Pride & Prejudice
A Focus Features Release
Production Notes

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Pride & Prejudice
Table of Contents
I. Synopsis
page 3
II. The Production
page 4
III. The Locations
page 12
IV. About Jane Austen
page 15
V. About the Cast
page 17
VI. About the Filmmakers
page 22
VII. Credits
page 28

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Pride & Prejudice
Synopsis
The glorious world of Jane Austen is at last brought back to the big screen in all its romance,
wit, and emotional force in Pride & Prejudice. Faithful to the setting and period of the
beloved novel and filmed entirely on location in the U.K, this is the first movie version of the
story in 65 years.
The classic tale of love and misunderstanding unfolds in class-conscious England near the
close of the 18th century. The five Bennet sisters – Elizabeth, or Lizzie (Keira Knightley), Jane
(Rosamund Pike), Lydia (Jena Malone), Mary (Talulah Riley), and Kitty (Carey Mulligan) –
have been raised well aware of their mother’s (two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda
Blethyn) fixation on finding them husbands and securing set futures. The spirited and intelligent
Elizabeth, however, strives to live her life with a broader perspective, as encouraged by her
doting father (two-time Golden Globe Award winner Donald Sutherland).
When wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) takes up residence in a nearby mansion,
the Bennets are abuzz. Amongst the man’s sophisticated circle of London friends and the influx
of young militia officers, surely there will be no shortage of suitors for the Bennet sisters. Eldest
daughter Jane, serene and beautiful, seems poised to win Mr. Bingley’s heart. For her part,
Lizzie meets with the handsome and – it would seem – snobbish Mr. Darcy (Matthew
Macfadyen), and the battle of the sexes is joined.
Their encounters are frequent and spirited yet far from encouraging. Lizzie finds herself even
less inclined to accept a marriage proposal from a distant cousin, Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander),
and – supported by her father – stuns her mother and Mr. Collins by declining. When the
heretofore good-natured Mr. Bingley abruptly departs for London, devastating Jane, Lizzie
holds Mr. Darcy culpable for contributing to the heartbreak. But a crisis involving youngest
sister Lydia soon opens Lizzie’s eyes to the true nature of her relationship with Mr. Darcy.
The ensuing rush of feelings leaves no one unchanged, and inspires the Bennets and
everyone around them to reaffirm what is most important in life.
Focus Features presents in association with StudioCanal a Working Title production. Pride &
Prejudice. Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Tom
Hollander, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, and Judi Dench. Casting by Jina Jay. Music
Supervisor, Nick Angel. Music by Dario Marianelli. Hair and Make-Up Designer, Fae
Hammond. Costume Designer, Jacqueline Durran. Editor, Paul Tothill. Production Designer,
Sarah Greenwood. Director of Photography, Roman Osin. Co-Producer, Jane Frazer.
Executive Producers, Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin. Based on the novel by Jane Austen.
Screenplay by Deborah Moggach. Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster.
Directed by Joe Wright. A Focus Features Release.

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Pride & Prejudice
The Production
Although dramatized for television several times (in 1938, 1952, 1967, 1980, and 1995), Jane
Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice has been a feature film only once before, in 1940,
directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. Now, Pride &
Prejudice makes its triumphant return as big-screen entertainment and a passion project for
Working Title Films, Europe’s leading film production company.
Working Title co-chairs and Pride & Prejudice producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner
reflect, “People remember the two most recent television adaptations, but the only other film
version, from 1940, emphasized romantic comedy. Over the decades, Jane Austen’s central
depiction of Lizzie and Darcy has been appropriated as the core of many other films – including
a couple of our productions. We felt that it was time to bring Austen’s original story,
concentrating on Lizzie, back in all its glory to the big screen for audiences everywhere to
enjoy.”
Producer Paul Webster concurs, noting, “Pride and Prejudice has provided the template to so
many romantic comedy movies that it comes as a surprise that no film proper has been made
for 65 years. The two BBC versions are seminal -- the second one was the most successful
BBC drama ever – but we were intent on making a big-screen version, one that doesn’t
conform to the television drama stereotypes of a perfect clean Regency world.”
Bevan and Fellner comment, “Director Joe Wright’s previous work, including Charles II: The
Power & the Passion [aired in the U.S. as The Last King], had really impressed us. We met
with him, and his vision of how to make the film and tell the classic Austen story was in tune
with ours. For all of us there was no point in reinventing the story, as it is such a worldwide
favorite. But we wanted to present the story as it was written, casting actors at the ages Jane
Austen indicated, and giving them a depiction which avoided the ‘chocolate box’ presentations
that television veers towards. Joe is a true romantic, yet he also shoots the story in a modern
way and without subverting it.”
The BAFTA Award-winning director’s unique approach was understandable since, as he
admits, “I had never read Pride and Prejudice, nor seen a television version. I come from a
background of television social realist drama, and so I suppose I was a bit prejudiced against
this material, regarding it as posh. But as I read the script adaptation, I became emotionally
involved and by the end I was weeping. So I read the book, and discovered that what Jane
Austen had written was a very acute character study of a particular social group. I saw that she
was one of the first British realists. She had read the gothic literature which was fashionable at
the time, and she turned away from that, and started writing what she knew, thereby inventing
a new genre.
“I got excited about new ways to film the story which I don’t believe have been done before. I
wanted to treat it as a piece of British realism rather than going with the picturesque tradition,
which tends to depict an idealized version of English heritage as some kind of Heaven on
Earth. I wanted to make Pride & Prejudice real and gritty – and be as honest as possible.
Austen’s characters are young people – Lizzie is 20, Darcy 28, Lydia 15. The emotions they

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experience are those of young people falling in love for the first time. I was moved by that and
sought to convey it.”
Wright also drew on his experience of directing The Last King. “What I learned from directing
that, my first period piece, was that if you utilize the specifics of a period very precisely in
tandem with emotional truths, it all becomes relevant to a modern audience.”
While researching the late 18th century, Wright and his team kept records of discoveries and
facts which were not spelled out in the film, but which enhanced their understanding of
Austen’s finely wrought characters. Wright remarks, “The establishment of England was
looking across the Channel at the French Revolution – and wondering how it might affect them.
The upper classes were frightened, and made the decision to assimilate more with the lower
classes. Hence, the Assembly Rooms dances in village halls, which people of Darcy and
Bingley’s class would now attend. There, they would mingle with people they wouldn’t
previously have ever met socially. It was a whole new era for society. For young women, this
was very exciting – like, say, Prince William turning up at a High Street disco. Suddenly,
marriage prospects were widened. Bingley handles all this well, whereas his sister Caroline
does not readily embrace the idea of these new associations.”
Screenwriter Deborah Moggach, herself a novelist, notes, “I tried to be truthful to the book,
which has a perfect three-act structure, so I haven’t changed a lot. It is so beautifully shaped as
a story – the ultimate romance about two people who think they hate each other but who are
really passionately in love. I felt, ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.’
“The Bennet daughters in fact have to get married off or they face ruin; but, to a modern
audience, these girls look pretty well-heeled! So we had to make their plight matter, in order
that the audience cares about the outcome. They seem well-off – they live in a big house, with
doting parents, they have a carriage and servants – but we had to convey that if they don’t
marry well, they could end their lives in penury, shunned by their own class of people and the
lower classes too.”
Moggach reflects, “I’ve emphasized it as being Lizzie’s story. Unlike in the novel, she keeps her
secrets to herself and they are a great burden to her. There are things she can’t confide to her
parents, her best friend Charlotte, or even her beloved sister Jane. Lizzie suffers alone. She
sees her father neglecting her sisters – he ignores Lydia’s follies, which facilitates her
elopement – and she views her parents’ marriage as a tragicomedy. Lizzie sees Charlotte, for
the sake of security, marry the odious Mr Collins, and sees her beloved older sister sink into
lovesick misery. She also wonders if her own chance of happiness is disappearing. As she
keeps all this to herself, we feel for her more and more. The truest comedy, I believe, is born
from pain.”
“The Bennets could certainly exist today and, I’m sure, do. It’s only the economics of the
situation, the girls’ dependence on finding a good husband, which are germane to the period.
All the emotions are equally relevant today. Take Lizzie, for example. She has a mother who is
often embarrassing; a best friend who disappoints; unrequited love for someone [Wickham]
who turns out to be a complete cad; sisterly loyalties, jealousies, and squabbles; and she falls
madly in love with somebody [Darcy] she can’t admit she’s in love with.”
In her adaptation, Moggach paid extra attention to Jane Austen’s dialogue. She explains, “I’ve
sort of pulled a comb through the dialogue; of course, you can’t reproduce Austen’s fiercely

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wonderful dialogue in its entirety. But we’ve kept quite a lot of it, because it’s like cooking with
the very, very best ingredients. People love the book so much that they know it word for word.
It was tempting sometimes to veer scenes towards a line that is so loved, one which you know
that if people miss it they will be very upset.”
Wright adds, “In the novel, Austen’s characters are all very polite, waiting until the other person
has finished speaking, before speaking themselves. But I know that, particularly in big families
of girls, everyone tends to speak over each other, finishing each other’s sentences, etc. So I
felt that the Bennet family’s conversations would be overlapping like that.”
Moggach says, “One of the wonderful things about Jane Austen is that the canvas on which
she painted was very small. Now, that has also been cited as a criticism of her work; she has
been accused of ignoring other social classes of her time, and contemporary world events. But
she did not deny it; she was observing the small piece of the world that she inhabited. For
example, there is no scene in any of her books where men are alone in a room together. She
either didn’t know what they might be talking about, or she wasn’t interested. The wider world is
seen through tiny chinks. For instance, Caroline Bingley is reading a letter and she remarks, in
the script, ‘Lady Bathurst is re-decorating her ballroom in the French style. A trifle unpatriotic,
don’t you think?’ I put that in as a tiny acknowledgement that all these events were going on in
France.
“But my interest lies in the family dynamic and, after all, people don’t read and enjoy Jane
Austen for the historical overview. I’ve got three sisters, so I know what it is like being with lots
of girls – and I had a father who felt out numbered by us. I had previously adapted Nancy
Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate, and that was also lots of girls and another father who felt
completely outnumbered. So I feel very much at home in this world of girls sort of giggling and
sparring and sharing, having jealousies, etc.”
The filmmakers were determined to shoot the film completely on location in the U.K., where the
camera would have the luxury of seeing outside from inside and vice versa, and could actually
follow the characters indoors and outdoors. An 11-week shooting schedule was blocked out,
and Groombridge, a moated 17th Century mansion, was chosen to be Longbourn, the Bennets’
house, where the only tranquillity is to be found in Mr. Bennet’s library. Webster notes, “It is
quite unusual for a movie this size to be shot entirely on location. Part of Joe’s idea was to try
to create a reality which allows the actors to relax and feel at one with their environment.” The
approach proved viable early on; cast members, instead of retiring to movie trailers between
scenes, would head into their own Groombridge bedrooms.
In seeking to avoid what he has referred to as “the picturesque tradition,” Wright comments, “I
believe that when people do period films they are reliant on paintings from the period, because
there is no photography. But in a painting, everything is formally composed; it’s not real life.
Then they do wide shots to show off the period detail of the sets. I think that the detail is in the
small things, like crumbs on a table, or flowers in a vase. Austen’s prose gave me many visual
references for the people in the story, so I used a lot of close-ups of them, too. I also tried to
cut out carriage shots. In a modern-day film, it’s not very interesting to see people simply get in
a car and drive away, so why should it be more interesting to see people arriving and leaving in
carriages? There are a lot of period film clichés; some of them are in the film and some are not,
but for me it was important to question them.”

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To hew as closely as possible to the ages of the characters as specified by Austen, the
filmmakers felt they would be going where the previous film version had not. Webster explains,
“In the previous film, Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson were in their mid-30s, so the whole
notion of this experience being their first love was lessened.”
Elizabeth Bennet is a character who has been strongly identified with, and cherished, by
several generations. Keira Knightley describes her as “every girl’s dream.” Even so, Joe Wright
admits, “I originally hadn’t considered someone as beautiful as Keira. I was looking for
someone who didn’t fit the normal feminine conventions, and was bright and slightly difficult. I
figured Lizzie Bennet would be quite difficult to live with; she’s tough-minded and questions
everything all the time.
“When I met Keira, I realized that she asks questions of herself and other people, and is really
a tomboy. She has a lively mind and a great sense of humor. During shooting, she kept on
surprising me. What does one look for in an actor? Originality of thought; somebody who is
able and willing to give their heart to what they are doing, and is able to really listen to the other
actors. Keira did all of that, and was a hard worker.”
Knightley was keenly aware of the pitfalls inherent in playing such a longstanding heroine. She
says, “There was a huge pressure taking on the role; she’s one of the best roles in literature for
girls. If you’re an actress and you get the chance to play her you definitely can’t say no. But it is
scary, because when you read Pride and Prejudice, you feel like you own her; I know I did, and
I’m sure everybody feels the same way and that they’ll have a very clear idea of who Elizabeth
Bennet is. So this was an exciting challenge.
“Jane Austen’s own critique of her the book was that she felt it was too lighthearted. She felt
the relationship between Jane and Elizabeth wasn’t realistic enough. We took heed of her
comments and tried to bring to the movie a realism that perhaps isn’t so much in the book,
bringing out the idea that these sisters are two girls who have lived with each other and slept in
the same bed for so many years now. They have annoyances and such, but they love each
other and stand by each other, enjoying each other and sharing each other’s pain.”
Knightley adds, “It was great being directed by Joe because he’s got a very clear vision of what
he wants the entire piece to be like. So he can also say, ‘You can stray a tiny bit, that’s all
right.’ And I think you have to do that to really own a character, to possess the role. It’s a
different process to do a film based on a book, because the inner dialogue of your character is
all written down. So if there was ever a scene where I was having problems, we would go back
to the book and in some way or another it was right there. But, equally, you have to take a
stand and say ‘OK, I know it says this in the book, but you know what? I can’t do it like that
because it doesn’t make sense as far as this goes, so I’m going to have to change that slightly.’
And then you have to be brave and just do it.”
Casting Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy in the new movie might have posed even more of a challenge for
the filmmakers. However, as Wright reminds, “I had never seen the TV dramas or the film, so I
was able to look for the Darcy I had in my head -- and Matthew Macfadyen was the only one
for me. Darcy is 28, and Matthew was 29 when we were shooting. I had no interest in casting
just a pretty boy; Darcy is more interesting and complicated than that. He’s a young man who
has less than ideal social skills and a huge responsibility. His parents have died and left him
with a massive estate and a younger sister to take care of, and my sense is that he has had to
grow up too fast. Matthew has incarnated Darcy as that complicated layered person who isn’t

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easy in his skin and who isn’t easy to love, yet who is a good person with a sense of honor and
integrity. Matthew, unlike many actors, is not vain, and so was not afraid to be disliked by an
audience at the beginning of the story; we have to dislike him because we are seeing him
through Lizzie’s eyes. And we grow to love him as Lizzie does.”
Knightley confides, “When I went in to read with Matthew, I was so blown away that I virtually
couldn’t get my lines out. I just kept staring at him thinking, ‘What the hell happened between
you walking in as Mathew and you starting to read?’ Because he actually did turn into Darcy,
and the scenes flowed.” Wright adds, “Keira and Matthew were just wicked together.”
“Matthew’s a man who is sexy in the mode of Richard Burton, with a bit of Alan Rickman,”
muses Knightley. “You need to see that kind of rugged beauty in Darcy, knowing that here was
a man who walks across fields, climbs trees, and very much manages his own estate. With
Matthew, you can see that etched across his face, yet he’s also got this extraordinary
vulnerability. On the page, Darcy reads as being very cold, but Mathew is so vulnerable
through his big manliness that he gives Darcy extra qualities.”
Macfadyen sees the character as “very buttoned up; he’s very prideful and haughty. Some
would say, ‘He’s arrogant’; I would say, he’s misunderstood. And a fantastic part to play! The
material is so very richly drawn. Of course, always looming are those who played the part
before you – Olivier and Colin Firth – but that exists with lots of roles. If you worry about that,
then you’ll never take on a role in Shakespeare! Every actor brings something different to the
roles they play.
“Communication between the sexes is probably as confusing now as it was in Jane Austen’s
time. Apart from any physical attraction, Darcy is enchanted by the liveliness of Lizzie’s mind
and her mercurial qualities. The first time they meet, he remarks to Bingley that she is not
handsome enough to tempt him to dance. She overhears this and throws it back at him with
such winning wit that he is immediately enchanted. He is a serious young man, with huge
responsibilities for his estate, and he has never met a young woman like her. When he
proposes to her, first explaining how unsuitable a match she is, he makes that explanation out
of integrity, not out of arrogance.”
Wright clarifies, “In the beginning, Darcy can’t deal with the fact that he fancies Lizzie, so they
are like children in a playground – in the way that kids pull hair because they don’t know how to
express their feelings. He needs her to tease him and to be able to lighten up with her. She in
turn needs someone who has as much integrity, honesty, and goodness as she has. These are
the foundations for what will hopefully be a happy life together.
“They have a huge effect on each other’s lives from the moment they meet. When he proposes
in the rain, she says that she knew as soon as she met him that he was the last person she
would consider marrying. If you meet someone with whom there is no chemistry at all, why
would you think about marriage at all? And while she is thinking how much she dislikes him –
she is still thinking about him.”
Getting two-time Golden Globe Award winner Donald Sutherland to play Mr. Bennet, the lone
male in a household full of women, was a thrill for Wright. The director states, “Donald is simply
a legend. When I was a kid, I was an actor in a film called Revolution, more or less a glorified
extra, and I used to watch him. Plus Don’t Look Now is one of my all-time favorite films.
Watching him recently with Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain, I realized that he could access the

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tenderness that was required for Mr. Bennet. He did that – and he seemed to have a ball as the
patriarch of this gorgeous bunch.”
Sutherland remarks, “I love Jane Austen, although I hadn’t read the novel for 40 years. Joe
wrote me a letter. He said there was a quality of me in Cold Mountain that he wanted for the
father of these girls – somebody, he said, who didn’t get married until he was 45. He had to
wait until his father died before he married, and then he had 5 daughters. It’s worth noting that
none of them could inherit his estate because the law then was that the estate must pass to a
male heir, in this case a distant relative [Mr. Collins]. All very intriguing to play.”
Two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn took on the role of Mrs. Bennet. Wright
notes, “It’s a tricky part, as she can be very annoying; you want to stop her chattering and
shrieking. But Brenda has the humor and the heart to show the amount of love and care Mrs.
Bennet has for her daughters.”
Blethyn’s take on the character is, “Mrs. B has a very serious problem, which nobody except
she is taking seriously; she has five daughters, for whom she has to find husbands, and eligible
men are not so common around Longbourn. When the militia are billeted in the village of
Meryton, she’s delighted.”
To ensure authenticity among the latter, the production employed members of the Napoleonic
[Re-enactment] Society for the scenes of the militia arriving and leaving the village (filmed in
Stamford, Lincolnshire). It was at the start of the 19th Century that the British Army commenced
a 15-year campaign against Napoleon’s Army. Extras were schooled in how to march and wear
the uniforms. The county militia would have mainly been made up of volunteers, with the
officers being of a higher social status (those who had a stake in the particular county, perhaps
a large parcel of land). It was seen as the duty of the upper-class male to serve his county for a
time in this manner.
The purpose of the county militia was twofold: to act as the second line of resistance, should a
foreign army invade the British Isles, reassuring the people of their safety amid rumors of
invasion; and to discourage any possible riots or sedition, as the Crown and Parliament were
ever wary that some subjects might decide to follow the French or the Americans and declare
themselves to be a republic.
Women’s own motions for independence were all but inconceivable. Echoing Donald
Sutherland’s comments, Brenda Blethyn reminds, “Mrs. Bennet’s concerns are compounded by
the fact that women had no status then. The inheritance laws mean that her husband’s estate,
her family’s home, will be inherited by a distant cousin when Mr. Bennet dies. That means, she
and her daughters could be cast out to fend for themselves – or even sent to the workhouse.
So the solution is for at least one of her daughters to marry a man wealthy enough to take care
of all the family. She is trying to solve the problem as best as she knows how.”
“I believe Mrs. B came into her own marriage with a very small dowry, and that they married for
love – which, as the story shows, was not so common then. You can see that they feel
something for each other. He is tolerant and kindly, although he cultivates interests outside the
drama of his home – books, plants, wildlife...She is sometimes an embarrassment to her
family, but then too all parents can be embarrassing.”

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To play the Bennet sister who is perhaps most affected by her mother’s efforts, Wright
comments, “I was looking for the opposite of Keira in a way; an actress who could portray the
period ideal of what a woman should be, since Jane is hailed as the beauty of the family.
Rosamund Pike was simply perfect and is wonderful in the role.”
Of her character, Pike says, “As the oldest Bennet girl, Jane would have had a lot of
responsibility bringing up the younger girls, so she has a slight maternal instinct. But I didn’t
want to play her as this very demure and slightly dull character. People say, ‘Oh Jane’s a bit
staid.’ I play her as someone who laughs a lot. We wanted the whole Bennet family to be a
household that’s filled with laughter and movement; if you’ve got lots of girls all living in a house
that they are beginning to outgrow, then you get this sort of farmyard whirlygig of a family.”
Wright adds, “The sisters all had to have similar characteristics so you can see that they come
from the same stock and they all find each other funny.”
Pike adds, “Unlike Lizzie, Jane likes to think the best of people. She has found that the easiest
way to get through life is to think that people are nice and good, and not to be suspicious about
other people’s negative motives. Jane doesn’t have much pride or prejudice, really…
“Jane Austen wrote such a sensationally romantic story. It got to me all the time during filming.
It’s deeply romantic, and I think in this day and age we need films with romance at their core
out there. They can light people up.”
The lone American in the cast is Jena Malone, whose empathetic portrayals of young women
convinced the filmmakers that she was the top choice to play Lydia Bennet. Malone felt that
she well understood the teenager, noting, “Lydia’s focus is purely ribbons and soldiers. She’s
15 years old and is in love with the idea of being in love, spending her time thinking about the
clothes she’ll wear when she meets boys. She can’t really approach a lot of men, only those of
a suitable social status. That’s why she finds the idea of going to the balls so exciting; it’s the
only place where she could dance with such a range of boys, even the tradesmen’s sons. Her
day-to-day life was very simple, because she had no housework to do and no school to attend
– her education is being neglected. Because she is the youngest of the Bennet sisters, she has
more freedom than the others.
“Yet, her options are so much different than young women’s today. For Lydia, the only way to
secure a future is to get married; otherwise you would live with your family or leave home and
be a governess to someone else’s family – which gives you a lower social status, and no hope
of marrying anyone of your own particular class. Many women became much more pragmatic
about reasons for marrying, and the idea of marrying for love even came to be regarded as
frivolous. But Lydia, being in love with love, is overjoyed to elope and fails to foresee any of the
disastrous consequences, intending to be able to lord it over the other sisters that she is the
only married one.”
Rounding out the Bennet sisterhood, screen newcomers Carey Mulligan and Talulah Riley won
the roles of Kitty and Mary Bennet, respectively. Wright remembers, “This was the first film job
for both, and they were both huge Jane Austen fans. So they were so excited about the whole
process that it created a heightened atmosphere for the family sequences.”
Another Jane Austen fan realizing a dream by participating in the film is Tamzin Merchant. She
was cast as Georgiana, Darcy’s sister, after writing a letter to the casting director and

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