Talking Atonement

With a triumphant debut at the Venice Film Festival, mountains of critical acclaim and the Oscar buzz well under way, we caught up with ‘Atonement’ stars James McAvoy and Keira Knightley to talk about truth, lies and scenes of a sexual nature

What research did you do into the period?

KEIRA: "I found reading helpful. We had a historian come in and talk us through what was happening in 1936. Of course we were all saying, 'Well it's leading up to the war' but she reminded us no one knew that yet.

"Another huge question was whether my character Cecilia would have been a virgin or if she'd had any experience while she was at Cambridge. The director wanted her to be a complete virgin, but the historian said she probably wouldn't have been, she probably would have had a bit of a fiddle!"

Had either of you read the book before you made the film?

JAMES: "I read the script! Erm... I haven't read the book."

KEIRA: "No, I hadn't read the book. I read the book before we did the film, but not before I read the script."Most love scenes are gratuitous and pointless, but this one certainly wasn't

Did you find it quite daunting to make this film as 'Atonement' is such a well-loved book?

KEIRA: "Everyone's imagination is different, we all see these characters as different people. Hopefully what you can do is present a totally new version of it, if you can do that well, then that's great."

Robbie's the film's good guy, was he difficult to play?

JAMES: "He's an idealised version of humanity and I didn't find that very truthful to begin with because he is so good and so wholesome. It wasn't until Joe [Wright, director] convinced me someone like that might exist somewhere that I found him an easier character to play. As much as he is idealised he is us, and we destroy him, and we love watching ourselves be destroyed."

Cecilia isn't the most likeable girl, did you try to make her more sympathetic to the audience?

KEIRA: "I don't think that she was a horrible person, but I didn't try and make her any more sympathetic. This was the 1930s and 40s, the British stiff upper lip was at its peak. She's someone who's emotions are repressed but she's bubbling with emotions and is like a pressure cooker about to explode. I totally understood why she was behaving in the way that she was."

How did you feel about shooting the love scene?

KEIRA: "It's part of my job. I'm an actress. It's obvious in this film the love scene is incredibly important. It's never going to be the most comfortable thing to do but we had to make the scene erotic and passionate. You have to believe that these characters, based on that moment, wait for each other for the next four or five years. It helped that Joe, the director, had storyboarded the whole thing."

JAMES: "It's quite liberating to have a director standing next to you saying, do this now, do this now!"

KEIRA: "What I thought was clever is that you don't see anything. I think it's ten times sexier than most love scenes where you see absolutely everything, they're gratuitous and pointless, and this one certainly wasn't. It was quite an exciting thing to do."

'Atonement' is cinemas across the UK now.

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