It was Elizabeth’s wit that the 28-year-old actor first fell in love with. “It’s what so many individuals love about her,” Marisa says over a video name from London. “While I used to be making ready to play her, I loved her stubbornness, the moments she toys with individuals, or is genuinely offended, and when she has to beat the impediment of her delight.”
Timeless story
Pride and Prejudice, first revealed in 1813, continues to resonate with readers throughout generations. “It is a traditional love story, and likewise about individuals getting in their very own manner,” Marisa says. “As a reader, you might be all the time keen these individuals to get out of their manner and join with each other. We can see the place it’s heading lengthy earlier than they will. That’s joyful and pleasurable for a reader or listener, and one of many causes individuals really feel so near the guide.”
Pride and Prejudice has impressed numerous diversifications from the traditional 1995 BBC collection starring Colin Firth to Bridget Jones’s Diary. Marisa finds the six-part BBC collection iconic. “Growing up, I watched it usually with my mum. It’s what I confirmed my companion after I bought this job, as he’d by no means learn Pride and Prejudice. Colin Firth simply is Mr. Darcy,” Marisa says laughing.
As shut as potential
Being an Audible adaptation means you could be as near the guide as potential, Marisa says. “It’s such an immersive expertise. It felt like we had been in Jane Austen’s world.” The adaptation provides an inside perspective from Elizabeth. “It was nice to have the ability to do the voiceover, in addition to her chatting with everybody else.”
Elizabeth, Marisa says, exhibits bravado at first of the guide. “She’s chatting with Darcy, her mom, and sisters from a spot of harm. She’s been burned just a little bit, and has bought these partitions up. Having the first-person narrative was nice, as a result of it meant I let the viewers into her inside state. I performed Elizabeth’s intention of shaming and punishing Mr. Darcy with as a lot vigour as she would have.”
Read and play
The scene the place Darcy tells Elizabeth how he feels about her was particularly rewarding for Marisa. “It’s such an iconic second. I used to be excited to see how that scene would play out. It was pleasurable creating that second with Harris (Dickinson). There’s one thing superb about having the ability to learn and play on the identical time, discovering the phrases which have been in your thoughts for a big time frame. It felt alive and spontaneous.”
Harris Dickinson in Audible’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice | Photo Credit: Yoshitaka Kono
The voiceover was demanding, Marisa says. “You are alone within the second. It’s usually when Elizabeth is at her most reflective. There are instances the place you’re not responding to a different actor’s intention, however to your thought course of. Often with Elizabeth, issues change in actual time. So for instance, when she’s studying Darcy’s letter, her thoughts is altering fairly dramatically in a brief time frame. Reading the letter in narration was difficult.”
An excellent train
Working with simply your voice is an incredible reward, Marisa says. “As an actor, you may have so many instruments in your field, together with your physique, your face, your total being… Having to work with simply your voice and breath, forces you to be extremely intentional. There’s a technicality to it as nicely that’s pleasurable. It’s a very good train for an actor to work that depth with only one muscle.”
Apart from Marisa and Dickinson, the voice forged consists of Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Bill Nighy as Mrs and Mr Bennett, Will Poulter as Mr Wickham and Glenn Close as Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The scenes with Dickinson had been recorded so as, says Marisa. “We had been in a position to take these characters from starting to finish. It felt like we had been studying this guide collectively. The dynamic of that first assembly by to the final scene was a journey. It was achieved over two days. It was thrilling to seek out our model of this relationship.”
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Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Marisa says was unimaginable. “Her interpretation of Mrs Bennett makes this adaptation totally different from all of the others. She captures the eccentricities of Mrs Bennett and the vibe that we’re used to, in a totally totally different manner. She provides Mrs Bennett a gravitas. She doesn’t touch upon Mrs. Bennett, nor does she play her as a hysterical girl. She performs her as a mom who’s determined to save lots of her daughters. I can’t anticipate individuals to listen to her Mrs. Bennett, it simply places a complete new spin on the character.”
There are a number of thrives round who Elizabeth is, says Marisa. “She’s extremely witty and good. Life for Elizabeth is a chess recreation she’s making an attempt to win. I wished to verify I used to be fast sufficient to maintain up along with her. Falling for Darcy subtly modifications Elizabeth. It doesn’t flip her into a totally totally different particular person, nevertheless it does soften her, and that softness whereas sustaining how highly effective and clever she is, was the steadiness that struck me.”
If Elizabeth Bennett had been alive at this time, Marisa says she can be largely the identical. “She’s an extremely trendy girl, I’m positive she’d be making an attempt to get pleasure from her life in all that she does.”
Pride and Prejudice is offered on Audible
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