Interview with the director of “Emily.” Hear about the film highlights and casting of Felicity Jones.
“Emily” is one of the films in the Hollywood Short Film Program showing as part of the “Cinema Museum” special fall screenings hosted by Asia’s largest and only Academy Awards® qualifying international short film festival.
This film stars Felicity Jones, the actress who became famous with the hit film “The Theory of Everything,” where she plays Jane Hawking (nee Wilde), the devoted ex-wife of scientist Stephen Hawking. In the short film “Emily,” however, she plays a very different role – that of a temptress. Don’t miss Jones’s excellent performance as a disinterested man-eater!
– What are the highlights of your film?
The highlight for me was watching the film come to life in rehearsals, on set and in the edit. I deliberately wrote something very simple but with strong themes that relied heavily on dialogue and performance. It was thrilling to see the actors interpret the material, adding so much to what was on the page.
– Why did you cast Felicity Jones in this role? (How did you meet her?)
Firstly Felicity and I are great friends – we’ve known each other for years. I first met her when I worked for the filmmaker Anthony Minghella (The English Patient/Talented Mr Ripley) in 2007. We’ve worked together on quite a few different projects – theatre and film based. I wrote Emily especially for her. She’s an exceptionally intelligent and natural actor. I wanted to write something where she, a young woman, is the fulcrum of the action – the person in control – the seducer, rather than the seducee. Happily, Felicity read it and liked it so much that she asked to produce the film too – which meant she worked with me on every element of production. We had such great fun making it!
– You also participated as a producer of “Love You More” which won the Grand Prix in SSFF & ASIA 2009. How do you think about the switch from producer to director?
Love You More will always hold great memories for me. It was a wonderful collaborative experience and I learned huge amount from the brilliant people involved. What I loved in the transition to directing Emily was working so closely with my actors, DP, production designer and costume designer to find the style of our film. As I left producing behind, I didn’t miss the stress of working out whether we had enough parking spaces for our camera vans, whether the dressing rooms were near enough to set or whether the crew had enough tea and coffee! Luckily I had a brilliant team in place to handle the minutiae for me.
– Any particular message for Japanese audiences?
Making short films is a very unique enterprise. They involve so many talented people – often the same number as a feature film – working together for free, purely for the love of making films. Shorts rely so much on people’s generosity with their talent and time – it makes the whole experience feel quite remarkable. Japan is a country that has long fascinated me so I wish I was there in person to see Emily screened at such a wonderful event. It’s lovely for me and my team to know that the film has reached audiences, far and wide. Thank you so much for supporting it (and Love You More). I really hope you enjoy it!