In a recent article in You magazine in the Daily Mail, actress Imogen Poots discuses her career and the part of Fanny Knight that she portrayed in the new biopic Miss Austen Regrets.
Unlike Jane Austen’s twenty-year old niece Fanny Knight, 18 year old British actress Imogen Poots has no illusions about love.
"I don't believe in Mr. Darcy. Men like him only exist in fiction."
Miss Poots is of course referring to Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, that proud hero of Pride and Prejudice who women have been swooning over for close to two-hundred years. One wonders if playing Fanny Knight, the young ingénue desperate to be in love had any affect on her personal outlook to make such a profound statement.
There may be some explanation to young Imogen’s Charlotte Lucas-like unromantic view of love. Could it be from experience?
"I'm too young," she says, laughing. "I've done what Fanny does – met someone, thought, 'Oh my God, I'm in love!' and had those intense times where nothing else matters."
Life imitating art? She and Fanny appear to have much in common. Did Fanny’s romantic escapades toughen Miss Poots’ resolve about love? Or does she understand the realities of Regency life applied to today’s world?
"It's something we take for granted today – that we can earn our own living and marry whom we like," Imogen says. "But it was a harsh world then because women were reliant on men for their status."As viewers, movies may seem to romanticize the past. To Imogen, becoming a Regency Miss had its challenges.
"The corsets virtually cut off your breasts. I can't imagine how women ever lived in those clothes,"
Regardless of the restrictions of Regency dress, Miss Poots is quite convincing as the naïve Fanny who blames her failed romance with hesitant beau John Plumtre on her aunt Jane’s influence. Like Fanny who thinks that she has missed her only chance at love, with a little life experience behind her, Imogen may change her mind about the reality of Mr. Darcy.
Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose
1 comment:
What interested me most was how much Imogen looked like Cassandra's drawing of Fanny at that age. She played the role well, and some of my favorite scenes were between Imogen and Olivia at the start of the film.
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