Les Misérables: Cast Q&A

(gentle music) - Okay, so Amy G. on Facebook asks what was the most difficult or challenging aspect of playing your character and why?

I'll go first.

It was so cold in Brussels where we were shooting, and remaining malevolent, intense, and stoic while freezing despite wearing thermals.

(laughing) I'm just telling you the truth.

That was one of the most challenging things for me, staying warm.

- That's a very good one.

I also had to stay quite warm in a lot of those scenes when I was suffering, which actually was helpful, because I-- - You had really heavy cloaks.

- She was in the shimmy.

- Oh, that's true.

- She was wearing barely any.

You're the one in cloaks.

- Yeah, you were the one in cloaks.

I had hardly any clothes.

- It's all about you, all about you.

- I had no hair to even protect my shoulders.

I think I was gonna say something along those lines of just the extreme temperatures and the fact we were shooting outdoors a lot, and I am being dragged through the streets in the mud and the snow and the rain, being thrown around.

The physicality of the role was really tough, but I think just in general for me, knowing that my character, Fantine, goes from fun-loving, naive, innocent and sweet, falling in love, to deathbed, and having gone through kind of these extreme trials and tribulations within her life in such a short amount of time, relatively, on screen, figuring out that character arc was something that I was quite nervous about and just making sure that the extreme polarities of her character really shown through, so that was quite difficult, and I'm not a mother yet, so that motherly love of that being what drove her was something that I drew inspiration from my mom and I, but that was a part of the character that I couldn't necessarily relate to exactly, but had to draw from other things.

- I think the most difficult aspect of Valjean was (clearing throat) the guilt he felt the whole time about stealing a loaf of bread and I sorta thought, why would you feel guilty about that when they banged you up for 19 years, and wouldn't you feel incredible resentment, and it took me quite a long time to realize the psychology of someone who's been incarcerated for a long time and who feels that that's all that they deserve in the world, and they don't deserve anything better.

That was the hardest part for me.

- Wow, I feel really superficial now.

(laughing) - Yeah, you had thermals.

- I know.

(laughing) - Okay, Nina N. on Instagram asks, how did you prepare for your role?

Well, Tom Shankland, our director, was quite adamant that it was purely based on the novel itself and not previous renditions, so it wasn't about re-watching the film or re-watching other versions that had been done before, but very much just going back to the original novel and re-reading details and descriptions, for me, of Fantine, and the story line that we've very rarely seen on T.V.

or in film before, so I did a lot of historical fast-checking, speaking to Tom about women of the time, and buying thermals, very necessary in preparing for the role, but also just getting into the psychology of Fantine and figuring out what I could draw from my experience to add to hers, and what was different about the two of us that I could then try to figure out in the prep stages, but also figuring out how to die on screen was something I've never done before, so that was an interesting process.

- Yeah, no, you did that amazing thing I remember.

That thing.

- The twitching.

- Where did you get that?

The twitching, it was brilliant.

- I don't know.

I think probably I had something in my eye at first, and I laying there, and I was trying to-- - No, no, no.

- No, no, no, no, no.

No, I don't know.

I did-- - No, you did.

Didn't you look at-- - I looked at things online.

I can't remember what I looked up.

- What, of people dying?

- Yeah.

- Well, no.

- People dying of exposure or consumption.

- Yeah, I was reading about what symptoms were of someone dying of consumption.

Like if you're choking, you're choking on your blood, so if you're coughing a lot and you can't speak, it's because your throat is so clogged up or the twitching was coming from she's hot and cold and I read all these details, and I remember you asked me, where'd that come from?

- Yeah, brilliant.

- Wow.

- I've used it since.

- Have you?

(laughing) The Collins twitch.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah, all those things that you don't even think about, and then obviously my death was day two of filming, so I kinda walk into set, and it was like, hi, nice to meet you, nice to meet you, and then.

- No prep.

- Yeah, just thrown on to the death bed while you were trying to make me laugh at one point and then you came in and, it just, you know.

We had no fun shooting this whatsoever.

- None at all.

- Yeah.

- It was such a great answer I've forgotten the question.

- How did you prepare for your role.

- Ah.

How did I prepare?

Well, reading the book.

That's quite the book, folks.

1,500 pages, is it?

- I think it is, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- 1,900 if you read it in French.

- And Andrew Davies can recite every single page.

What?

- It's 1,900 pages in French, 1,500 in English.

- Whoa.

'Cause there are more words?

- 'Cause French is longer.

- Oh, really?

- Oh, wow.

- Yep.

- I would much rather read it in English.

- I discovered that today.

- Did you read it in French, then?

- Of course, twice.

(laughing) - Guys, you're really showing me up.

You did research on people dying of consumption.

You read it in French.

I barely managed it in English, but yes.

That was a huge thing, getting through that book, but also just how much richness in relation to the world, in relation to the characters, and really, I found I didn't need to veer much further from that.

We had a lot of conversations about our dynamics, certainly in relation to the book and the coincidences that the book relies on and how we can sort of smooth those out so that it doesn't feel that way necessarily, as you're watching the show, but Tom was pretty amazing at knowing the map of all the characters, the whole story, and rehearsing with him, talking to him was a huge part of my preparation.

- Well, I think that covers pretty much my preparation, too.

That's the thing about this, was that you have this amazing book, and every single scene that we had, you could read exactly what your character was thinking, - Right.

- And what they were not thinking.

- Yeah.

- And that sort of made it easy in one way, and then I suppose I did a bit of, I think I tried to take up boxing.

Yeah, I did try to take up boxing to try and become the strongest man in the world, but it didn't last very long.

- Did Jean Valjean box?

- No, he didn't box.

- I know, that's what I was gonna say.

(laughing) - That was my inside voice, sorry.

- That was, yeah.

- Oh, what, just the psychology of a fighter?

- Well, he's the strongest man who's ever been, and I'm not.

- I would say weightlifting.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Well, that's not as interesting, is it?

Weightlifting?

- Oh really?

But they do like your bum in it though.

- Do they?

- Yeah.

- Who?

- They, they.

- They.

- One.

- I told you this.

- Oh, I did a lot of bum exercises.

- Your bum got a review.

- Oh, did it?

- Your bum got a review.

- I didn't know that.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Tight cheeks.

- Yeah.

- Steel buns.

- Keep talking.

Make bits up.

- No, I'm not, I'm not.

It is a review that is literally more about your bum.

You upstaged Victor Hugo.

- Wow.

- And Lily's amazing rattly consumption death.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Barely.

- Barely.

- Well, (drowned out by Lily) (laughing) - Sorry, sorry.

I'm gonna stop talking about your bum now.

- Please don't.

(laughing) - What's your question?

- Ask your question.

- Sorry, I forgot.

- For goodness sake.

- Amanda Ray P. on Facebook asks, if you were to give your character advice, what would you say?

I think I'd say to Valjean, don't worry about it.

It was just a loaf of bread.

(laughing) - Yeah.

- Lily?

- Oh.

I would probably say not to lie to Jean Valjean when he asks her if she has a family, 'cause she says she's alone in the world, and I think she was afraid that if she told Jean Valjean that she had a daughter, that he would judge her and not wanna hire her, whereas in fact, not that she was to know, but I think he had a big heart in a sense that he would have still probably hired her knowing that she was telling the truth, and even if he didn't-- - Oh, definitely.

- Right?

At least she would've felt clean about it, 'cause it's because she lied that you then had to fire her to set a precedent for everyone else, so I think had she just said, I do have a daughter, she may have not been fired and then had to-- - Yeah, but then it would only be like a 200 page novel.

- True, and it would be like Les Semi-miserable.

(laughing) - And I don't think it was 'cause you lied.

I think it was 'cause he's so in love with you, and he couldn't bear the thought of you being-- - You did that well.

- With someone else.

- Yeah, that was interesting.

- The longing look.

- The longing look.

- Did you see that?

- I did see that.

- Did you do off-camera for his longing look?

Did you stay?

- Didn't you request that I not?

I don't do off-camera work.

- Lily doesn't do off camera.

(laughing) Not for years.

Not for years, now.

- Yeah.

- You managed to act that without her being there?

- Since she got that new agent.

(laughing) I saw you there for off looks.

- I was there for off looks, I was.

When Tom brought that up, we had kinda discussed that, but it was like a semi-story line, 'cause it never really totally went anywhere.

- What, the love?

- Yeah, I think it was more like-- - No, it didn't.

I think it missed it.

The more I've thought about it, the more I thought, well, he's gotta be in love with her.

- Yeah.

- It's in there.

Oh, it's in there, guys.

- It's in there?

- It's in there.

It's very clear (laughing) that he is into Fantine.

- Especially when she's on the ground begging for her life and she just looks that way.

- Oh, it may have abated somewhat - She spits him in the face.

- by then.

- Yeah, yeah.

- No-- - Lovers' quarrel.

- Excuse us while we just discuss our roles anew.

No, but the moment in the work house - Yeah.

- where you're in your office.

- Oh yeah, that moment, that.

- Oh yeah.

- I just didn't think that it, it never got to a place where you're thinking, oh maybe they would've ended up together.

- Yeah.

- No, we don't want that.

- No, well that's my point exactly.

It never got to that.

There was a love there and connection - Yeah.

- but it was never.

It was a side storyline - Right.

- that I wasn't expecting because we've never really seen that part.

That was something quite new.

- Yeah.

It was electric, you guys.

(sighing) Right, what would I say?

Oh, lighten up, I think I'd say, to Javert.

(laughing) Maybe go on holiday.

(laughing) Get some sun, I think.

Yeah, what would loosen Javert up, do you think?

- I think-- - Zumba classes?

(laughing) - With your boxing and your Zumba and my, I don't know.

What did she do?

- Just something to get rid of all that angst.

- Liven it up.

Maybe try bungee jumping before jumping off that-- - Oh, that's dark.

(laughing) Bungee jumping for Javert?

- (laughing) You get the same thrill, but you're attached to something that brings you back.

- Yeah, jump off a bridge.

- But you bounce back, you don't sink.

(laughing) Guys, no one's gonna watch the show if we-- - I think they're all gonna watch the show.

- If we trivialize the demise of Javert in that way.

- Well, lighten up's a good, that's a short way of saying it, but.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I could say that to all the characters, really.

- Yeah.

Just lighten up.

- Yeah.

(laughing) - Get on the first boat to America.

(laughing) I think that's the best advice.

- There we go.

- [Man] Excellent.

- [Lily] Was it?

(laughing) (chattering off camera) Oh, great.