PARK CITY – About 18 months from now most Americans will likely be able to recognize Andrea Riseborough from countless other starlets gracing the big screen. At the moment though, the 30-year-old British actress has only appeared in indie films such as “Brighton Rock,” “Made in Dagenham” and “Never Let Me Go” and she’s hardly a household name even in her native England. However, as you’re likely reading this, Riseborough is preparing for her biggest role to date in Joseph Kosinski’s currently untitled Sci-Fi epic formerly known as “Oblivion.” It’s a summer 2013 tentpole starring Tom Cruise and getting a lot of attention as Kosinski’s follow up to “Tron: Legacy.” Happily, for those looking to discover new talent, Riseborough has a number of films you can catch before then including Madonna’s “W.E” which is finally hitting theaters this weekend after debuting at the Venice Film Festival way back in September.
In “W.E,” Riseborough faced the challenge of playing the legendary Wallis Simpson, the woman whom King Edward VII loved so much he abdicated his throne for (at least that’s how we’ve always seen it on this side of the pond). Oscar nomination for costumer designer Arianne Phillips aside, Riseborough is hands down the most impressive aspect of the “flashback” drama and her performance is likely the reason she’s finally getting noticed by Hollywood. When I sat down to talk to her in Park City, Utah last week during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, it was initially to discuss her role in James Marsh’s new dramatic thriller “Shadow Dancer.”
Set against the backdrop of the IRA’s last days in 1993, Riseborough plays a mother pressured by her family after the death of her younger brother into becoming a terrorist for the cause. Eventually she becomes an informant for the British government to protect her own child, but her loyalties are severely tested as the story progresses. Unfortunately, most festival goers weren’t big fans of the film. Marsh, best known for his Oscar-winning documentary “Man On A Wire,” directs the movie at a snails pace generating little suspense or drama. Riseborough and the rest of the cast, including Clive Owen, give it their all, but can’t save the film from becoming a tedious bore. Obviously, that’s hardly Riseborough’s opinion as we begin our chat. During our interview she compliments Marsh discussing the “dynamic” way he tells a story and how “empathic” he is with every character in the picture.
Eventually, I was able to segue the conversation to the more time sensitive “W.E.” Riseborough has been promoting the film at one festival after another for four months, but this was the first chance I’d gotten to sit down and discuss it with her. She’s been lauded for showing Simpson as a woman who was truly conflicted about Edward’s historic decision and the consequences it had on her own life (somehow Madonna gets now credit for this as the film’s director). I wanted to know how Riseborough found the character and she quickly warned me it wouldn’t be a short answer.
“It’s every piece of archive footage. It’s every still image. It’s anything that has a sound or moves to do with anything written about her or anything she’s written or letters she’s written to other people because people often don’t divulge that information to a loved one. And that’s at the beginning,” Riseborough says laughing. “And it’s from that point that you work with all that. Things start to manifest, a spirit is captured, reasons of motivation for each single part of a life you’re dealing with. I mean, you’re dealing with a long life. 26 to 70 are the years that we are capturing in the film, but everything leaving up to 26 — I mean, she just didn’t appear out of thin air in Shanghai. By the time you get to the end of that process you’ve created a hybrid of the character that you think serves the film because, truly, when you are making a movie and you are playing a historical figure you have to go back to the script for what you are trying to achieve. Anything that serves that is fantastic and anything that doesn’t has to be left by the wayside as chaff in this particular case. So, up to that point when you get on set you just trust that it’s all in your DNA. That’s something Madonna said once and I think it’s just so wonderfully put.”
2012 Sundance Film Festival – “Shadow Dancer” Portraits + Dinner
Andrea attended some more Sundance events on behalf of “Shadow Dancer” and I’ve added them to the gallery. Included in the update is “Shadow Dancer” Portraits and Dinner.
Sundance: James Marsh & Andrea Riseborough Talk About the Collaborative Spirit in Making “Shadow Dancer”
It’s impossible to see “Shadow Dancer,” James Marsh’s adaptation of the thriller by Tim Bradby without being immediately drawn to Andrea Riseborough and her infamous red raincoat. As Colette McVeigh, she’s engrossed within her family’s own dealings with the IRA during the peace process and becomes an unwitting mole for the MI-5 in order to be with her son. It’s a crackling slow burn thriller (our review here) that not only finds the director once again in new territory, but also showcases the rising actress as the real deal.
The Playlist joined press to speak with Marsh and Riseborough the day after “Shadow Dancer” won over crowds at the Sundance Film Festival. The duo discussed the nature of Colette, dealing with multiple shoots and how she slips in and out of her roles.
Had you intended to make a film about The Troubles?
James Marsh: It was a bit more complex than that. When I got the script there was an initial reluctance to even read it because The Troubles are an exhausting conflict that blighted many lives in Northern Island, but people in the U.K. as well for better or for worse. When I got beyond that initial reluctance to open the script turn the first page, I was captivated by the premise of the story. It’s not about politics, but about human nature. The bargain offered to Colette is one understandably to be an impossible one. That’s what drew me to the story, not the politics or obsession with Northern Island, but the human conflict within the family.
Looking at the family in the story, how much of that is structured to be the focal point of the film over the actual Troubles?
Andrea Riseborough: We were talking about it earlier and to explore [the film] from somebody [else's] perspective, you would have no outside knowledge of what’s going on outside of the upper echelons of political structure. It would be more interesting to see it from the perspective of the mother who is on the ground. She represents one of the people involved in this great story, and if we had to try and make it all it would never finish.
It seems like you’re bouncing all over the place with the variety of movies you’re doing — “W.E.,” “Weclome To The Punch,” “Shadow Dancer.” Is it difficult to get a handle on all these very separate and different films?
AR: You make me sound awfully clever. I’m in no way multi-tasking to that extent. Each project has not a day overlapped with the other, [though] the preparation may have. In terms of filming, each character had its time and there was a time before we started filming in Ireland that we were all gearing up. There were those precious pockets of time just before and just after, where we could say hello and goodbye.
JM: Most good actors bring an incredible focus to when they begin shooting. I’ve noticed that across the board that they’re so in the moment that I had no other idea you were doing anything than being utterly, utterly focused from morning till night.
AR: It’s impossible to pick up and put down as well. People say you take it home with you. It’s an interesting and valid question certainly, but once you start doing it and if you’ve ever acted or directed, you know there’s…
JM: No door you can close.
AR: You live in that world for a time, leaving bags at James’ house so you can run off to the next role and come back.
Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough in “Shadow Dancer” Sundance Film Festival
Is it difficult to get rid of a character then?
AR: It’s almost not a decision, there is no choice. [You do it] with abandon, as much courage as you can muster and just jump in. It makes it easier if projects are antithetical to one another. While we were shooting “Shadow Dancer,” James was dealing with publicity for “Project Nim” and I was doing a whole wealth of work as Wallis Simpson [in “W.E.”] which is as different as you can get from Colette.
Did it make the accents difficult for you?
AR: I’ve never had my own accent in a film. It’s something I schedule into my preparation. That’s one of my favorite things, hearing all the voices. And it was one of the tough things about being in Dublin and not Belfast.
How was James on set? Could he be tough?
AR: When he would bring chimps along.
JM: [laughs]
AR: This is awful when you ask questions about this and now I’m going to say nice things about him. The thing about James, is that not only is he innovative and dynamic in the way he can tell a story, but he’s a great empathist and gets each moment and how everybody is. On top of that, he gave us the support and freedom to allow each of us to have our own relationship and our own motivation and character. I think that gave us a haunting, thrilling ambiguity throughout that any given moment we’re not sure what decision Colette’s going to make or what [Clive Owen's character] Brendan is going to do. James was tireless about capturing our every breath and thought.
JM: I choose my casting and want to work with people whose work I expect and admire. That’s half my job: casting people I want to work with. There’s an act of trust in that, I guess that goes both ways. My mode is to allow the actors to kind of offer to choose something. Why would I want to manipulate them or give them those bad ideas? It sounds like I’m being lazy, but it feels like a way of respecting the person you’ve chosen to work with. The last thing I do is impose loads of ideas on them. I want to see what they’d have to offer. So far, it’s worked out really well. That’s true of everyone I cast, but especially of Andrea because she ‘s in every shot of the film…We had a really harmonious, collective effort. At least that’s what I’d try to do.
Working together that way was something you also agreed on?
AR: I trusted James implicitly though, and we were talking earlier about not watching the monitor. I had this thing where I’d bring James everything I had in me. But I knew he’d have the best judge of tone about where we should be going. Because he’d have this overview and be in this different place.
JM: We would change things and how things would play. That was always a collaboration with the actors. Often their ideas shaped what we were doing. We made some big changes at the end of the film as we were shooting; and the first people I would go to were Clive and Andrea. I went, “Look. I’m having these ideas and I want to make sure they sit well with you, feel that they’re truthful, so we can pull these off.” That was really helpful to have that input as the way of presenting the ideas to the producers and everyone else who was not quite so happy changing the schedule.
AR: Everyone on the film had such a murky relationship with the film. We’d be having this conversation in our lunch hour, shoveling fork fulls of whatever we were having, and it felt like every moment we were on the set we were truly grabbing hold of the project and it was exciting. It was just the best it could be. Everybody did that.
“Shadow Dancer” has been picked up by ATO Pictures.
“W.E.” New York City Premiere + Sundance Film Festival
Andrea attended the “W.E.” New York City Premiere and the 2012 Sundance Film Festival premiere of “Shadow Dancer” and I’ve added photos to the gallery. Andrea is just absolutely stunning.
Olga Kurylenko and Andrea Riseborough Join Tom Cruise-Starring Sci-Fi Flick
It seems as though Joseph Kosinski’s upcoming sci-fi film project has lost its title, but gained two leading ladies.
The movie formerly known as “Oblivion” and “Horizons” has cast Olga Kurylenko and Andrea Riseborough as its female leads, according to Variety. They’ll star opposite Tom Cruise in the futuristic flick. This announcement comes after a long casting process that seemingly every actress in Hollywood auditioned for. Jessica Chastain even landed one of the female leads back in September, but she had to move on because she signed on to Kathryn Bigalow’s untitled Osama bin Laden flick.
Kurylenko is best known for playing a Bond girl in “Quantum of Solace,” but she also will be seen on Starz’s upcoming series “Magic City” and recently wrapped Terrence Malick’s upcoming untitled film. Riseborough stars in Madonna’s new movie “W.E.,” and her new movie “Shadow Dancer” premieres at Sundance next week.
Production is excited to start soon on Kosinski’s film. The script was originally written by William Monahan and Karl Gajdusek, but is being rewritten by Michael Arndt.
The synopsis of the movie reads as follows: “In a future where the Earth’s surface has been irradiated beyond recognition, the remnants of humanity live above the clouds, safe from the brutal alien Scavengers that stalk the ruins. But when surface drone repairman Jak discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off an unstoppable chain of events that will force him to question everything he knows.”
Riseborough will play the woman in the pod, while Kurylenko will play another female lead.
Hey everyone! My name is Michelle and I’m the new owner of Andrea Riseborough Fan. You may know me from other sites such as Michelle Williams Fan. For my first update I’ve added photos of Andrea from the 2012 Golden Globes as well as the “W.E” UK Premiere. Check them out below!
Hello everyone! I have been busy re-capping a lot of Andrea’s projects in HD/Blu-Ray quality, and so have just uploaded a whole batch of new images to the gallery! There’s new HD captures from Never Let Me Go and Brighton Rock, as well a new posters, stills and trailers from W.E., as well as giving the gallery a matching theme to the main site. Enjoy!
Andrea Riseborough does not so much walk into a room as float through it; a fragrant, other-worldly presence who seems to appear out of nowhere like a shimmering will-o’-the-wisp. Her physical presence is slight – translucent skin and tiny, fine-boned fingers – and she gives the impression of operating on a different plane from the rest of us, as though earthly concerns are something of a mystery to her.
We are seated upstairs in the studio where the 30-year-old Riseborough has just finished the Observer photoshoot. On the table is a tray of baked apples. She peers at them detachedly, as though they are a strange piece of sculpture she cannot quite understand. Would she like one? “Oh no, I can’t eat them,” Riseborough says, smoothing down her floral tea dress. Why not? She gives an enigmatic shrug of the shoulders. “Oh, you know…” She smiles, displaying a row of precise, shiny teeth, and instead picks up an avocado, which she proceeds to slice delicately and eat throughout the interview.
Her real sustenance, it seems, comes in the form of profound thought – even the most straightforward question can engender a furrowed brow and a bout of extended soul-searching. At one point, an innocent enquiry about cooking prompts a philosophical disquisition on the existence of the divine. “I subscribe to no religion,” she says, when I’d simply been expecting some light-hearted tale about cooking pasta carbonara for her boyfriend. “But I believe that in the creation of art, there can be moments of God.” Blimey.
W.E.’s Andrea Riseborough on Madonna, Understanding Wallis Simpson, and the Mania of Venice
W.E. wasn’t just an undertaking for Madonna, who directed her Wallis Simpson/Edward VIII biopic with all the lavish heft of a gigantic watercolor landscape. It was also a labor of love for Andrea Riseborough, the 30-year-old actress playing Simpson, the American socialite whose romance with Edward led to his abdication of the throne in 1936. The film’s most enjoyable asset, Riseborough was saddled with making the polarizing Simpson a wholly charismatic figure — an Evita without the benefit of torch songs. She succeeds, and with her thoroughly photogenic Edward (James D’Arcy) in tow, she softens W.E.‘s melodrama with fantastic ease. We caught up with Riseborough to discuss her fascinating director, her feelings about the subject matter, and the zaniness of the Venice Film Festival.
You’ve been promoting this movie nonstop for months! Are you sick of corsets and gorgeous costuming at this point? Are the constraints of the couture caving in on you, so to speak?
That’s very funny! No, I’m very much enamored with every different period. It’s so funny because people often say — or people talk about period pieces — and I never really faction different periods or divide them from one another. I just think that really everything is of a specific period whether it be 2016 or 1810. It was extraordinary, the architectural feats that some of the couture gowns entailed on W.E. entailed. You have no idea. It was extraordinary.
But is it daunting to think of committing so much to the look and feel of a period piece again?
It’s something I’m very familiar with. Because whether it is 2016 or 1810, it’s very arduous. Specificity in any project, even if it exists in the abstract [Laughs] or it exists in an alternate reality, there’s always a vision that everybody adheres to. Everybody very much passionately leans toward expressing that vision and the way we share it with the world. It’s something that’s very familiar to me, actually, I suppose is the answer to that. It’s something I enjoy very much. It’s transporting.
A behind the scenes promo for Madonna’s new film, W.E has been released – and we’re already in love with the beautiful costumes.
The documentary includes an interview with Madonna and the lead characters (Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough and James D’arcy) . W.E is based on the story of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, a married American woman for whom King Edward abdicated from the British throne in 1936. Madonna’s directorial debut film takes place in the thirties and the present day, as a young woman (played by Abbie) discovers Wallis’ story mirrors her own.
Although it’s lengthy – 23 and a half minutes to be exact – you really get a feel for what Madonna was trying to achieve with the script, casting and screen play.
W.E‘s costume designer also talks about re-creating Wallis’ amazing wardrobe and jewellery collection, by working with Christian Dior, Cartier and milliner, Stephen Jones who was asked to cameo in the movie.
W.E. (2011)
Resistance (2011)
Shadow Dancer (2012)
