Like many Jane Austen era dramas, Belle is the story of young women who want to marry. Belle is a tad different in that, based on the true story, Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha Raw) is a mixed raced woman at a time when slavery still exists, let alone aristocratic considerations for marriage. Dido and her sister Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon) are courted by James (Tom Felton) and Oliver Ashford (James Norton), and James in particular looks down on Dido. Playing Lady Ashford, trying to marry off her sons, is legendary actor Miranda Richardson. When she was in New York promoting the release of Belle, I got to enjoy a brief chat with Richardson by phone.
CraveOnline: All mothers think their kids are the greatest. Does Lady Ashford secretly know that her sons are kind of creeps?
Miranda Richardson: Aww, come on. I don’t think she does. I think she’s supremely unaware. I don’t think she thinks that James is a creep. She probably just thinks that he’s a little more streetwise or something like that. Oliver is the softer of the two, the one who is betrothed for a while anyway to Dido Belle. As the young boy, he knows his place.
Do you have to not judge your characters anyway?
Yeah, I guess. I think in this story, if you’ll pardon the expression, I don’t think it is black and white. I think you understand everybody’s viewpoint, the time they’re in. She does have a trajectory because she does take this girl on board. She is prepared to risk, if you like, the censure of society but most of the work has been done for her because the girl has been brought up by Lord Mansfield. So he’s no slouch, so I guess it’s worth the risk.
Had you worked with Tom Felton on Harry Potter? I can’t remember if you had scenes together.
Of course I came across him certainly, but I couldn’t say I knew him. He’s a delightful guy, completely delightful, very sweet nature. Everybody’s lovely on this so no bad stories.
Is the Dido Belle story well known in England?
No, of course not. It’s shocking. I had no idea. I think that some people will know it simply by going to Kenwood House in Hampstead where there’s a facsimile of the painting. The original is now off in Scotland. I said this is quite interesting because if we split from Scotland, who gets the painting? That’s what I want to know. I think when we release the film in England we should demand that the painting be brought back to Kenwood House so people can have a look at the real thing. It’s so awful the picture’s not in the place it should be. The one they have up there, you come across it quite by accident really. It deserves to be seen properly. I think we should loan it back for a while.
Do you choose your projects on the material, on the director, and what was it for Belle?
Amma [Asante] is a force of nature but I was already interested in the script because it felt very fresh. It felt modern in its approach and yet it harks back as well. I don’t think just because the story’s set in the 18th century, the language is not completely modern and it’s not completely historical. It has an immediacy to it and these people are struggling with ideas and issues. They’re evolving, changing. There’s a shift happening so the shift seems to be mirrored in the language to me. I thought that was interesting.
Do movies and theater have equal weight to you?
My politic answer is I prefer what I’m doing at the time, because if you’re not focused on the job you’re doing, get another job. Some are more enjoyable in the process than others perhaps but I think theater can be something that you crave because you want that particular process on a piece of work, to understand it on a daily basis, moving forward from A to Zed and then have, even if it’s only an illusion, more control over that when you’re actually playing it, and let it evolve and develop which you don’t have time for on a film.
But, I’m about to play a part in a three part television project which I’m really looking forward to, set in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s. The company for that will be, I think and hope, like an ensemble in the theater because we’re a village community and there are characters in that village. It’s not really like Cranford but it is in a way because there are repeating characters who have their foibles and their idiosyncrasies. It should be very hard work and very good fun I think.
What is the name of the show?
It is called “Mapp and Lucia.” It’s a famous set of books by E.F. Benson which are greatly loved by the Brits.
When you got the chance to do a cameo in Muppets Most Wanted, was that an offer you couldn’t refuse?
Well, yeah. I thought I was part of history there.
Was that just one day’s work?
Yeah, barely. [Laughs] And it was a very nice thing because I have a friend who had worked with Steve [Whitmire] who operates Kermit a long time ago on “Fraggle Rock” so I was able to make a nice connection there. He’s the sweetest guy. Yeah, we had fun. We just had fun.
I remember when I first saw The Crying Game, the poster was the picture of you with the smoking gun, and that made me expect a very different movie than it was. Did you feel that was part of a big misdirect?
Well, I think the atmosphere of the poster was good, that sort of noirish or pretend noirish. That’s all I can say about that really. It never really occurred to me, but obviously to you.
It looked like you were the femme fatale and there was a femme fatale but a very different femme fatale.
Yeah, well there’s maybe more than one. I was dressing up as one ostensibly but as it turned out, I was more like a samurai than anything else. I think it’s good. I think it’s fine
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
