EXCLUSIVE: Mike hunts down Keira Knightley and Matthew Rhys to talk even more about THE EDGE OF LOVE

Here's our second part of our exclusive interviews with main players behind The Edge of Love, a nice dramatic departure in the U.K. from the sea of summer blockbusters. This time Mike got to speak too Keira Knightley (I know, Sienna Miller & Knightley in the same day!!) and Matthew Rhys...

Matthew, how daunting was it playing so important a fellow countryman?

MR: It was very daunting because I'd grown up with him as a part of my education and upbringing. It's very strange because every Welshman and his dog think they know him but then someone would say "Well he's got a Welsh accent hasn't he?" and it's like "No! He tried to get rid of it." So everyone had this preconceived idea of how he looked and sounded and that made me a little bit nervous.

KK: He's famous for his very BBC English isn't he? That very round, sort of tone.

Kiera, what was your first reaction on reading your mother's script? And did you sort of think "I want that character"?

KK: She gave it to me when I was working on THE JACKET when I was eighteen and I can't even remember why because she'd never done it before! But I thought it was a really beautiful story because you rarely see films that really study friendship and rivalry and the complexity of a group of friends. And then of course that it happens to be based on a real group and that Dylan Thomas happens to be one of the friends was very exciting. But I didn't even think that I could play either of the characters because of my age, when I gave the script to a producer he said "are you going to play one of the parts?" and I just said "yes" so he said "which one" and I just said "Vera". It just sort of came out.

I heard you sent gifts to John Maybury, is that unusual?

KK: I just know John Maybury very well and I know you have to tempt him into reading scripts.

MR: I sent him a lot just to give me the part!

KK: Bribery, always works a treat doesn't it?

Did playing a girl from the valleys make you yearn for simpler life? KK: A simpler life? I don't think she had a simple life! She was out there, getting drunk and having a good time. You seemed to nail the Welsh accent was...

KK: My mum's half Welsh.

Is that just it? I mean...

KK: Well half my family's from Barry Island.

MR: I'd keep that quiet!

KK: Alright! I mean, I suppose that helped but we did have a dialogue coach to help all of us which was great. But I think they are accents I've grown up with, I like the lyrical nature of it. Plus I really like working in an accent, I think it helps you dive into a role and helps you get lost in the characterisation.

MR: She nailed the accent on the first day in the rehearsals, AND John made her sing on day one. He just said "now sing!" and she did.

I don't want to torment you with the singing questions...

KK &; MR: But sing!!

... but did John say he was channelling Fassbinder here?

KK: He did mention Fassbinder a lot, I mean he mentioned a lot of people a lot. The thing about John is that once he says something on a set you're not going to get out of it, which is why I love working with him. He creates a really charged atmosphere which is great. So he said "just sing" and I practically shat myself, but then I went with it.

Having worked on bigger productions I imagine it was quite refreshing working on something like this.

KK: I loved it, it's what's wonderful about doing what I do. I've had the opportunity to do these huge piratical adventures and then something that's smaller and much more intimate. I want to carry on making British films but the industry here is absolutely tiny here so there's more work in America. That's why I think it's important if you have a profile that can help get British films made that that's what you do. It's my culture, it's where I'm from, so the stories are always going to mean more.

Does that feel quite empowering?

KK: I don't know if it's empowering... it's very exciting and quite frightening and you just hope it'll turn out alright and that people will see it really!

But the flip side of that is that you also have paparazzi falling out of trees.

KK: We did have paparazzi falling out of trees... It was quite funny when he fell out of the tree!

Matthew, you've been working in America previously, how special was it to come back and work in Wales?

MR: Not many films get made in Wales so to be part of one where all the boxes were absolutely ticked, the character, the part, the story, the cast, the location. It was an absolute dream come true.

You played a notorious drunken, was there any method acting before you got involved in this?

MR: No, not really. That was a lifetime of research I'd happily put away. We had a night at the Black Lion...

KK: Brilliant party.

MR:... in Newquay which was good. A good few bottles of wine were drunk during the course of the shoot.

KK: But we didn't get trashed before scenes.

MR: But the thing with Thomas was that he wasn't a big drinker, he'd just be drunk on the first drink and then keep going all night. He didn't take alcohol well. That was the hard part I had to relate to.

There's that scene where Thomas was getting a kicking from a sailor, was he like that? Did he rub people up the wrong way?

MR: Yeah absolutely, he was a great raconteur and a great needler. He was always happy to put the needle in. There's a great bravery there, he wasn't a very physical man but you'd read time and time again that he would just infuriate people for his own amusement and then take the consequences.

You've talked previously about him being quite a sympathetic character, when at points there's almost demonic presence of Dylan...

KK: It's interesting you say that because I think it says a lot about the people who watch the film whether they find him sympathetic or they don't. I think creative people can create situations in order to simply experience them and I think a lot of time that's what Dylan was doing, manipulating a situation so you can feed from them. I don't know if that's sympathetic but I think it's very real.

Have any scholars of Dylan Thomas seen it?

KK: I don't know. His daughter's seen it. You don't get more scholarly than that! And she liked it.

What films have inspired you Kiera?

KK: Oooh, difficult. I've been doing a lot of Ingmar Bergman recently. I've just watched five hours of...

MR: Oh God!!

KK: What? It's amazing. Yesterday, that was my day taken up. And then, I love the films of David Lean, the ones with Celia Johnson in, and I've been watching quite a lot of Mike Nicholls films recently. Any particular favourites? KK: Oh, the one with Art Garfunkel in it.

CARNAL KNOWLEDGE?

KK: Yes, that's it.

Matthew, what was it like kissing these lovely ladies? And how was it different to kissing men?

MR:

KK: We had a lovely time in the the bath!

MR: I was actually wearing Viggo Mortenson's jockstrap. Not that he'd worn it, it was bought for Viggo but he turned it down.

KK: It was a nasty yellow colour.

MR: It was grim. And they were trying to sell it to me by saying "this was actually bought for Viggo Mortenson but he turned it down" and I was just like "I can see why! It looks like someone's peed in it!" But it was all great because there are no real love scenes in the film, the stuff with Sienna is about showing the relationship and our scene in the bath was about a lot of things, seduction and all the rest of it, but it was never a lovemaking scene so there wasn't that ideal behind it.

KK: I felt really sorry for him because I was pulled into the bath and when I got out all these crew members would be running over and cover me immediately, and he was standing there in a nasty-arse thong and it's just like "yeah, alright"

MR: Chance of a towel?! But no, the only difference with kissing men is the stubble. The shock, it's just like, urgh, it's a man. But they were very generous, they would shave for me.

Who would be your dream real-life person to play?

MR: I've sort of ticked it really!

KK: No idea, I'd love to give you a really clever answer to that but I haven't got a clue... Matthew Rhys!

MR: Yeah, I'd like Keira Knightley to play me.

Maybe Celia Johnson?

KK: Oh, I could play Celia Johnson.

MR: And I'll play David Lean. Done.

THE EDGE OF LOVE is great, and it's out in the UK now. I strongly advise you to go and have a peek!