One of the many films to play at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was director Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday. Based on Graham Swift’s bittersweet novel about secret love in post-WWI England, the film is about a maid (Odessa Young) working at a manor in the English countryside that gets to spend a rare day with her secret lover (Josh O’Connor) while her employers (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman) are away from home.
Unlike many period pieces that take place during WW1 and WW2, what’s unique about Mothering Sunday is it focuses on the time between the wars and the grief of losing your children on the battlefield, or the sense of duty to your family for being one of the few to make it home from the front. Husson’s film does a great job at capturing this rarely shown time period and making you feel what all the characters are experiencing. In addition, unlike so many films where two lovers feel like they are in a movie, the way Husson shot the intimate scenes between Young and O’Connor felt like you were in the room with them but they couldn’t see you.
Shortly after seeing the film I had the chance to speak with Josh O'Connor and Eva Husson. They shared some interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the making of Mothering Sunday, the way Husson shot the intimate scenes between O'Connor and Young, if O'Connor was nervous about filming the graphic intimate scenes, what people would be surprised to learn about the making of the film, how not many films are made between WWI and WW2, why the editing process was a challenge, and more.
Check out what they had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about and the trailer. Mothering Sunday is scheduled for release November 19th.
Josh O'Connor and Eva Husson
- Why are the British so good at making period pieces?
- If Husson could get the financing for any project what would she make and why?
- What TV series would O'Connor like to guest star on?
- What is Mothering Sunday about?
- How the film takes place after WWI where all these people have lost so much due to the war.
- How not many films are made between WWI and WW2.
- The way Husson shot the intimate scenes between O'Connor and Young and how it felt real and not something in a movie.
- Having characters naked on screen and just hanging out.
- Did she have any resistance from the people financing the film about the nudity in the film?
- Was O'Connor nervous about what he would have to do in the film?
- Husson talks about how she wanted to shoot the film and the use of closeups.
- What surprised Husson when she got in the editing room?
- What would people be surprised to learn about the making of the film?
- Did they end up with a lot of deleted scenes?
- O'Connor talks about how he gets ready to film an emotional or big dramatic scene.