REIF Ralph Fiennes was joined by co-stars Vaness Redgrave and Gerard Butler for a special screening of the actor's directorial debut "Coriolanus", on Thursday evening (January 5, 2012) in London.
Fiennes who both acts and directs in the piece has made a modern version of the famous Shakespeare tragedy - based on the life of the legendary Roman leader.
Butler, who plays the Coriolanus, describes taking on the role as both a challenge and an honour.
SOUNDBITE: Gerard Butler, actor, saying (English):
"It was a big deal to me, it was an honour he (Fiennes) wanted to do that, and then you have to deal with the fact, ok, really, can I pull this off, because it's true; I'm not exactly Mr Shakespeare. I have done a few roles that were more classical in their language and in their kind of patterns, and it felt like a nice next step to do it with this movie. Also it doesn't feel hugely Shakespearean when you watch it. It's very filmic, and that was another reason I wanted to do it."
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At the core of the film is a dynamic mother-son relationship, which according to Fiennes made the experience of filming with Redgrave quite an emotional one.
SOUNDBITE: Ralph Fiennes, actor, saying (English):
"I had to be careful to be not, I need to be in the scene, I also needed to shape it, but it was an extraordinary moment. To be, as it were, on the receiving end of Vanessa's Volumnia was an amazing thing, not only for me but I think so many people felt it and it was an inspiration to the cast to watch it, to see it."
For Redgrave, who lost her own daughter, actress Natasha Richardson, to a skiing accident in 2009, the experience felt similarly unravelling.
SOUNDBITE: Vanessa Redgrave, actress, saying (English):
"Well, I kind of sometimes shy away from words like emotion, perhaps because we all feel so much (Fiennes agrees) about so much, and so many people we love and don't want to disappear and want to be with and want to work with and want to laugh with."
"Coriolanus" is playing at theatres in the States and is set for release in UK on January 20.
Sarah Mills, Reuters
