USA: EMILY WATSON PLAYS FAMOUS CELLOIST JACQUELINE DU PRE IN FILM "HILARY AND JACKIE"

Record ID: 545658

  • Title: USA: EMILY WATSON PLAYS FAMOUS CELLOIST JACQUELINE DU PRE IN FILM "HILARY AND JACKIE"
  • Date: 9th January 1999
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 21) (RTV) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) EMILY WATSON SAYING OF THE REAL HILARY, "Her first reaction when she found out that I had been cast was that, you know, she was really, she knew my work and she was really sort of, said, I'm really, there's one thing I'm a little worried about is that I don't think Emily's breasts are big enough because, you know, Jackie was really quite a big girl, you know. So, my tribute to Hilary Dupre was that I wore a 'wonderbra' throughout making the movie. " (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) ANAND TUCKER SAYING OF HIS CONVERSATIONS WITH THE REAL HILARY AND HER HUSBAND, " I kinda look at it like this. I'm very upfront with them. I'm never gonna be able to tell the truth of your story. I'm gonna tell a lie. It's gonna be my version and the writer's version of your story, okay? Don't expect it to be what you imagine it to be. All I can do is, we're gonna make a movie, it's going to have a beginning, middle, and an end, and it's gonna be a kind of mythic re-telling of your story." NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 21) (RTV) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) EMILY WATSON SAYING You know, it's all alot about her life as a musician and all the concerts, but there's also the very, very personal, very private, very painful side of this story and to earn the right to tell that part of the story you really have to be very, very, you have to say, you know, are we doing this scene in the right way? Am I, am I being true to her here, you know, it's very taxing, that."
  • Embargoed: 24th January 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA64XZB3RZIZUNYTTS8R1X8H09U
  • Story Text: Two years after she won an Oscar nomination for her debut feature film "Breaking the Waves," Emily Watson continues to impress the critics in her newest film "Hilary and Jackie," in which she plays real-life cello impressario Jacqueline Dupre.
    "Hilary and Jackie" is the true story of Jacqueline and Hilary du Pre, the gifted musical sisters who grew up in England in the 1950's.Written and produced as a tribute to Jackie by first-time feature film director Anand Tucker, the story taces Du Pre's rapid rise to international fame and the devastating consequences it had on her and those she loved.
    Jacqueline du Pre was arguable one of the greatest musical prodigies of the 20th Century.She dazzled audiences around the world with the unbridled passion and beauty of her music.
    While her sister Hilary, an accomplished Flutist herself, married and began a family at home, Jackie and her husband, the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, traveled and performed around the world.
    Although the couple was treated as musical royalty, the constant touring became a tremendous strain on Jackie who longed for the simpler life that her sister built.In 1973Jackie was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a degenerative nerve disease at the age of 28.Her musical career was destroyed by her illness and she died in 1987.
    As a great admirer of du Pre's music, Anand Tucker was intrigued to learn that Hilary du Pre and her brother were planning to write a memoir about their celebrated sister, determined to tell their sibling's difficult and often disturbing story in their own words.He convinced them to let him film that memoirs and turn it into "Hilary and Jackie."
    For Watson, the greatest challenge of the film was learning, not only to play the cello, but to play it in du Pre's fiery, passionate style.To do this, she three months isolated in a rehearsal room in London with the instrument.
    She had three intense three-hour lessons a week and studied hundreds of hours of footage of du Pre performing.But in the end, the most important part of her responsibility in the role was being true to the memories of Jackie and Hilary, whom she had a chance to meet during production.
    Other cast members include Rachel Griffiths as Hilary, David Morrissey as her husband Kiffer, and James Frain as Jackie's musician husband Daniel Barenboim.
    "Hilary and Jackie" opens in theatres on Christmas Day.
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