#James Wilby Interviews

[oscarwetnwilde]

The safer version that won't get me flagged: James Wilby and Suzanne Burden in You, Me, And It (1993) and an interview on the filming of the show:

"The series highlights that in this situation sex becomes purely a means of having a baby. It seems to lose the loving element, and that causes all kinds of problems. The couple also, frequently think there is something very inadequate about them."

James and Suzanne have to play many intimate love scenes in the production. "They are not difficult. If you have two actors who are prepared to throw their inhibitions in the wind and got on with it. These scenes really focus on the fact that they are trying to have children. They are not lurid or pornographic, and without them the production would be rather empty." -James Wilby

[undinecissy]

I believe he took this picture when he filmed Dutchgirls（1985）.

James Wilby as Philip Dundine in film, Dutchgirls（1985）. "A lovely thing which was written by William Boyd, " says James, in his BFI interview "The Reflection on Maurice" , 2018.

[hawleywilby]

[britsgovernmentmh]

it is even funnier when you remember how Hugh never say anything about his actress co-star

him saying this is extra funny when you consider the fact that at no point during that film do maurice and clive kiss with tongue so there was no real reason for them to be doing this

[rwrbmovie]

Variety: Stephen Fry on Reprising the King in ‘Red, White & Royal Blue 2’ and Why Prince William and Harry Are ‘Very Gay-Friendly’

You played King James in “Red, White & Royal Blue.” I always tell younger people that it still astonishes me that something like this could get made.

It’s wonderful — shout out to [director and co-writer] Matthew López, who’s an extraordinary talent — and indeed that I would ever play Oscar Wilde in a film. That was an extraordinary idea. My little self would say, “No, this is fantasy. Fantasy is dangerous. The hope is what kills.” But part of me wants to fly back through time and just sort of rest on the shoulder of my young unhappy self and say, “It’s going to be all right. Don’t worry.”

When you’re on a set of something like “Red, White & Royal Blue,” do you think, “I am making the most mainstream queer story. As mainstream as queer could get.”

Yeah. We have reason sometimes to doubt the sense of the younger generation in some respects. And there’s that typical old fart behavior of myself. But I’m so impressed by their willingness and openness to play those roles, those two boys [Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez]. They were terrific at it. That’s the openness that I really treasure because I can remember when Rupert Graves and James Wilby were in “Maurice.” They were brilliant in the E.M. Forster adaptation, but I can remember how the business looked down on them and said, “But they’re both straight and doing that. That must be so embarrassing for them. How could they. Oh, gosh! How would they prepare for that?”

Will you play the king again in the “Red, White & Royal Blue” sequel?

Matthew’s become a friend and he’s told me he’s doing it. I’m hoping that he hasn’t left me out. We need the king. You’ve got to have the king.

🔗 full interview

[evening-primroses]

“[on intimacy in Maurice] . . . there’s a moment where . . where Maurice and Clive, played by Hugh, they hold each other, there’s a clumsy - not even a kiss, I don’t think the mouths even meet. The real person that the sort of proper sex scenes, as it were, are between Maurice and Scudder, played by Rupert, so - and Rupert’s one of those very easy actors and very pliable, if I may say the wo- use that word, he’s you know - if I hold - if I held Rupert, he would be holding me back. It was very - he was very physically easy to be with, I found it very easy to do those scenes, extraordinarily easy. We built up a rapport, he makes me laugh, Rupert, he always has done . . . ”

‘Great British Film - Merchant Ivory Memories - James Wilby on playing Maurice’ from Distinct Nostalgia by MIM

[expo63]

James Wilby: Reflections on Maurice (one of the new filmed extras for the BFI’s Maurice 4K UK Blu-ray release (2019) on:

Directing Maurice for the stage in 2018

Following on from @ladyannelister kindly sharing a scan of James’ Lest We Forget essay on Maurice, written specially for the theatre programme when he directed Maurice on stage for London’s LGBTQ theatre Above the Stag in Autumn 2018, it occurred to me that I don’t think anyone has shared the BFI’s interview segment where he talks about the experience. The BFI filmed and produced some new extras* which are exclusive to Maurice’s UK Blu-ray edition, of which this is one.

(*In addition to the deleted scenes and the various established and new US extras produced by Criterion in the mid-2000s and the Cohen Media Group/Sony for the 2017 US Maurice 4K release.)

Although around half the BFI’s 19min filmed interview with James is billed as ‘Directing Maurice for the stage in 2018’, he digresses widely. So, rather than transcribing this section of the interview in full, I’ve selected the parts where he really does talk about Above the Stag’s addictively wonderful production, his approach as director, and the ‘lovely people who came to see it’. (Greetings, Tumblr friends! :-D Though it seems a lifetime ago already...)

1.

‘I tweaked around with the script quite a bit. Which wasn’t quite right, in fact I wished I’d started from scratch, to be honest [shakes head], but anyway I wasn’t allowed to. So I knew it [Maurice] very well, so I was on very good territory. So if anybody said, “Ah, I don’t think that’s right,” I said, “No – it’s right because of this, this, this, this and this.” And they’d shut up. ’Cos I knew it better than anyone else, by miles. What I’d be like [directing] a story or a play that I didn’t know very well, I don’t know.’

2.

‘I didn’t want it to be the film on stage, but inevitably … People don’t realize this, it’s a bit simplistic, but – in film, in the movies, the story’s carried by the image, really, and the dialogue … is massively important, don’t get me wrong, but it’s secondary to the image. In the theatre, the drama is carried by the words. Absolutely carried by the words, there’s no doubt about that.’

3.

‘As a director, you’re [not selfishly pursuing your own character, but] looking at the dramatic whole. And in no way did I want the Maurice we had in the theatre to be anything – he didn’t have to be anything like my Maurice. He was dark – dark-haired – for a start. And – by accident … there was an amazing – the company of actors I got together were wonderful. And everyone believed in this project, and everyone believed in Forster.’

4.

So I had an absolute ball doing that [directing the play]. I can’t tell you how much fun I had. There’s things that were a shame, in the sense that I had two and a half weeks’ rehearsal, and frankly that sort of piece needs longer. And other things that one had to overcome, and – it probably wasn’t at its best until we were ten days into the run. But it had a good six-week run, and it was packed out every night, so – you know – what more can you ask, and some lovely people came to see it who were very complimentary about it.’

[ladyannelister]

*Maurice Hall/James Wilby + his little smile

[evening-primroses]

i couldn’t talk to a british mf. if anyone ever told me anything i own or did was “rubbish” i’d end everything 

[oscarwetnwilde]

Manchester Evening News - Saturday 26 November 1988

James Wilby loves to play life dangerously. Never an actor to take the easy option, he didn’t work for five months after the award winning title role in Maurice.

It wasn't the film’s homosexual love scenes that kept him on the dole however. James's own lust for the right project to advance his career made him reject all the offers that poured in. “It just takes one bad film and it can put you back miles,’’ he says.

Now following the major success in the starring role of the classic story of A Handful of Dust, blond, handsome James Wilby is taking chances again.

Not content with dominating all the dashing British screen roles in the Jeremy Irons mould, he's starring in A Summer Story, a distinctly unfashionable love story in an age when violent cop thrillers and special effects films top the box office.

“The challenge -- and it is quite a challenge-- is to get the mood absolutely right,’’ he says of the turn-of-the-century West Country story.

“What’s interesting about a love story is not two people falling in love it’s two people falling in love, in a particular way. And it's getting that right.”

No time was it harder than in nude scenes played between James and his pretty co-star Imogen Stubbs in a freezing West Country river and a hay loft at dead of night with temperatures plummeting.

“You have to be relaxed because the camera picks everything, every tensing muscle. It’s not easy to be totally relaxed and gaze lovingly into somebody’s eyes with technicians standing around watching!

Born in Rangoon and after an itinerate early life in Burma Ceylon and Jamaica James eventually took up acting as a hobby while studying maths at Durham University.

His hobby turned into an obsession and he ended up being accepted by RADA, which in turn led him straight into the West End cast of Another Country, the story of spy Guy Burgess, which also launched the careers of Rupert Graves (Dance With A Stranger) and Colin Firth (Tumbledown), and a vital Equity’ card.

Following that run the die was cast and Wilby started getting calls for roles that demanded his fresh-faced public schoolboy look.

“Am I worried about being typecast in classical roles? Yes, but all my parts so far have been very different, it’s only journalists who want to lump them all together.”

After a day spent as an extra on the worldwide Merchant/Ivory hit A Room With View-- “I was furious, my agent was promised it was a speaking part,” -- he was offered the lead in E M Forster’s autobiographical Maurice.

“I’ve no regrets at all about doing Maurice,” says James, who despite not having a holiday in four years managed to take one day off from work marry his long-time girlfriend.

“I don’t think I’ll play such a fascinating role for years. You get one those that fits you like glove every years or once in a lifetime.”

[jameswilbysnumberonefan]

you know, every time James Wilby is interviewed they ask him about Maurice but what they SHOULD be asking him is what the fuck was up with “C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle”

i have so so so many questions…….

[undinecissy]

James Wilby as Stringer in Film Consipracy(1989)

"....Conspiracy gives me something for the CV which shows the breadth of parts I'm capable of playing...I'd love to play all sorts of different roles, not just sensitive souls." -interview in March, 1990

[expo63]

What Hugh said: ‘Well, this is rather embarassing, but James has a lovely big film to go to...’

What he meant: ‘JAMES HAS A LOVELY BIG FILM TO GO TO STARRING OPPOSITE RUPERT GRAVES’

James and Rupert’s ‘reunion’ in A Handful of Dust was even marketed as such. They were interviewed about the film for American Vogue by the eminent gay US novelist Edmund White (‘Upper Class Clowns’, June 1988), no less:

Excerpt of Hugh Grant and James Wilby's interview at the 1987 Venice Film Festival. Hugh talks about his previous work as a copywriter for ads.

[hawleywilby]

[gravesdiggers]

Lovely new James Wilby Interview on “Maurice”

“He played Maurice in the classic Merchant Ivory movie of the same name. Now he’s speaking to DistinctNostalgia.com about the film that also launched the career of Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves. Listen Now.” - [@DistinctbyMIM on Twitter]

(Apologies for lack of a direct link but the post vanishes otherwise!)

[mrscrowley8]

Rupert Graves - Press review of the day (06/10/2020)

Rupert Graves interview: ‘The bar snacks in Mexico — salted locusts and grasshoppers — were tastier than they sound’

Source: www.thetimes.co.uk Full article: Rupert Graves interview: ‘The bar snacks in Mexico — salted locusts and grasshoppers — were tastier than they sound’ (only available to subscribers)

However, I found the full transcript on the Factiva’s database:

___________________________________________________________

Now TV October: best series and films, including The Undoing and The Invisible Man

“Julia Stiles returns for the third series of the sumptuous Sky original drama, joined by Rupert Graves, Poppy Delevingne and Jack Fox. Set a year after the end of season two, we will see Georgina’s (Stiles) loyalty, courage and resilience tested to the extreme, with the character having abandoned the Riviera to start a new life, leaving behind all the damage and devastation.

Watch Riviera season three on Now TV from Friday 15 October.”

Source: www.stylist.co.uk Full article: Now TV October: best series and films, including The Undoing and The Invisible Man

___________________________________________________________

On This Gay Day: E.M. Forster finished writing Maurice

“Maurice was adapted into a feature film in 1987, it was one of the first film roles for Hugh Grant who played Clive, James Wilby portrayed Maurice, while Rupert Graves took on the role of Alec.”

Source: www.outinperth.com Full article: On This Gay Day: E.M. Forster finished writing Maurice

___________________________________________________________

Gabriel Corrado actuará en la serie inglesa “Riviera”

Translation: Gabriel Corrado will play in the English series “Riviera”

“Corrado compartió elenco con Julia Stiles (protagoniza a Georgina), Poppy Delevingne, Jack Fox, Rupert Graves, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Synnove Macody Lund, Franco Masini, Elisio Barrionuevo y Maurizio Lombardi.“ 

Translation: “Corrado shared the bill with Julia Stiles (Georgina, the main character), Poppy Delevingne, Jack Fox, Rupert Graves, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Synnove Macody Lund, Franco Masini, Elisio Barrionuevo and Maurizio Lombardi.”

Source: www.carlospazvivo.com Full article: Gabriel Corrado actuará en la serie inglesa “Riviera”