She’s just so good at spitting out this dialogue that you’re just like, “I’m just going to follow her lead and let her carry the scenes, and then chime in when I’m supposed to.” She just has an elegance and a charm about her, and she’s very funny and very wicked. She’s done so much Austen before, and she has such a command of the language and an ease with it, that she makes you feel at ease in the scenes. She’s an Oxford grad in English lit or Russian lit, or something. SEVIGNY: Yeah, we didn’t have to establish a relationship. What does Kate Beckinsale add to the mix? Is it nice to already have that relationship there, so that you don’t have to hope you can find it? I also have a respect for him, at a base level, because I like his work. SEVIGNY: Well, there’s a familiarity, obviously, after having worked with him a couple of times, and a certain trust, as far as knowing what he wants and likes and understanding what he’s going to use, having watched all of his films. What is it about Whit Stillman that makes you want to keep working with him? I’m such a fan!” So, there I was in Dublin, playing Alicia to Kate’s Lady Susan. Will you be in it?” And I was like, “I’ll do anything you want me to do. And then, I did The Cosmopolitans with him, which was an Amazon pilot that I think is still in the works. We made The Last Days of Disco together, and I’ve seen him every few years at festivals or parties. SEVIGNY: We’ve been talking about it, I feel like, for years. How did this come about? Had you been trying to work together again? It was all in letter form, and he lifted so many segments, straight from the book into the script, but the way that he wove it together with the little bits that he added, like making my character from Connecticut, making it a Whit Stillman movie, were so great. She also talked about writing and directing a short film, called Kitty, wanting to make the leap to feature directing, what attracted her to The Snowman, and why she’s going to step away from TV for a bit.ĬHLOE SEVIGNY: So much fun! I think Whit’s adaptation really heightens the material.

Lady Susan has come to Churchill, the estate of her in-laws, to wait for the rumors and gossip about her dalliances to quiet down, but while she’s there, she decides to secure a husband for herself and for her daughter, Frederica ( Morfydd Clark).ĭuring this exclusive phone interview with Collider, actress Chloe Sevigny (who plays Lady Susan’s friend and confidante Alicia Johnson) talked about reuniting with Whit Stillman and Kate Beckinsale for Love & Friendship, what she enjoys about working with both of them, why this isn’t a typical Jane Austen story, and the challenge of doing this kind of dialogue. From writer/director Whit Stillman, Love & Friendship is an adaptation of young Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan, which is set in the 1790s and follows the beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon ( Kate Beckinsale).

Jane austen love & friendship