-

 

Olivia Colman: (laughs)

 

Steven Knight: The director, Michael Apted said to me once… He was working with a young producer, and he said, “He came at me armed to the teeth with time.”

 

Olivia Colman: (laughs) Ye- yes. (laughs)

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*