Australian director Stephan Elliott, after an extended fallow period that was punctuated by a horrendous skiing accident five years ago, has returned to the screen with “Easy Virtue,” a zesty reworking of a 1920s play by Noel Coward.
Stephan Elliott - “Easy Virtue,” released by Sony Pictures Classics, arrives in theaters this week nearly 15 years after the director first made his mark with “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” The cult hit, about three drag queens on a road trip to perform in the Australian outback, remains his calling card. But it has also pigeonholed him. © Insidefoto / PR Photos
The period comedy with a modern bite stars Jessica Biel as Larita, a platinum-blonde, American racing car driver who falls in love at first with sight with John Whittaker, the scion of a snobby clan of English aristocrats, portrayed by Ben Barnes.
Biel and Barnes, photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
When the newlyweds arrive back at the family’s country estate, Larita crosses swords with her stiff-upper-lip mother-in-law, played by Kristin Scott Thomas. Meanwhile, the pater familias, actor Colin Firth, is a withdrawn psychological casualty of World War I.
“Larita comes from the future, from America, the skyscrapers and cars and all of that and runs smack into 500 years of family history—that’s the arc of the story,” says the director.
“Easy Virtue,” released by Sony Pictures Classics, arrives in theaters this week nearly 15 years after the director first made his mark with “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” The cult hit, about three drag queens on a road trip to perform in the Australian outback, remains his calling card. But it has also pigeonholed him.
“People won’t let the old Priscilla ball-and-chain go,” he says, looking tanned and trim during a recent interview at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, despite the 11 titanium plates still in his body due to the ski calamity. “Just when I thought it was all over, it’s started up again, with ‘Priscilla,’ the musical,” he opines. “But it’s great in its own way.” Indeed, the show, which he helped to write, recently opened in London to excellent reviews and is likely headed for Broadway.
“Easy Virtue” finds the director working in a different mode, a comedy of manners with a modern bite. Eliott scripted the film with regular writing partner Sheridan Jobbins while he was bed-ridden and recovering from a potentially life-threatening accident while skiing in the Alps in 2004. His injuries consisted of a broken back, and shattered pelvis and legs.
During his recuperation, producer Barnaby Thompson, head of England’s rejuvenated Ealing Studios, approached him, suggesting that Elliott write a screenplay based during on the Noel Coward stage work. “Easy Virtue” had been made into a film once before as a silent in 1928, directed by of all people Alfred Hitchcock. “I had always hated period pieces, but Barnaby convinced me to have a go at it,” he recalls. “I was on a lot of morphine as a painkiller, so maybe that’s why I thought it was a great idea.”
Kristin Scott Thomas (C) photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Eliott and Jobbins took the play which Coward penned when he was 24, retained the broad strokes of the plot and characters, but substantially rewrote the original. “One-third is Coward, the rest is us, taking the seeds he’d planted and fattening them all up,” he says.
What was it like for Elliott to return to directing after so many years?
First, the director’s chair was out. “Coming off from a very bad accident, I couldn’t really sit down,” he declares. “The only time I’m comfortable is when I’m standing up or lying down. “
But he found his directing chops were still with him. “The problems I encountered are the same ones all filmmakers face,” he notes. “There is never enough time, there is never enough money, there is never enough light.”
Surprisingly, the deft ensemble acting was achieved with no rehearsals. Instead the director did very long takes, using a film magazine that required reloading every 22 minutes, twice the normal time length. “My trick was to never turn the camera off,” he explains. “Everyone was aware the film was running through the gate. Not stopping was exhausting for the actors, but it kept everything very fresh and spontaneous.”
The film’s appeal to a younger audience is enhanced by casting of two very attractive young actors at a potential career liftoff point. Biel is best known so far for her attention-grabbing performance in “The Illusionist” with Ed Norton. Barnes played the heart-throb title role in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”
Elliott thinks both performances will elevate their stature with audiences. “Jessica has enormous depth, and this is going to open a lot of doors for her,” he says. For Biel “it must have been pretty terrifying walking into a room and there’s Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas, and she was so quiet at first I did wonder what I had done,” recalls the director. “But Colin pulled me aside and said she was going to steal the picture.” Barnes has drawn some pot shots from critics for being “a little wet” in his portrayal of John, “but that’s exactly what Coward wrote,” the director points out. “That’s not the real Ben. He did a beautiful performance.”
Both are already involved in prestige projects. Biel, who was recently razzed in the press for reportedly claiming that her beauty stood in the way of her being considered for serious roles, just completed “Nailed,” a Frank Capra-like comedy directed by David O. Russell and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, James Marsden and Catherine Keener.
Barnes, meanwhile, has the lead role in a remake of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” about a gentleman who never ages, but in his attic there’s a portrait of him that does
So what’s ahead for Elliott? No new film projects right now. But once "Easy Virtue" is launched he’s back to his old ski bum passion—a few weeks on the slopes.
Your Talkback on this Story