In a roundtable interview on Wednesday, March 2, the Winged Post interviewed the rising star, Mia Wasikowska and director Cary Joji Fukunaga about their work in the film Jane Eyre. The movie’s release date is March 18.

The Winged Post: How did you get into the character’s mind and subsequently become Jane?

Mia Wasikowska: I read the book again before we started filming and sort of went through the book, underlining anything that I thought was really important or gave me a strong sense of who she was. I ended up underlining most of the book, but it was still a good thing to do. I also just tried to do as much research as I could, so reading [about] the time period and things that women would have faced. For every film I do I collect pictures, and so I have a folder of images that I would find that [reminds] me of an aspect of her character or something like that.

WP: What were some of the challenges to doing a period piece?

MW: Well, [in] a period piece, particularly a film that is based on a book that is so incredibly popular, the people who see it are going to take it for what it is. But when you are asking the audience to believe in a story that they already know and have a strong idea of what it is in their head, then that’s a particularly challenging thing, and you just really sort of hope that they take it for what you give them.

WP: Do you personally share traits with Jane Eyre?

MW: I think the book is from start to finish her internal monologue. Everything you know is what she has told you. She’s so much of an observer, and I like that fact about her.

WP: Who has been the most inspirational person to work with?

MW: I’ve worked with a lot of really great people, but probably Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, I really love. The way that they’ve conducted their careers is really brilliant and the roles they have chosen have always made such great decisions. And then also [with] Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne, Michael Fassbender. I’ve never had a bad experience [with them], so they are all great.

WP: What made you move away from being a screenwriter for this movie?

Cary Fukunaga: You always do writing no matter what, even if you don’t get credited, so there’s that involvement, but also there’s that adaptation of a classic novel. In a way, when you do your sophomore film, you want it to be a showcase of your directing more than your writing. If there’s a great story out there then I want a chance to be able to tell [it].

WP: Why did you choose to do this film? How is this different from your previous films?

CF: You have a young woman in search of love, companionship, and a home, a place that she fits in society. She has her own thoughts about who she is, the kind of life that she wants to lead, and the kind that she doesn’t want to do. And I think I’m just interested in these kinds of stories and that search for home. I think in terms of change in scenery, after you spend five years on one subject you want to do something different, and even though it has the sort of thematic elements, the idea of living in Europe, and doing a period film seem pretty interesting.

WP: Do you guys plan on working together again in the near future?

CF: Yeah, Mia is amazing, so hopefully I’ll have a film one day and she won’t be too busy.

WP: Did you have to learn French for the role?

MW: Yeah I did, I learned a little bit of French, and most of it was cut [laughs]. [Fukunawa] cut a lot, there were like two of the scenes where I was speaking French. I learned a little bit of French for the role. I had Eglantine [Rembauville-Nicolle],who played Sophie, and Romy [Settbon Moore], who played Adele, teaching me in between takes.

WP: How does it feel to have made it as an actress?

MW: It’s really great; I feel really lucky to be able to do what I do. It’s a lot of fun and there’s a lot of traveling. There were challenges that I didn’t expect that you face a lot of, and those are always good things to come across. I think you would probably come across things that you don’t expect in whatever field you are apart of. I guess there’s not really a sense of having made it for sure. I think there’s a sense of I still want to continue, and I have a lot to do that I haven’t yet done.

WP: For Cary, what was the biggest challenge of directing a period film?

CF: I think the biggest challenge was the wardrobe, because they always say it takes a longer time to shoot in a period film, with hour and a half long wardrobe and hair and makeup changes. You can lose about three or so hours a day to costume changes. The other difficult thing is being able to improvise; you can’t just freestyle it because the language is so specific.

WP: Which scene was the hardest for you?

MW: There were a lot of big scenes for Jane, and they were all challenging for different reasons, but definitely the most riveting were the ones with Michael around the fireplace. I think we had a day for each of those scenes, which actually isn’t that much time to do five or six pages of dialogue, so that was always a challenge. Also, physically the moors [scenes were challenging]. It’s hard enough to stand on them without being blown over, so filming on the moors was challenging.

WP: Is it hard for you to get down the British accent since you are from Australia?

MW: In Australia we get a lot of American and British television and film, so I feel like we hear it quite often. I just did an Irish accent, which was great because it’s a very liberated accent and very expressive, and they really love their language, so that’s really fun. I’m thinking in contrast the English accent is quite repressed, but I’ve always loved doing an accent.

WP: How did Judi Dench’s experience with period pieces help the whole process?

MW: The main thing that stood out for me was I would be there complaining about my corset and Judi would want hers tighter. She likes it, and she’s worn it her whole career; it doesn’t even bother her, and I’m there gasping for breath. She has a great young spirit, and a really fun very cool modern presence.

CF: [She] gets excited about things. As someone who’s a veteran like she is and working for decades in television and film, she gets excited about the people she’s working with, throwing jokes on set, almost sort of vibrating young adolescent energy to her and equally just as much poise. You really feel this natural charisma from her; she enjoys what she does.

WP: You read the book prior to being in the movie. How do you think that changed how you played in the role?

MW: I had only read [the book] a few months before, and when I read it I was halfway through, I asked my agent if there was a script around making the project. I thought that it was such a great role and the chances of there being something was very small, but then it was like two months later when [my agent] sent me the script, and then I was meeting with Cary. I just connected instantly with the book without having to. [It was like] I had wanted to do the project before there was a project. It spoke to me before there was even a possibility of doing it.

WP: Were there any resources that helped out with this particular period film?

CF: We looked through still photographs, and that worked for all the departments actually, because in costume and set design with the palettes that I was interested in working in and kind of light I wanted to play with the contrast and those kinds of things.

WP: For Cary, what film most inspired you to go into the film industry?

CF: I think probably one of the earliest films I remember, trying to deconstruct and rather than just being an audience member, passively enjoying the experience and looking at, rewatching, and studying it was “Dancing with Wolves” at a very young age.

WP: What do you want the audience to take away from this film?

MW: I think it’s such a relevant story to revisit, and I would hope that there’s something about Jane’s character that is really strong and impressive as a young woman. She’s someone who believes that she’s worthy of a good life, being treated well, being loved, and also not compromising herself for her relationships. Also, if anything it encourages people to read to book as well, if they haven’t.

WP: How did you try to make the film relatable to modern audiences?

CF: I think that the film and the story [are] really modern. Her character is really modern; if you took away the costumes and the settings, it’s really relevant to every generation and that’s why people have continued to connect to it. There wasn’t a whole lot that we had to do to make it relatable because it’s such a universal theme, and it’s really timeless.

Jane Eyre Trailer