Anna Karenina: Interview with Matthew Macfadyen, Alicia
Vikander, Kelly Macdonald, Olivia Wilson, and Emily Watson
Arriving in US theatres on November 16, 2012, “Anna
Karenina” is acclaimed director Joe Wright’s new vision of the epic story of
love, stirringly adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s great novel by Academy Award winner
Tom Stoppard. The film marks the third collaboration of the director with
Academy Award-nominated actress Keira Knightley and Academy Award-nominated
producers Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Paul Webster, following their
award-winning box office successes “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement.” The
film also stars Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew
Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Alicia Vikander, Olivia Williams and
Emily Watson.
The parallel story of Levin’s love for Kitty is gentler
and more innocent than Anna’s for Vronsky, yet it too falters under the
scrutiny of society. Actor Domhnall Gleeson had auditioned for director Joe
Wright, but it wasn’t until he performed the part of Levin at a table read – at
which his empathetic take on the character impressed one and all – that the
part suddenly became his. One facet of the material that the actor sought to
convey was “the wry sense of humor shooting through it, which I appreciate;
this story gets to the depths of what it means to be alive.”
As Gleeson sees it, “Levin’s idea of love is at the same
time very pure and blinkered, in that he sees only this one person to love;
he’s shooting for the absolute ideal, which isn’t always compatible with real
life. But in the story, he is one of the only people who spends any time in the
real world; he is in a very real place with love, one not based on artifice.
That is mirrored in the way he chooses to live his life, which is at a distance
from St. Petersburg and Moscow society – away from the theatre, literally. He
makes his life in the real world out in the countryside, and is in fact very
preoccupied with farming. He is outside sophisticated society.
“Even so, he’s caught between the aristocracy and the
serfs; he’s trying to find a home in nature while the woman he loves is in a
place which is artificial to him. But they do have a true connection, which
means that Levin has to journey to try to win Kitty and bring her back to his
real world. He realizes that she’s an even better woman than he thought.”
Kitty is played by up-and-coming Swedish actress Alicia
Vikander, in her first English-language role. The role promised an emotional
journey for Vikander to undertake, with her character beginning as an innocent
and radiant ingénue before experiencing heartbreak upon Vronsky’s rejecting her
and then coming to terms with life and love.
The actress’ years of real-life training as a ballet
dancer proved beneficial. She notes, “Domhnall and I worked with
[choreographer] Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to get into contact with the characters
through movement. How Kitty walks or runs into a room at the start of the story
and how she is in the last scenes, there’s a complete difference. She proves
herself to be very un-judgemental, considering her status in society, and this
better prepares her for what comes later.
Invited to reunite with the filmmakers and leading lady
with whom he made “Pride & Prejudice,” BAFTA Award winner Matthew Macfadyen
leapt at the chance to portray Oblonksy, Anna’s brother. The actor enthuses,
“Oblonsky is incorrigible; he’s disarmingly direct and brings humor and warmth
to the story as he tries to help the people he loves and cares about,
particularly in attempting to be a matchmaker for his friend Levin.
“Oblonsky is one of those people who lights up a dinner
party when they come in. He has a wandering eye. He likes the pleasures of the
flesh, drinking and eating; to me, he was a very attractive character because
he doesn’t suffer from terrible introspection. I don’t see him as ‘a bad man,’
and I hugely enjoyed playing this part – except for the moustache I had to grow.”
“Matthew is a hoot in this role,” enthuses Emmy
Award-winning actress Kelly Macdonald, who signed on to play Dolly, wife of
Oblonsky and sister-in-law to Anna. “He’s played Oblonsky in just the right
way: charismatic, frustrating, lovable – and selfishly addicted to passion.”
The actress felt that she understood Dolly’s temperament,
remarking that “Dolly is married to a man she adores, she’s passionate about
her family, and she’s pregnant all the time. She is completely happy with her
lot in life before finding out about her husband’s affair with the woman who is
meant to be looking after their children.
“So it’s devastating for her when she realizes that she’s
been made a fool of and her relationship with Anna, whom she admires and with
whom she shares a sisterly love, helps her. She refines her focus on family. I
feel that in the end Dolly resigns herself to his behavior; she loves her
husband and she knows he loves her. But she is not brave enough to attempt what
Anna does, which is to seek an independent life – one that no woman in that
time and place could really have.”
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