On the edge

12:06pm Monday 23rd June 2008

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Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller put their heads above the parapet to talk to Steve Pratt about falling in love with Dylan Thomas

LET their director make the introductions.

These are, says John Maybury, two incredibly intelligent women who are very serious and important actors. Unfortunately, theyre both victims of a sort of persecution by the paparazzi and tabloid representation that often distracts from the fact they are really good actors, he adds.

Now guess their names. Clue, the film is The Edge Of Love C the story of a love triangle between Welsh writer Dylan Thomas and two women C and the stars are Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller.

What Mayburys referring to is the constant media scrum to detail the personal lives of these two young, attractive performers. If they put their heads above the parapet, as they have done for most of this week in the run-up to the films premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, they must expect to have all manner of nosey inquiries fired at them.

Putting a blanket no personal questions rule on interviews can only increase speculation about Knightleys weight (no, she isnt anorexic) and Millers It girl reputation (no, I cant confirm she and The Edge Of Love co-star Matthew Rhys are an item).

They appeared before me last Monday together C at a Press conference with the director, producer and screenwriter/Keiras mum Sharman McDonald C and individually. Well, in pairs actually. Knightley with Rhys, Miller with Maybury.

Its interesting to see how the two actresses deal differently with interviewers. Knightley is the more experienced, having first entered the public eye with Bend It Like Beckham and then Pirates Of The Caribbean when she was barely 18. She knows when to keep quiet, answering politely and fully but giving little of herself away.

Miller, arriving with her party girl baggage and ex-boyfriends, who include Jude Law and Rhys Ifans, is just as friendly, but more open. She grabs director Mayburys cigarette for a quick drag, lets slip the odd phrase that could be used against her (Im up for lesbian sex C said as a joke but easily misconstrued) and even admits to having the odd drink.

This makes it all too easy to forget that theyre here to promote a movie, The Edge Of Love. For Knightley its a personal project, as her clout helped get her mothers screenplay filmed. She was working with Maybury on another movie, The Jacket, when Shar C as she calls her mother C showed her a draft script.

Wed so fallen in love with John that we thought he was the only person who should direct this, recalls Knightley. We wrote poems for him, we sent him champagne and cakes. Four years later he finally read it.

Her mother saw her as Thomass wife Caitlin. Her daughter had other ideas, wanting to play Vera Phillips, whos attracted to Thomas, but marries British soldier William Killick.

That meant having to sing, as Vera performs on a tube station platform during the London Blitz.

Knightley went through voice coaching and prerecorded her songs in the studio. On the day Maybury told her she wouldnt be miming, but singing live in front of 100 extras and crew.

ITHOUGHT my knees were going to buckle and the first couple of takes I sounded like a pubescent boy. Ive never been more terrified in my life, she says.

The Welsh accent was less daunting as half her mothers family is Welsh. I remember when I was a kid she used to read to me and witches and wizards in books always had a Welsh accent, so I guess I took it from that really, she says.

Miller had less time to prepare. She only got the part two weeks before filming began. Caitlin is an important role for Miller as she tries to overcome her tabloid reputation and get taken seriously.

Maybury says hed always wanted her but the money men wanted a more bankable name. US actress Lindsay Lohans sudden unavailability gave him his chance and he phoned Miller on holiday in Mexico. He didnt say anything about the film, but hed been a great friend of mine for four years and said Get out of the sun and that was it, she recalls.

I knew thered been some problems with casting, so I said no. But he persisted. Keira was a friend, and Id known Matthew and Cillian (Murphy, the fourth star), so it was a very safe group, I knew Id be with people I trusted.

The role fulfills her aim of doing more challenging parts. Next up is playing Maid Marian in Ridley Scotts film Nottingham, opposite Russell Crowe, an actor not exactly unknown to tabloid tittle-tattle.

Ive consciously made the decision to do challenging roles. Theres a big tabloid perception thats a very hard thing to overcome. Ive worked really hard, she says.

On The Edge Of Love, it helped that the four main actors shared a house on location and got along famously.

Perhaps they swapped tabloid stories to see whod had the most outlandish write-ups. Knightley enthuses about working on an intimate, small project after multi-million dollar blockbusters like the Pirates trilogy. And she praises the dialogue (she would, wouldnt she, as her mother wrote it).

She didnt base her performance on the real Vera, going on what was in the script. What was fantastic was having the support of the family members C Rebecca Gilbertson (Killicks grand-daughter) was there every day, and it was amazing for them to have said to us go for it, make it a fiction, make it a good story. And as Shar said, it is a fiction, and particularly my characterisation is that, its not based in reality.

THE familiarity between the main actors was something else. You cant fake warmth. You can fake lust, jealousy, anger, but actual genuine warmth, I dont think you can fake. It was really great that we did all get on, we had a great time all living in the same house. It was wicked, she says.

With little time to find out about Caitlin, Miller had a harder job. Where I normally would have read as much as possible, I had no time to prepare, and I was concentrating on the accent. I read the book and I met her daughter, Aeronwy, she says.

The film doesnt delve into the question of a sexual relationship between Caitlin and Vera. Theyre shown sharing a bath but its good, clean fun. Miller does think the women were lovers, adding that Caitlin certainly did dabble. Theres a line in the film where she says to Vera youre one of those, and Vera goes no, no, no. And Caitlin says not that Im averse. She was part of a bohemian group. A hippy kind of community. In every generation theres that kind of breakaway group.

Like Knightley, she found filming fun. It was rural Wales, springtime and we were all living in this mad house, running around in our pyjamas and I had my dogs. It was a really great time.

The four leading actors did take advantage of being away from the media and film insurers who would have been alarmed if theyd found out theyd been riding horses and quad bikes. As Maybury recalls: I called Sienna up one day, and she said oh, Im just out and all I could hear was hoof noises.

All four of them are on horseback, which is not allowed in their contract.

ö The Edge Of Love (15) opens nationwide on Thursday.