I’m about to shock the trailer-watching world, as well as those of you who believe you are too hip and cool to walk into any film with a love story at its center and no explosions surrounding it. In my mind, there’s a vast difference between a romance film (which include, and have been dominated by, romantic-comedies) and a love story, which are more grown-up takes on relationships and often includes a bit of what comes after the happily-ever-after or provides a twist that keeps a happy ending from ever actually occurring.
I’ll confess, I walked into ME BEFORE YOU assuming it would be more of a romance. It’s about a quirky young woman named Louisa (played by an almost recognizable Emilia Clarke, best known as Daenerys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones”) who gets a job for the local rich family in her small town taking care of a paralyzed Will Traynor (Sam Claflin), who used to be a man who lived life to the fullest and was quite active, and is not trapped in a wheelchair. Naturally, Louisa’s sparkling personality finally penetrated Will’s hard exterior, and the two begin to fall in love, but there’s a twist to this story (that I won’t reveal here) that makes this something a little less fairy tale (hell, Will even lives in a castle).
ME BEFORE YOU was written by the successful British author Jojo Moyes (based on her novel), and the 2012 book was so beloved that Moyes wrote a sequel last year entitled “After You.” Clarke almost single handedly makes this film work, and it’s almost like it’s another actor playing Louisa because she spends so much of the film smiling and generally happy, a far cry from her “Game of Thrones” role (or her roles in TERMINATOR GENISYS and DOM HEMINGWAY). The story is a deliberate subversion of the stereotypical prince coming in to save a young woman away from her working-class life; Louisa actually loves her life and family, and is in no need of saving. If anything, it’s the prince that needs all the help he can get and perhaps a little rescue from his overbearing family.
The film continued to surprise me, pull me in, and left me little choice but to be moved by the good and bad times in which these characters find themselves. This is a gentle reminder that trailers cannot be trusted. Often they make a bad movie look good; sometimes, they undersell quite a good movie. Thus is the case with ME BEFORE YOU, which I hope you allow yourself a chance to enjoy. I recently had the great pleasure of sitting down with Clarke and author Moyes in Chicago, just days after Clarke’s triumphant episode of “Game of Thrones” in which her character once again proved how underestimated Daenerys often as she returns to her roots as a full-on murder queen and the un-burnable Mother of Dragons. And I believe there was some nudity, which she was more than happy to bring up. Please enjoy my talk with Emilia Clarke and Jojo Moyes, which began with me showing Clarke a photo of the two of us taken five years ago at a party at her first-ever San Diego Comic-Con appearance, which took place just weeks after the first season of “Game of Thrones” had ended.
Capone: I want to show you something [pulls up the photo on my phone].
Jojo Moyes: Oh, how cute do you look?
Emilia Clarke: Yes! Oh my god, that’s crazy. I did everything myself then. Those are my clothes, my hair, my face.
Capone: Very few people at that party recognized you, because no one knew you looked like that in real life.
EC: No, I believe it. I’m so sorry I wasn’t like “Hey, good to see you again.”
Capone: I would never in a million years have expected you to remember this, but this was the first time that you and the other folks from the show had really gotten to meet press or fans of the show, and I remember all of you asking for reactions, which is very unusual.
EC: That was my first job, my first everything. That was my first time to L.A. Well, we weren’t in L.A. in that photo, but right after. Lovely to meet you again!
Capone: I’ve always thought, at least in film, that there’s a difference between a romance movie and a love story. I think a love story is a little more hard earned, usually coupled in some way with tragedy. As a writer, would you agree with that?
JM: Yeah, I have to say I brustle against being classified as a romance writer, because to me that’s a short hand for something formulaic and a bit lazy sometimes, and I get in terrible trouble for saying this with romance writers. I agree with you. Some of my favorite films, like LOVE STORY, yes it’s a little bit slushy, but it has some hard-hitting emotion in there. It’s not a happy-ever-after story. Yeah, I like things that don’t always go the way you think they’re going to go.
Capone: Even in a film like this that’s a little more playful at times, there is something mature about it, there’s something that grownups will identify with. This isn’t made for teenagers.
JM: There’s some grit in the oyster. I hope so.
Capone: I should ask, are we trying to keep certain things secret about this story?
JM: We should probably not give away the ending.
EC: Yeah, yeah.
Capone: The trailer did a really wonderful job of faking me out about what’s really going on in this movie. I was floored.
JM: She goes [in the trailer], “I can make you happy,” and so you think that’s what she’s going to do.
Capone: It’s strange to say this, but there’s something that men will get as much as women because of his struggle and that feeling that he is not living to his full potential.
JM: Yeah, I think it’s an alpha male’s worst nightmare, to suffer loss of autonomy of your own body. I think in some ways men might find that even harder than women. I think for that character, who was so determined to kind of suck the marrow out of life, to be left dependent on everybody and viewed with pity would be his absolute worst nightmare. So yeah, I think that’s why men seem to respond to the story as well.
Capone: What was it about Louisa, when you first read the book or the screenplay, that you just hooked into and said, “I can do something with this, I can build on this.”
EC: Well, it was in the first few pages that I really felt that, not only because of Jojo’s incredible writing, but because I saw so much of myself in her, and I just wanted a chance to do that. “That would be a good one.” Yeah, she really affected me on so many levels, and the story then on top of that was just the icing on the cake, really. As an actor, I’m going to look at the role with more scrutiny than I will anything else.
Capone: You wrote the screenplay too, but the first time I remember hearing about this project, it was when other screenwriters were attached to it [Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who wrote 500 DAYS OF SUMMER and adapted THE SPECTACULAR NOW, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, PAPER TOWNS, and the upcoming THE MASTERPIECE, formerly THE DISASTER ARTIST)]. Can you say, how did it come back to you?
JM: You’d have to ask the studio about that. I wrote the first draft, and it kept coming back to me, and I think it’s because the book strikes such a particular balance between all the set things that go on. Also, I like to give the women the good lines too.
EC: Amen to that.
JM: I think the studio just wanted to maintain that balance of tragedy and humor and a kind of Britishness as well. But again, you’d have to ask them for the reasons, because I don’t ask the questions [laughs].
Capone: I’m guessing you’re not displeased by it.
JM: Oh, no. To be fair, even when other screenwriters might have been brought on, the one thing the studio never did was take the project away from me. They were always going to let me write notes on it, they were always going to let me have an opinion. It’s just ultimately, I think they felt there was no point.
Capone: That was my next question. How involved were you?
JM: I’m not sure I could have been more involved. I was on set nearly every day with these guys, and that was such an educative process because you learn then how lines change in the mouths of different actors, how action changes the weight of the words, and some things that you think are really funny on the page just don’t translate, or vice versa. There’s one scene where Louisa is talking about the kind of life that she thinks Will wants her to have, and she just goes off on a tangent. It’s one of my favorite little speeches that she gives. But I remember watching it, and Emelia just took it and ran with it and gave it this extra dimension. I remember having one of those moments when you go “This is the beauty of movies, because they just bring another dimension to what you thought was an interesting thing. It explodes into something else.
Capone: Louisa is so close to her family, and they are such a great family. Normally those things would be background moments, but it’s a really important part of this film and how the two families are so different. I felt somewhere in there was a message about class—not a heavy-handed one, but just enough to say there is a difference.
JM: Oh, and there clearly is in England. It’s much more naked in England.
EC: That is a tale as old as time. It’s a heartbeat of a nation, the class war.
JM: Nice phrase.
EC: Thanks! I just made that up. On the fly! Well because it resonates in everything. I went to boarding school, so I was up in it, but I’m not it. And you’ve got the people in the middle, which has got bigger and bigger, who are going, “What the hell? How do I fit into this?” It’s just something that you’ve got to be English to get it, to truly like feel it. It’s in our veins, and it’s not good.
Capone: I love that Will literally lives in a castle, as a prince would. It’s like an anti-fairytale in a lot of ways, this story.
JM: Yeah, he’s the one that’s chained up, figuratively. And it’s distinctly chillier than at Louisa’s house.
Capone: Did you like that idea of subverting these romance stories?
JM: Yeah, I love that. Often, you do these things without realizing you’re feeding into or subverting all sorts of tropes. It’s afterwards, maybe with some hindsight, that you look back and go, “Oh, this is the story of Beauty and the Beast, or Jane Eyre and Rochester, or lots of other different stories.” I didn’t realize when I was doing it; I just knew I didn’t want him to save her in any conventional sense. I wanted her to save him as much as the other way around, and I didn’t want it to end with a traditional ending. I’m being careful with what I say there.
Capone: Emilia, people may not recognize you because you’re smiling so much in this movie.
EC: Yay! [laughs]
Capone: Which has got to be a nice change to just be able to feel happy and not be serious all the time.
EC: Yeah, it’s a really different change. Yeah, my characters up to this point, as people, don’t smile. So yeah.
JM: They usually trying to kill somebody or are being killed by somebody.
EC: True, true. It’s difficult to crack a smile when you’re being so serious.
Capone: I can show hardcore “Game of Throne” fans that picture from five years ago and they would have no idea who it was, because you’re smiling.
EC: It’s so true. It’s not the wig; it’s the smile.
Capone: I normally wouldn't ask questions about wardrobe, but attention is called to it in this film. Did you have any input into her wonderful wardrobe?
EC: Yeah. Jill [Taylor], our costume designer, was absolutely the master behind what you see on the screen, but she was so generous and collaborative, that when we did all the fittings for all 72 costumes, she was like, “What do we think?” And I’d be like, “Can I try it with the—” And then there were certain little traits that I always do, and I found that Louisa was always doing that really aided us in that journey as well. So Jill sewed pockets into all of my costumes, because every outfit, I’m always looking for a pocket. So then Louisa was always looking for a pocket. So she did. It ended up being a lovely collaborative experience, but the heart was Jill taking from Jojo’s words.
Capone: In those early moments when Louisa is on the job interview or in her first few terrible days on the job, that there’s something keeping her going, other than just needing money, where others might have quite. Was there something in your head that you were thinking about in those earlier moments that was driving her?
EC: A huge amount really, and it all starts and ends with the family. Her need and her desire to keep her family as happy as she possibly could, and she understood the weight that she was carrying in terms of being capable of taking that load off. And the fact that she had been so protected her whole life up until this moment by the loving family, and she knew that it was her turn to take it on. So that’s a pretty strong motivation for anyone I think—dependancy.
Capone: Your most recent book is a sequel to this. Is there interest, with either of you, if this does well to continue the story? People are going to fall in love with these characters.
JM: I’m being really superstitious about it, because I just want to see how this does, but if we did do a sequel, there’s only one Louisa for me, and she’s sitting next to me. I can’t imagine anybody else doing it. I never could.
Capone: Did you sign on to do more than one, just in case?
EC: Well, if there’s going to be another one, I’m pretty sure someone’s going to ask.
[Everybody laughs]
JM: Yeah, you don’t cross the Khaleesi.
Capone: Speaking of which, congratulations on one of the best episodes you’ve ever had. I’m not talking about just because of the end…
EC: Tits, you can say it [laughs].
Capone: Fair enough, but what you’re doing just before that is amazing. You’re just a murder queen, killing everything. And I love when she gets like that.
EC: Yeah, I’m beaming as you’re saying that to me.
JM: “Murder queen,” that should be her real name.
Capone: I love that she gets like that. No one in that world gives her the credit or respect she deserves until she does something like that.
EC: Yeah, exactly.
Capone: Has it been fun this season, as you were making it, that you’re in the same boat that we are, you don’t have the books to reference any longer. You don’t know what’s coming until you read it for the first time. Was that a strange thing to go through?
EC: [The showrunners] were always capable of doing something different. Nothing was ever certain, but this time more than anything, I’m like, “Guys, what is going on? What is happening? Can I have a say in it? When am I getting on board that thing?” Like yeah, this season—you’ll keep watching and you’ll see—she has shifted into an absolutely other state of being that is going to continue until the bitter end.
Capone: I love that you came right out after it aired and said, “Nope. That’s me at the end there in all my glory.”
JM: Why wouldn’t you?
EC: Hell yeah. We have this unrealistic idea of what a body should look like, so I wanted to stand next to it and say to young girls who are watching it—not too young; dear god, not too young—and see that they can be proud of their bodies, whatever you look like.
Capone: Jojo, you said earlier that you could not have been more involved in the production. You do realize that is not how it usually is for people, right?
JM: [laughs] When the studio asked me if I wanted to write the screenplay, there was one tiny bit of me that went, “Is this a joke?” I’ve heard the horror stories and I know that many studios want to keep the author of the book as far away as possible. Even when I came no set, there were a couple of days when people were just, “Is she going to be a monster? Is she going to start trying to change performances?” I sat in the back. I remember sitting on the stairs and just—
EC: You were so magic.
JM: I just like watching it. I waited. If Thea [Sharrock], the director, wanted me, I would be there, and we changed lines on the hoof, and if anybody wanted anything. It’s magic to watch that happen. It’s magic. I loved being involved. I loved it even when she was waking me up at 5:30 in the morning going, “Can you punch up these lines for the scene we’re going to do at 11:30?” “Yes, I can. And then I will drive two hours to the set and be part of it.”
Capone: You are going to make other writers mad that you were that highly regarded on the set.
JM: [laughs] I loved it so much that I’ve gone on to adapt two other books.
Capone: I was going to ask you if there were more coming outside of the sequel.
JM: They created a monster. Blame MGM, because I love it. It’s my favorite. I think as an ex-journalist, I miss the collaborative nature of it, if you get a nice crew and nice actors who are flexible. She was sometimes having to do lines that we changed an hour before. Not a lot of actors are going to be comfortable with that, but these guys—her and Sam—were so good natured and sunny. I don’t think I ever saw you guys even frown.
EC: No, except from broken hip slip, maybe.
[Both laugh] JM: Are we going to go there? This girl is a trooper. She’s done Daenerys Targaryen on a crutch, because she fractured her hip. In that final scene when she’s walking across cobbles in Paris, I can’t watch that scene still. She’s on high heals with a fractured hip, and what you can’t see is when the cameras stop rolling, the color literally leaves her face, and that’s how hardcore this girl is. And she still never complained.
EC: I was having too much fun.
Capone: Some of the people I was watching the film with afterwards were saying that they didn’t know that you had a performance like this in you.
EC: Oh, that makes me want to cry. I love that.
Capone: Do you live for moments like that, to shock people and surprise people and say look, I have a range—you display an incredible range just within this film.
EC: Yes. That’s what I look for in a role. In a job, that’s the ideal. People are always like did you decide if you want to do this or that kind of role? Never. If there’s a broad range of things to play within a role, the meatier the better. That’s what I want. This just felt like another limb, the whole thing. Her, especially. It was just so glorious and wonderful and freeing. Oh my god, it was so freeing. And to have Jojo being a part of it, seriously. I work with writers on set all the time for the show.
Capone: I was going to say, that’s something you’re used to.
EC: Yeah. And there’s a certain etiquette you have got to be careful of, and Jojo from the beginning was not precious, “Let’s discuss it.” You were so open and generous. Not like we would ever change anything anyway, but the whole thing was just so collaborative.
JM: We had a great director who was really collaborative in nature.
EC: Yeah, exactly. Honest to god, Thea absolutely unlocked me as an actor, whole heartedly. “She ain’t going nowhere. Lassoed that one.” [laughs]
Capone: I hope you’re able to keep finding people to work with on that level.
EC: Yeah. That’s the exciting bit. That’s the exciting road ahead, really.
Capone: Well it was wonderful to meet you. Best of luck.
