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Tuesday, April 13

Lucy Steele Comes Clean about Sense and Sensibility

Remember Lucy Steele in 1996's Sense and Sensibility? As played by Imogen Stubbs, she was a conniving mean spirited b--tch, er, witch. Imogen is currently playing Anna in The Glass Menagerie at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. In a recent interview, she fondly recalled playing as Lucy opposite Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson:

“It was a terrific cast, it was a bit like the Harry Potters, you know. On the whole British actors are lovely so it’s always a good atmosphere.

“Ang Lee was gorgeous and Emma Thompson, along with Judi Dench, is up there with the nicest women in the history of the universe. And I knew Hugh anyway because his mum was a great friend of my mum’s, and we grew up in Chiswick together.”

Surely another plus when working on a good old British period drama are the costumes. However Imogen found she’d been a little left out when it came to dress rehearsals – and the less said about her bonnet, the better.

“I had rather silly costumes. It looked as though I had a bucket on my head! Initially I was blonde and we started like that but I looked too much like I was related to Kate (Winslet) and Emma. We were all too blondy, so I had to go dark. So I had this silly little mean wig and a bucket on my head and no make-up – I looked slightly piggy.”


Imogen went on to say about Lucy: "Everyone thinks, ‘oh, awful little Lucy’, because everyone loves the two main girls, but Lucy’s a survivor – almost more like Becky Sharpe in Vanity Fair.
“I’ve played a lot of heroines but I think villains are a lot more fun." - Cambridge News Co.UK

3 comments:

Enid Wilson said...

She looked good with dark hair and I don't see any problem with the wig/hat. She was pretty good in the movie but I actually didn't like her voice that much, not very natural.

Really Angelic

Nonna said...

She sure can play a bratty little so and so to the hilt and the voice just added to her annoying and deceitful character. I liked her hair...good choice and nice contrast to Marianne and Elinor !

Anonymous said...

She was awesome in that film.