On the night of VE day, then Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret went out into the revelry of the night with the commoners of England. As noted by a young 19-year old Elizabeth in her diary, “Out in the crowd again. Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Pall Mall, walked simply miles. Saw parents on balcony at 12:30 am – ate, partied, bed 3am!” From that one diary post, screenwriters Kevin Hood and Trevor De Silva, together with director Julian Jarrold have fashioned a film that imagines just what kind of adventures Elizabeth and Margaret had beyond the gates of the palace.
Tackling the role of Elizabeth, be she Princess or Queen, is a daunting prospect. Helen Mirren has mastered it more than once on both stage and screen. Jane Alexander took a stab at it for a telemovie. Freya Wilson charmed as Princess Elizabeth in “The King’s Speech”. And while there have been a few other actresses brave enough to meet the challenges of playing a living icon, none have been as resonant as Mirren. Until now.
Sarah Gadon is not one of the first names one typically thinks of when casting 19-year old Princess Elizabeth; unless you’re Sarah Gadon. But, having gained notoriety for her work in films like “A Dangerous Method”, “Dracula Untold” and “Belle”, among others, scripts now find their way to Gadon’s doorstep. And what a welcoming this one received. “I fell in love with this script when I read it. I grew up watching films like “Roman Holiday” and I felt like it had the same kind of feeling to it.”
But Gadon’s affection for A ROYAL NIGHT OUT went beyond loving the script. “My nana was in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in WWII and she met my grandfather at that time, who was sailing for the British Navy. She was a war bride. They fell in love during the war. They were in Trafalgar Square on VE night. I felt such a personal connection to this time and this story. I know that a big reason why my grandmother joined the war effort was because Elizabeth had.”
Captivated and charmed by the script, Gadon put together the usual audition tape and then did a Skype audition for director Jarrold, winning him over completely. Given the role of Princess Elizabeth, Gadon was on Cloud Nine; until she flew to London and “ bounded into this members only club in Soho in London” to meet with Jarrold. As Gadon laughingly recalls her enthusiasm and excitement at that first meeting with Jarrold, most vivid is “ [his look] of sheer terror and the blood drained out of his face and he said to me (going into British accent), ‘Oh my God! You’re so Canadian!’” It was in that moment that the blood drained from Gadon’s face as well as she realized the magnitude of the role she was assuming. “Before that I was just in love with this story. Then I really knew, ‘Wow! I have my work cut out for me. I’m playing a living icon. I’ve got to do my due diligence.’”
And due diligence she did, starting with the flawless royal British accent we hear on screen. “I studied with a really great dialect coach named Brett Tyne. . .[W]e do a lot of prep before we go to camera so I’m fully prepped before I’m there and don’t have her on set. It’s important to me because I like to see a level of competence in myself where I don’t really need somebody there watching me by the time we go to camera.” Then, there was royal training. “We met with a royal consultant and took etiquette classes. I read a lot of biographies about the royal family, I watched clips, I listened to audio.” To achieve the elegance of movement and stance, Gadon called on her own dance background noting, “In terms of the physicality, I have a really strong dance background. I took ballet from a very young age. So, in terms of posture and movement, all of that is something I borrowed from dance.” Little did she know, however, that her dance training would prove even more helpful when preparing for one scene in the film, which just happens to be one of her favorites. “I learned how to Lindy Hop! [laughing] We took dancing, dance classes! I love the Lindy Hop because I appreciate a good dance break”
Although cognizant of the history which inspired the film, important to both Gadon and Jarrold was that “We weren’t beholden to necessarily being historically accurate. I felt that alleviated some of the pressure because I was able to create reactions to a scenario that didn’t necessarily happen. When Julian and I were working on the script and preparing for the role, one thing that was very clear was that even though the situation was a fantasy, and even thought it was a fictionalization of those events, we wanted her feelings to feel very real. We wanted her reactions to be very real. We tried to keep all of that in reality.”
Helping to achieve the emotional reality are Gadon’s co-stars, Bel Powley who plays the free-spirited Princess Margaret, and Jack Reynor as a wayward Air Force lieutenant who exchanges flirtations and adventures with Elizabeth during the night. The bond among them is palpable and believable both on and off screen. According to Gadon, “We shot the film with 4 ½ weeks of nights, which is a really grueling schedule to be on. We were like a little troupe, the four of us. It was me, Bel, Jack Reynor who plays Jack in the film, and his fiancé – it was the four of us running around the Lake District. Jack and his fiancé are Irish and they love boxing, so in the mornings – well, not in the ‘morning’ as we would get up around 2 in the afternoon which was our morning since we were shooting nights – Bel and I would meet Jack and Madeline in the park and the four of us would do boxing training together. We would boxing train for an hour and then we’d all go to work.” Hearing the smile in her voice as she speaks, Gadon gushes, “It was so much fun that we had! We just had a blast. Then we’d shoot to about 5 in the morning and then get up and repeat it. We were a little family and I feel that chemistry is very real.”
Listening to Gadon, it’s obvious the bond between she and Powley grew to be as close as that of the real Elizabeth and Margaret. “I love her so much. . .I am so inspired by her and how incredible she’s doing. I’m so proud of her.” Emoting giddiness and heartfelt poignancy, two of Gadon’s favorite scenes in A ROYAL NIGHT OUT involve Powley. “I loved when we were wheelbarrowing Bel around. That was really really fun. But I think I love most the scene between Bel and I in Margaret’s room, at the beginning of the scene when we’re together. I think it really personifies their relationship. They loved each other so much and they were such good sisters. They were so different but I think Elizabeth felt such a strong, I guess, maternal instinct towards Margaret who was such a free spirit by contrast.” Not hard to sense the same thing between Powley and Gadon.
Given all the research and work Sarah Gadon put into this role, one has to wonder if there was anything surprising she discovered about Elizabeth. There is. “When I was reading about how Elizabeth and Margaret were raised, they were taught when you fall and you scrape your knee, you don’t make a face. That kind of mentality of keeping your emotions close to you and having control over your feelings is the antithesis of how I was brought up. My father is a psychologist and my mom is a teacher and I grew up in an arts background. Everything was like, ‘How does that make you feeeel?’ It was a really jarring moment in becoming Elizabeth as it was sooo different to how I was brought up. That reserve is something that I tried to put into the film in a way that isn’t necessarily cold, but in terms of having those thoughts being more internal than something you were verbally articulate.”
Something else Sarah Gadon put into A ROYAL NIGHT OUT is her heart. “I’ve had a lot of fun and I feel such an affection for A ROYAL NIGHT OUT because I also feel like it’s a love letter to my grandparents. I’ve been so inspired by Elizabeth as I got to know her when I was doing research for the film. I think that she’s such an icon, but to look at her at this point in time and realize how influential she was at this age, you can really see how she was already influencing women.”
interview 12/01/2015
