Christina Ricci praises her Bel Ami co-star Robert Pattinson in a new video interview which you can watch above.
The actress plays Clotilde de Marelle in the erotic political thriller, which is released in the UK today (March 9). Her character falls under the spell of Pattinson’s amoral and ambitious Georges Duroy.
Speaking about the role, Ricci said: “What I thought was great about playing this character was it gave me an opportunity to play somebody who we as an audience can see her experience pain and heartbreak for the first time. She’s someone for who everything’s always been great and she’s just always had fun in her life, and that to me was very interesting.”
She went on to pay tribute to Pattinson, saying, “He’s such a good actor and he comes to work prepared and focussed. He has the perfect amount of intensity for this part, but of anything was ever awkward or uncomfortable, we were able to make fun of ourselves and each other. ‘This is going to be a comfortable day, glad to see we’re both in our underwear!’”
Speaking about the 19th century Paris-set film’s appeal, Ricci added: “It’s a really interesting movie, and it’s a thought-provoking film. There are some great performances in it and it’s beautiful. I know that this is a different take on the sort of normal romantic period piece, but I think that’s what makes it interesting and really alluring.”
Bel Ami co-stars Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott-Thomas.
In fact, Almaric — best-known to American audiences through his roles in “Munich, “Le Scaphandre et le Papillion” (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”), and “Quantum of Solace,” has been a director longer than he’s been an actor. As a teenager, he took a job as a trainee AD on Louis Malle’s “Au Revoir les Enfants” and he won Best Director at Cannes in 2010 for “Tournee.” He has also worked with some of France’s best directors, of course — among them Arnaud Desplechin and Alain Resnais — and he’ll next be seen in David Cronenberg’s forthcoming “Cosmopolis,” playing a “pastry assassin” who creams Robert Pattinson in the face as part of his mission to sabotage power and wealth worldwide. Almaric sat down with The Playlist to talk about his philosophies on- and off-screen, and why he feels an actor is “nothing.”
As the pastry assassin, you get to throw a pie in Robert Pattinson’s face and then give a six-page monologue.
Cronenberg is very close to the book. And Rob is a great guy. Yeah, yeah — it’s a tough scene. I had to speak in English, and Cronenberg shot it in one sequence, where you do the whole scene in one shot. It was very physical, and I spoke so much. And you’re afraid, because it’s Cronenberg! [Laughs] But you manage to learn your lines, and I’m always surprised when I manage to be able to say the words in complete order, you know? I don’t know how it’s possible. But I think it’s going to be an amazing film, especially because he shot it in order, exactly as it happens in the book, about a man who gets broken.
Robert Pattinson’s Twilight fame would be too much for The Vampire Diaries hunk Joseph Morgan though.
The British actor, who plays the evil Klaus on hit TV series The Vampire Diaries, says he would be frightened by the level of adoration the Breaking Dawn actor has.
He exclusively told OK.co.uk: “Rob Pattinson’s fame would absolutely freak me out.
“There’s no question that The Vampire Diaries has changed my life and I do get recognised now.
“I can still go to the supermarket though and I can imagine he can’t.
“That sort of walking down the street and people screaming, not people able to go anywhere without people noticing you…it would [freak me out].”
“He is one of the most bankable, handsome film stars in the world, and a household name having starred most famously as hunky Edward Cullen in the box office-storming Twilight series, and as Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films.
Yet Christina Ricci knew almost nothing about Robert Pattinson, and had seen none of his movies, when they met on the set of the new erotic drama Bel Ami.
However, they still hit it off like old friends and turned a sometimes difficult film shoot into a fun-filled frolic.
“We would just goof off and laugh while we were working,” says Christina, 32.
“He’s a sweet guy and super funny… and a really good kisser.”
It was therefore easy for her to understand why Rob’s girlfriend, Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart, paid so many visits to the set.
“He’s so charming and smart,” Christina continues. “He’s so organised and in charge of his career. He was actually giving me advice,” adds Californian Ricci, who has been acting since she was nine years old.
Bel Ami, based on the 1885 French novel by Guy de Maupassant, has a stellar cast which also includes Kristin Scott Thomas and Uma Thurman, and is executive produced by the Beckhams’ manager Simon Fuller.
Christina plays the married but naive Clotilde de Marelle, a Parisian society lady who is seduced by Pattinson’s manipulative and immoral Georges Duroy.
Her favourite parts of filming, she says, were “the costumes, the makeup and Rob”.
Guy de Maupassant’s novel, ‘Bel Ami’, about a French ex-soldier who comes to Paris to seduce his way into the upper echelons of society, has been adapted for the screen and stage on numerous occasions since its publication in 1885.
Georges Duroy, played here by Robert Pattinson in a role that trades on the real-life devotion to his boyish charms, first appears in a Dickensian hovel through which a lone cockroach crawls and quickly disappears.
Best known for his portrayal of brooding teen vampire Edward Cullen in the phenomenally succesful Twilight Saga films Robert Pattinson turns serial seducer in his new film Bel Ami. In this adpation of Guy de Maupassant’s classic tale he charms the likes of Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas. Some chaps have all the luck.
Film3Sixty: Your character in Bel Ami, Georges DuRoy, is he an amoral man?
Robert Pattinson: He just doesn’t have a conscience. He’s content to do nothing and thinks everything should just be given to him. But if someone slights him, or directs any insult at him, the most overhelming energy grabs him and he turns into this absolute devil. It’s like in Giant, when (James Dean) builds the entire empire to say ‘F-you’, he’s exactly like that but without any redeeming characteristics. The whole story is these people trying to beat him down into remorse, and just as he’s about to touch it, something good happens to him again.
The film as a whole might feel lopsided, but thankfully the stellar performances keep you entertained.
Social-climbing, villainous backstabbing and a rapacious Robert Pattinson combine in this slow but well-crafted study of a desperate man in desperate times.
The hype…
All eyes are on Robert Pattinson as he tries to break away from his ‘Twilight’ character Edward Cullen. He’s had some success already, but the likes of ‘Remember Me’ and ‘Water for Elephants’ have hardly been classics. This is his darkest role to date, and it’s sure to test his appeal, especially as most of his fans can’t get into a 15-certificate film.
Robert Pattinson
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