From MoviesOnline / By Sheila Roberts

MoviesOnline sat down with Abbie Cornish at the Los Angeles press day for her new movie, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” directed by Shekhar Kapur from an original screenplay by William Nicholson ("Gladiator”) and Michael Hirst ("Elizabeth”). Reprising the roles they originated in seven-time Academy Award-nominated "Elizabeth,” Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush return for a gripping historical thriller laced with treachery and romance. Joining them in the epic is Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, a dashing seafarer and newfound temptation for Elizabeth.

In "Elizabeth,” the story focused on the early, somewhat uncertain years of the fledgling ruler’s reign. The young queen faced an uphill struggle to hold on to her throne, outfoxing conspirators and deceivers at every turn. Never certain which of her court and advisers could be trusted, the headstrong and savvy Elizabeth emerged at the end of the film as a Queen, firmly in charge of her destiny.

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age” commences a decade after the period covered in "Elizabeth” and examines the glorious middle years of her rule when Queen Elizabeth I (Blanchett) faces bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal. Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late 16th century Europe, Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II (Jordi Molla)--with his powerful army and sea-dominating armada--determined to restore England to Catholicism.

Preparing to go to war to defend her empire, Elizabeth struggles to balance ancient royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability in her love for Raleigh (Owen). But he remains forbidden for a queen who has sworn body and soul to her country. Unable and unwilling to pursue her love, Elizabeth encourages her favorite lady-in-waiting, Bess (Abbie Cornish), to befriend Raleigh to keep him near. But this strategy forces Elizabeth to observe their growing intimacy.

As she charts her course abroad, her trusted advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham (Rush), continues his masterful puppetry of Elizabeth's court at home--and her campaign to solidify absolute power. Through an intricate spy network, Walsingham uncovers an assassination plot that could topple the throne. But as he unmasks traitors that may include Elizabeth's own cousin Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), he unknowingly sets England up for destruction.

The 25-year-old Cornish, who plays Elizabeth’s young and attractive lady-in-waiting, Elizabeth "Bess” Throckmorton, relished the prospect of playing a character from a world that was completely unknown to her, opposite an impressive cast. She states, "There is something intriguing about Bess, in that she carries both light and dark.”


As the third corner of the love triangle, the filmmakers wanted someone who expressed freshness, youth and energy, somebody upon whom Elizabeth could reflect as being a younger version of herself. Producer Jonathan Cavendish explains, "We wanted someone who wasn’t widely known, but who also had the acting ability and charisma to hold her own opposite Cate.” Cornish fulfilled those criteria, with her eye-opening performance in the Australian coming-of-age film "Somersault” going a long way toward attesting to considerable talent.


Abbie Cornish delivers an impressive performance in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age.” Here’s what she had to tell us about her new film:


Q: Do you feel that it’s easy for you to really get into the character when you are in costume and surrounded by all that or does that not matter to you as an actress?

A: I think it does make a difference. I found unexpectedly actually that the costumes for me became a key to who to Bess was. Almost in a sense how she was feeling about her life at that particular point in time. The first week on set of wearing the corset I felt very restricted and I felt I couldn’t breathe properly. I didn’t have my full lung capacity and I actually felt a little bit miserable and I started to wonder, "Wow, this woman has one of the most prestigious jobs in the court and she has beautiful clothes, beautiful jewellery and yet she can’t breath properly. There’s a lack of freedom.” And that got me thinking, you know. "How does she feel?” There’s an exterior and then there’s an interior which is quite constraining. There’s a feeling of constraint and restriction there.

Q: What was your favorite costume?

A: My favorite is the pink costume. You don’t see it for very long but at the very end where the Queen comes in and says "Are you with child?” And she says "Yes, my husband’s child.” The pink one. I just love.

Q: Is that when she smacked you?

A: Yes. [laughs]

Q: There’s that wonderful line of dialogue when Clive asks your character how to approach Elizabeth, and you say "Pay her the flattery of truth.” Do you think that’s what attracts women to men?

A: Um, not necessarily. No. I mean I just wouldn’t put it as simply as that but I think it’s honesty is honestly, you know, what you would hope one person would give to the other person in everyday life.

Q: What was it like shooting that great scene when you get to dance with Clive?

A: That was really fun. It was interesting learning that dance. The first day I was like "Shekhar, do we have to do the real thing today?” because in your own clothes, in western, modern clothes it’s a little different. When you’re in, you know, this whole outfit with layers and layers of material and I was kind of a little bit shy and it’s the Volte, you know, very physical and upfront, but on the day it’s a different thing. You get into that world and that sense of the court and it was fun learning that.

Q: As the latest Australian actress to find success, how are you coping with this transformation in your life and how concerned are you about the scrutiny that is inevitably going to happen with you and your life and the press?

A: I just spend a lot of time with my friends and with my family. I love them very much and I think that when you are close to them and in touch with them, then ultimately time spent outside of working is that, you know, that’s the focus for me.

Q: Bess functions not only as a close confidante of Elizabeth’s but also as someone who Elizabeth can live vicariously through. How did you approach your character?

A: That’s an interesting question actually. For me there was always a sense that Bess is very good at which she does, obviously to be in that position. But I always felt like the true Bess, she protected herself. I always felt that her inner child was kept underneath the corset. And there were many dreams and thoughts that she had which I don’t think she freely expresses to the Queen. Maybe the Queen has a sense of them because she herself is human. But Bess maintains constantly around the Queen and so I guess for me there was a separation. Bess’s involvement with the Queen was first and foremost work, and second of all compassion and love. But there’s only a certain extent that you can give over to that love and compassion to someone else when ultimately at the end of the day they could behead you or send you off into the outer world, which at that point in time was a completely different life. So I think there was an attachment but also a sense of self, if that answers your question.

Q: I really enjoyed your playful interaction with Cate. You guys looked like you were really having fun. When the two of you met, did you hit it off and how did you establish that sense of ease that the two characters have?

A: Well Cate’s an incredible woman and an incredible actress first of all. She’s very focused in what she does and I felt in working with her that she had this tremendous amount of work to do in relation to her own character and her own role in the film, but she was always aware of everyone else around her. And particularly for me, I felt there was a watchful eye over my character, over scenes and the dialogue and it was nice to have that there. So there was a very comfortable feeling from me towards Cate, both professionally and personally. And I think Shekhar just did such an amazing job in expressing his thoughts on that relationship and encouraging exploration of that relationship because it’s so intricate and difficult. You can’t sum it up in one sentence, you really can’t. And so to have the ability to do that with people like Cate and Shekhar was just a pleasure.

Q: I’m wondering if you could talk a little about working with Shekhar and how he challenged you as an actress to get the performance you give in the film?

A: Shekhar, the weeks leading up to the shoot we just spent a lot of time talking, and talking about everything -- about Bess, about the film, about that life. The most wonderful thing about Shekhar is he continues to explore up until – well he never stops exploring really. Even when I talk to him about the film now, it doesn’t feel like it’s in a vault. It still feels open and alive. Shekhar really encouraged me to take risks and as an actor I’ve really enjoyed that. I knew this film would be challenging but he made it even more challenging and there was a certain, you know he has a very chaotic element to him which is really fun. I loved it. And in a sense you kind of, well you don’t have to. I guess it’s a choice. But I gave myself over a little bit to lack of consequence and to kind of let myself dive in, to let myself not know and be unknowledgeable, to takes risks and all of these things. So I had a great time with him really. Sometimes I had no idea what was going on. But you know, there’s a trust there.

Q: In Somersault and Candy, you played these two very specifically Australian damaged women. How surprised are you that those movies led to this extraordinary career of yours and can you talk about Stop Loss, the latest film you shot in Texas.

A: Stop Loss I filmed in Texas at the end of last year, actually straight off the back of The Golden Age which was an interesting change. I literally made that change within a week. And that itself, I mean I haven’t seen the screening of the film so I can’t talk in knowledge of how the film is now but it was interesting to do a contemporary piece, a very Texan sort of country girl dealing with the issues that we are dealing with today which is this war that we have going on and our involvement, whether it be direct or indirect, with that war. As soon as I read the script I knew I had to do that. You know, September 11th was a big event for me and in my generation this is the biggest, you know, world wide war that we’ve seen. In relation to Somersault and Candy, Shekhar saw me in Somersault at the Tokyo Film Festival so I guess that …

Q: What do you think he saw in that that led him to want to cast you because these two women are quite different?

A: Mm. Yeah I would like to think so. [laughs] I don’t know. I would hope it would be the acting.

Q: Did you always dream of an international movie career when you were making Somersault? Did you think ‘This is going to be my stepping stone and everybody around the world is going to see it and leave Australia?

A: You mean when I was making Somersault? No not at all. I had no idea. When I went into Somersault, meaning the rehearsals and the shoot, I really felt like I stepped into this strange little creative bubble. I mean that’s as hard as I feel I’ve really worked on a film and as focused as I’ve ever been. At the time I was really completely within it. I was actually really surprised when I got the phone calls about the AFI Awards. In Australia we have AFI awards, If Awards and Film Critic Circle awards and stuff and when I got phone calls about that and phone calls about the festivals, it was something else, you know? It was from the outside. I never though of that stuff, no.

Q: So all of this came as a complete surprise to you?

A: Yeah I guess so, in a sense, yeah.

Q: When you learned you were going to get the part and started talking with the director, did you research the period and did you learn about the real Bess or did you build your own character from scratch?

A: I really wanted to know about the real Bess. I felt that it was very important to create some sense of connection to her and her life. It’s difficult because not an extensive amount is written about Bess but I gathered the bits that I could and also talking to Justin, we had an historian on board, and just questioning him about little things. How do I stand? When she walks in, does she kneel? How far down does she bow? And all these little things I guess. But the most interesting thing and the most creative insight for me into Bess came in a portrait. I found this portrait of her in a book which just pushed through the image and went straight through me. It’s difficult because there’s no real photographs of a person around that time and so you have to rely on an artist’s interpretation. But there was something I felt was coming through this portrait and so I got it blown up really big and put it in my trailer and so I would see her when I came in, when I left, and I would check in with her. Those little keys into who I felt she was. She had these very – Bess didn’t have blue eyes in the film -- but these very blue, very open, almost ocean-like eyes and there was this slight smile on her face but the lips were pursed. So there was a happiness and contentment, a sort of a givingness to the moment but a constriction and that was the profession I felt coming in, and then the open eyes and stuff and the dream. There was something about her that was dreaming of something outside of that moment and so that I felt affected me.

Q: How do you find that the intrigues of the Elizabethan Court with its power, romance, and scandal compare to Hollywood?

A: That’s a really difficult question. I have no idea. I really don’t, I’m sorry. I couldn’t answer that one for you.

Q: Is Stop Loss going to be at Sundance?

A: I’m not sure. I mean they’re not releasing Stop Loss now until next March.

Q: What are you doing next?

A: I’m doing a film called Bright Star with Jane Campion next year which will be really great.

Q: The Keats movie?

A: Yeah, it’s gorgeous – I play Fanny Brawne who is, in a sense I guess, his muse and his life love. But they were never allowed to marry. He died really young when he was 25. And her parents wouldn’t let her marry him because he was broke, you know. He was a poet.

Q: So it’s another period piece set in the early 20th century?

A: Yeah it is. It’s actually around 1913.

Q: Has Keats been cast?

A: Yes, Ben Whishaw.

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age” opens in theatres on October 12th.