Were you influenced by Judith Andersons portrayal of Mrs. Danvers in the Alfred Hitchcock movie?
I thought it was a wonderful performance, but I couldn’t possibly replicate what she’d done. More than 50 years have gone by. I had a script which was perhaps more revealing than the one she had to work with, and I had to do that justice. In what way is the script more revealing? Since it’s based on the book, it adds more depth than you find in the Hitchcock movie, which is based on the play. There was a book first, then there was a play and Hitchcock could only get the rights to the play. Is it easier now to make the characters more believable simply because acting styles have changed? I think probably so. The public wants the characters to be fully explored and explained psychologically. We’re in an age now where things aren’t quite as hidden. Did you have to imagine a past for Mrs. Danvers? I did — not so much in detail but the sort of past that is made visible in the woman that you see now. In those days, all the housekeepers were called ‘Mrs.’ whether they were married or not. It
