Vanessa Redgrave

ATONEMENT is a dazzling screen adaptation by director Joe Wright based on the bestseller by Ian McEwan and scripted by Christopher Hampton, with career bests from leads James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, the best romantic film since the English Patient acts as a canvas that shows the unbearable consequences of how one lie can destroy the outcome of more than one.

I met at a press roundtable with James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, screenwriter Christopher Hampton and Vanessa Redgrave in Beverly Hills, CA.



Yama Rahimi: How familiar were you with the material?

Vanessa Redgrave: I knew the book but you can't say you the know it if you read it once. You have to read it a few times. In fact I was reading it this morning. I'm amazed how well the film expressed the most intricate psychological processes that's going on in the book of all the characters.

YR: What attracted you to this project?

VR: Well the book first and formost, then the script and Joe (Wright) whom I heard so much about. I was thrilled to meet him before he cast me because he had to workout who was going to be at the beginning Briony then figuring out the other actors which included Romola (Garai) and me. I'm amazed how it turned out that all three actors portrayed one person that you feel as one person which quiet difficult to achieve which he did, I think.

YR: Your scene is the most pivotal scene in the film that made it stand out to me which is about what art is all about. In a way that art takes real life and make it more presentable or even bearable.

VR: Yes there's a lot layers to it. On a simple level and on a deeper level.

YR: You have been given us a lot or great performances over the years. Ho you choose your projects?

VR: Well they choose me. I have been quite lucky with the roles that I have been able to do.

YR: Which projects remain still fresh after all these years?

VR: Hmm. Well probably the first actual film I did which was a black and white film called Morgan with Karel Reisz which still remains extremely fresh.

YR: How's it playing with your daughters or other members of the family?

VR: Well it has the be the project rather just for the sake of working with a member of the family. Then it's a pleasure as it was with The White Countess with Natasha (Richardson) and my sister Lynn that we shot in China where we called each comrades, partly beacause we were in China and partly because we were really comrades.

YR: What have you done since Atonement?

VR: I have done a play called "The Year of Magical Thinking" and produced a documentary "Wake Up World" that my son directed as a tribute to UNICEF.

YR: Do you still get nervous when are on stage?

VR: Well it comes and goes in waves. In this play it was more like pulling yourself together seven days a week. It's a different art form than film. Not better or worse, just different. I must admit that working on film has made understand actin the theatre better.