Based on the classic novel by W. Somerset Maugham, the Warner Independent film The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the tale of a young English couple, Walter Fane (Edward Norton), a middle class doctor, and Kitty (Naomi Watts), an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else (Liev Schreiber). When Walter discovers Kitty’s infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China that is ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth.
Having been with the film for seven years, Academy Award nominee Edward Norton, who is also one of the producers, was so struck by the complexity of bacteriologist Walter Fane that he decided to stick with the project until they could get it into production.
“Like anybody who loves movies, when you watch David Lean films, or a movie like Out of Africa, as an actor, you cannot help but think how fun it must be to have one of those kinds of experiences, and what a challenge it must be to make films with that kind of scope,” the 37-year-old Boston, Massachusetts native tells MediaBlvd. Magazine. “I don’t think many of those films get made and, a lot of times, when they do get made, they don’t get sent to me. So, when I saw one that I thought had that potential in it, it was very hard to stop ruminating on it. And, on a specific level, as an actor, it was such a complicated story.”
“I don’t tend to see my life reflected in movies about people who meet when their dogs tangle up, and this was the kind of romance that touched me. I felt like it was a story about the long struggle of men and women to actually understand each other in a forgiving way, and I found that very touching. Those things don’t bang across my desk every week, or ever year, so all of that made me very persistent about it.”
His persuasiveness is finally what convinced Best Actress Oscar nominee Naomi Watts to take on the role of Kitty. Just off a grueling eight-month shoot in Australia for King Kong, Watts was exhausted when she showed up on the set in Beijing, but she was able to use that for the character.
{quote_top}“The first week of filming, we had to do some of the heaviest scenes in the movie,” says Norton. “It was very challenging to do that without reference points of what the scenes were before. Naomi was very tired, and I saw her take a deep breath and do that thing that I think really good actors do where, instead of combating the state she was in, she just put it right into the work. She embraced the way she was feeling. The thing that was beautiful about it was that it was perfect for the state Kitty is in, in the film. I think any actor who’s worth anything fights the eternal struggle between what goes on in their head, and the releasing of that and just getting into it. It’s great when you’re working with someone and you watch them make themselves available to the moment. I really can’t say enough good things about Naomi. It was certainly the most intimate interaction I’ve had with another actor. I haven’t done a film where the two roles were that inextricably intertwined with each other. I could not have asked for a better tango partner.”
Although she initially took some convincing, the 38-year-old Aussie actress says that she liked Kitty from the first moment that she read the script. “She just leapt off the page,” Watts tells MediaBlvd. “Kitty was ahead of her time, or at least she thought she was, in refusing to conform to conventions, and she got swept up in this frivolous world of how she should look. She couldn’t stand her family breathing down her neck, constantly saying, ‘You’ve got to get married.’ When she gets this proposal from Walter, it’s a form of escape because he is going to an exotic place that sounds exciting. I just loved her transformation. I felt that it was important to commit to the flaws in her, so that her journey is that much greater and that much more powerful.”
Also taking on a role as producer, Watts says that bringing The Painted Veil to the screen has been a long journey for everyone involved. “It took us a long time to find this film’s feet, and there were many obstacles along the way. Quite often, you’re attached to something and, if it doesn’t get up and go, it can loose its shine and become a little bit lackluster. But, this never lost its shine. Edward and I championed it. I’d worked with [director] John Curran before, so I knew he could handle this material brilliantly because of his ability to understand the relationship, and the conflict within that, without judgement, and even put humor in the most awkward of places. He also created that collaborative workspace.”
Over the course of the film, Walter has moments of viciousness, brought on by a want to lash out at Kitty. Even though he has portrayed characters in the past that have similarly wanted to take out their aggression on others, Norton doesn’t believe that he uses acting as an outlet for things that he doesn’t get to express in his own life.
“It may be a way of venting off things inside you, but I don’t know. I sound hifalutin, but I always gravitated myself toward Stella Adler, who’s one of the really great thinkers about acting. She was always saying that she considered acting a fundamentally imaginative process, and I agree with that. I’m sure other people have completely different attitudes toward it, but for me, personally, I enjoy the imaginative part of it.”
Along with the emotionally draining aspects of their roles, Norton and Watts also had to film love scenes. Both actors agree that such scenes are not particularly difficult, as long as you trust your scene partner.
{quote_middle}“Love scenes are not difficult when you’ve worked with the people for a long time,” says Norton. “If it’s embedded appropriately deep in the process, there’s trust and comfortability. By the time we worked on that in this film -- and it’s a modest scene with nothing too difficult about it -- we wanted these characters to be together. It’s nice. And, it’s also very technical. A lot of it is akin to dancing and choreography.”
“You find yourself anticipating them a lot,” adds Watts. “You think, ‘How are we going to play it? How much am I going to show?’ But, once you’re there, you’re there. The love scene between Walter and Kitty was great because it’s such a pivotal point of the film, and it’s almost animalistic, in the hunger and the desperation to connect with another human being. But, it’s also a tender moment, in that they were finally able to be gentle and give in, and accept and receive. I think it expresses a lot.”
{quote_bottom}Watts believes that the success of a film as big as King Kong, and her involvement in it, helps her in getting things like The Painted Veil made. “I probably never would have done King Kong without someone like Peter Jackson,” she explains. “It’s not the stuff I normally gravitate towards. It was a great experience and very different from what I’ve done, but I like the intimacy of an independent film, and the collaborative workspace. On a bigger movie, it’s a much more controlled environment because there are so many other things going on, especially when there are effects and stunts to consider. I’m fortunate to be able to have done something like King Kong, and then flip back to an independent film. Some things that may not have been so easy to get off the ground because the tone is too pure, can be helped by the success of King Kong.”
