Back to Bronte

Motivating the making of Jane Eyre was a collective love of Charlotte Bronte's novel, and a desire to share the story anew. By exploring the mystery, drama, and emotions of the original tale Jane Eyre draws a new generation towards Bronte's novel.

Alison Owen comments, "Jane Eyre is, in many ways, a social document. It provides a window on a period in British history that saw great changes in art, architecture, and fashion."

Moira Buffini adds, "Jane Eyre was considered a very radical novel in its time. Jane, a girl with no money and no status, perceives her equality with Rochester and will settle for nothing less. Despite every knock, she is keenly aware of her own value. Her cry of 'equal – as we are!' was a clarion call for the next century. No wonder we love this book; it enabled us to know our worth and to imagine freedom."

Cary Joji Fukunaga reminds, "Here is a young girl facing what in many ways they continue to face in today's society; finding emancipation and equality."

Adriano Goldman adds, "Since Bronte wrote a character who was ahead of her time, this period drama is actually very contemporary."

Imogen Poots notes, "The characters are multifaceted, with flaws – human, really."

Michael Fassbender elaborates, "What stand out in this story are the complexities of human nature; what people are capable of doing to one another and, all the things that aren't said. Relationships are hard, requiring both parties to give themselves up. That hasn't changed for people. We must continue telling stories like this one; they're classics for a reason."

As with any enduring work of storytelling, some will be coming to it for the first time; others will be revisiting it with subjectivity.

Owen states, "Jane Eyre has been my favorite book since I was a young girl. Most people read it when they're 12 or a little older. It tends to be a book for school, or one that girls' mothers give them to read. Readers at that age, especially girls, strongly identify with Jane – though she's a few years older, she's led a sheltered life. She's never really known the society of men or society at all. So this waking up to feelings she's never previously experienced helps to engage young readers in a way that has made the novel remain among the world's most popular books."

Indeed, the book is one that women find themselves "paying it forward;" Holliday Grainger recalls, "I was a teenager when I read the book. I'd read chapters while commuting. On a completely packed train, I finished it and started sobbing. It is one of my favorite books.

When I was meeting with the movie's casting director [Nina Gold], I was telling her how much I loved the book. She told me that her daughter hadn't read it, and then went and got her daughter. She said to her daughter, 'Holly, tell her, tell her about this book.' I think I praised the book so well that her daughter then read it. Perhaps that's why I got the part..."

Sally Hawkins reflects, "When we read the book in my school, we were 15 years old and all feeling like Jane Eyre – and here was a story that focused on a teenage girl who is not necessarily the obvious heroine."

Tamzin Merchant adds, "Jane confronts emotions that weren't then being addressed by literary heroines. When I read the book as a teenager, I sat in my bedroom for four days and didn't want to be torn away from it. Bronte conveys a raw, concentrated humanity. Making this movie has been like stepping into the pages of the story."

As it happened, the film medium was how Fukunaga himself came to know the tale; his frame of reference was the 1944 Robert Stevenson movie starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.

He reveals, "My Mom was a big fan of that movie, so in turn I became one too, wearing out our VHS copy of it by the end of primary school; I really loved it... I'm obsessed with authenticity, so when the prospect of making my own version of it became reality, of course I had to read the book.

It's a page-turner. And there are a lot of pages. A lot. Charlotte Bronte was no minimalist. The descriptions are hauntingly vivid throughout, all observations made from Jane's perspective with Charlotte's keen insight on the human spirit and, of course, wit. Even though I'd read Moira's script and was recalling the 1944 movie, there was essential ammunition in the prose – information that was invaluable for me as a director to create an overall feel in the film that would be faithful to the world Charlotte created for Jane Eyre."

Speaking as one who also came to the novel only recently and who sought to make the character her own, Mia Wasikowska assesses Jane Eyre as "timeless in her relevance – and her resilience. Instead of letting her situation grind her down, or becoming damaged, she becomes a stronger person. Jane always challenges herself and follows her gut feeling as well. She knows what's important for her to do. As hard as it might be, she gets on and does it."

When asked what audiences should take away with them from Jane's story, Wasikowska states, "It is about having self-respect and finding self-fulfillment."


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