Source: Brian Gross/BLT

The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, The Wolfman), has had quite a bit of buzz surrounding it lately. It had a limited release a couple of weeks ago, and expanded to 150 more theaters across the US last Friday. Blunt has already received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her role as the young queen. Sounds like this film is shaping up to be the one to see as far as period pieces go.

Today, PopcornMonster.com (via Brian Gross from BLT & Associates) is pleased to give you exclusive video interviews (full written transcripts included) with some of the cast of the film, including Emily Blunt, as well as producer Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York). Check ’em out below!

Read the full transcripts of these interviews below:

THE YOUNG VICTORIA

Interview Questions for Rupert Friend

December 4, 2009

It seems as though you enjoy working on period pieces (The Young Victoria, Pride and Prejudice, The Libertine, The Last Legion, etc.) – what attracts you to these types of films?  Do you prefer period pieces to modern day films?

I think it’s just the stories that have come my way that have interested me and in a sense there’s an element of kind of  I guess time travel about it that I really like. Being able to really go back in time and see how people lived in other periods is really exciting for me. As different as it can be from my own experiences the better.

To prepare for the role of Prince Albert, you took dancing, calligraphy, archery lessons, and even worked with a vocal coach to capture an accurate German accent. Out of all the lessons, what did you find the most challenging to learn? What was the easiest to pick-up?

The hardest was the piano because I had to learn a piece of Shubert which Albert plays for, well he doesn’t actually play it for her but he plays it in the movie, and that was really really hard but the most rewarding as well because when I cracked it, it was the best feeling ever, so that was the hardest. The easiest in a way actually was the archery. The guy who was teaching me was amazing and he made me my own bow and my own arrows. It came weirdly quite naturally the whole sharp shooting thing.

Do you have a favorite scene in The Young Victoria?

I really like the scene under the gazebo when she stops him from proposing or rather tells him to wait. There’s a lot unsaid when I read that scene.

What do you find most rewarding when you’re part of a film?

Really experiencing other people doing their work and I get really excited by people that are passionate by their particular job. Whether it’s painting the set or mixing the sound or whatever it might be. It’s really intriguing to me to learn how everybody else does their work and the whole comes together.

Is there anyone you would like to work with in the future?

I would like to work with Paul Thomas Anderson. I think his films are great.

(Which is your favorite of his) There Will be Blood.

What other films are you currently working on now?

I just completed a movie called Georgia about the war that Georgia the country had with Russia last year. So I’ve been 7 weeks in the mountains of Georgia with the Army and playing an American war correspondent that gets captured and accused of being a spy.  So, very exciting and sort of a recent event that’s still very fresh in the minds of the people that we went to try and explore.

American audiences don’t know as much about Prince Albert and Queen Victoria as British.  How do you think the audiences will differ on how they take the film?

Well I wouldn’t know to speak for the audiences but to be honest I didn’t know much about them at all and I’m a fairly sort of typical, regular guy. I think there’s a few historians from both sides of the Atlantic that will know about them already but for everyone else it’s really realizing that these are two teenagers that had to negotiate this incredible political responsibility and still manage to fall in love.

@meganwest (Twitter Fan): What was the process like for learning the accent? Did they intentionally shift it from beginning to end?

Well the thing that I really was keen for was first he was a foreigner so he did have an accent, but secondly, that he was desperate to not have an accent. So I learned a German accent and then from that accent I tried to learn an English accent.  If that makes sense – so that’s it’s like you’re trying really hard to fit in.

@nanandbags (Twitter Fan): What did you discover by playing prince Albert? Anything new that you didn’t know before?

I got to know a man very well who I didn’t know before and who I really really liked and would have liked to have known in real life.  I suppose rather than learning something about myself I was inspired by his devotion to other people’s causes and I thought his sort of selflessness was very very inspiring.

Lieryn Barnett (Facebook Fan): It seems like there would be more pressure to play someone like Albert because people have preconceived notions of what he was like.  What difficulties or challenges are involved when playing a well-known historical figure as opposed to a completely fictional character that you get create yourself?

Well I think it’s a kind of a twofold answer really because oddly enough people don’t really know what Albert was like so my job was to do him justice and to be as faithful as I could to all of the discoveries that I made about him and not skim the surface of this guy who I thought was so fascinating. That was certainly a responsibility, but, if I’m honest, I feel that responsibility about everyone that I play whether they’ve been written, made up, true, false, period, modern, futuristic, whatever. They’re all real to me.

Melody Schnetz (Facebook Fan): I majored in European Studies- German at University so I’m interested if you tried to learn German or perfect a German accent? Did you have a voice coach?

Yes, I had a fantastic voice coach who I love and also I asked the director if I could change the lines to be in German when he’s with his brother at home because it didn’t make sense to me that you would speak in English with your brother if you’re both German. He agreed that he wanted that flavor of this was a melting pot of Europe at that time, with this shifting sands of different nationalities.  So we brought a German teacher in and changed some of the lines when he’s at home with servants and with his brother to give that sense of, when he leaves and goes to England it’s a foreign place and home is home.

THE YOUNG VICTORIA

Interview Questions for Sarah Ferguson

December 4, 2009

How involved were you with the film once King and Scorsese took part?

I left it to the brilliance of those people and Julian Fellows and Jean-Marc Vallee. I don’t tell a hairdresser how to do my hair and I was very honored they gave me the producer title and I said that I would honor it in the right way for this film which would be to open up on location, provide research and history, make sure that Alistair Bruce, my friend, was there to really make sure that everything was done the exact right way and how to address people and then I said my bit would come at the end when I talked about it.

What challenges/roadblocks stood in the way of the film being made?

It took me 15 years to be made and the first challenges were to ask everyone to keep to history and not to try and make it too much into entertainment but really tell the real story of the untold story of love. It’s so good it didn’t need to be sort of hyped up. Somebody once wrote a script for me and they had a certain sex scene going on and I said but that just did not happen. It’s not written down anywhere and I said please don’t. So we tore the script up and we waited and 5 years ago Graham said we’ll do it. He was so great. He kept all his promises. He said I’ll do it in Britain I’ll film in Britain even if it costs more and we were over budget and no one got paid properly he still kept his promises.

Julian Fellowes is an Academy Award winning writer for Gosford Park – what was it about his approach that let you know he was the best fit for The Young Victoria?

Julian Fellows is one of the nicest most brilliant people I’ve met. He has such a brilliant ability, and I like his wife Emma who’s fabulous. He’s like, Alastair Bruce the historian, like a cousin of theirs so it always felt like family. I knew that the Queen of England loves Gosford Park and Julian Fellows so I knew very much that we would be going out with a movie which the whole family would appreciate rather than this, ugh, we don’t put our name to that. So with Julian there, Graham King’s from Britain, the whole thing is very British, it’s certainly, it’s gone out with great strength of honesty to history and I’m proud about it.

Did you have any hesitations with your daughter, Princess Beatrice, taking part in the film?  Whose idea was it for her to get involved?

Both of them are so proud about this film that they of course loved sitting going on set and when they were on set of course it was then decided that Beatrice could go and do that and she jumped at it with both feet. She came from school where she did drama so for her it was just big dresses and just being on set. What this film has taught me just is how hard Hollywood works. Hollywood is not just entertainment, it’s about the behind the scenes, what everyone does. I’ve never seen such hard work. It’s really extraordinary and has to be heralded. I often took myself, go to the cinema and look at the big screen, walk out and go yeah that’s good but never contemplate just what it takes. I think it’s incredible. I’m happy with whatever both girls decide to do because I believe a real mother should be there to guide, be a role model, and to listen, but never to preach or teach.

What is Beatrice’s impression of the whole experience?

I think Beatrice would like to be in that century and I keep trying to tell her well it’s not going to happen dear. She really is so responsible; she was born to be a princess. She’s got it in her blood. She just has a sense of duty and responsibility that I’ve never seen in another human being.

You’ve written two novels about the life of Queen Victoria – is there a particular connection you feel you have with her?

I find her sense of cheekiness. I find her sense of humor. I find that she’s so strong and bold and I often have days when I allow people to push me around and I often think what would she do. There’s no way she’d put up with it so why am I?

Are there other stories about the Royal Family, as captivating as Queen Victoria’s, that you’d like to see brought to the big screen?

Well when Graham left cinema, he held my hand and said Sarah come and see me next week with some more ideas. I rubbed my hands with glee because I have two corkers of stories which no one has heard before and I think they should be seen on the big screen. Strong, historic, royal women.

THE YOUNG VICTORIA

Interview Questions for Emily Blunt

December 4, 2009

You’ve been in your fair share of major motion pictures – How would you describe the shooting experience on Young Victoria

It’s funny because I was so nervous going into it and shouldering the responsibility of this character but it was really joyful shooting. The day sort of flew by and I think that’s a credit to the director Jean Marc cause he created such an atmospheric set to work on and it bubbled everyday, it was really fun … and great costars, great to be filming in England again and it was also cliquey that we all know each other and it’s kind of incestuous in that way. Everyone knows so and so has dated so and so, so it was really fun.

How much of this was a character study, compared with taking creative license?

It’s funny cause I felt like I had a free reign with her because nobody knows about the youthful side of Queen Victoria, the love and the passion and I felt like no one really knew about that so I think there was an element of me sort of saying well prove it to me, prove to me that she wouldn’t have sat like this or said that, said something in that tone of voice, but I think I wanted at the same time to do her justice cause it was very well documented, that whole side of her life.  So everything that I read about her wouldn’t necessarily been read about by most people but, but I thought it was important to do justice to what I had read which presented her as this remarkable girl who had such strength and fire in her and literally everything that you see in the movie, virtually everything was true almost to the word.

You were allowed access to Victoria’s private diaries and letters – how did that help you form the basis for your role?

The diaries were the most helpful because she was so open in them and you know very expressive and would go into great detail about people or what she thought about them and who she hated, who she liked, and even with Albert she’d talk about the way he looked in such such detail. The curl of his mustache…was like she’d rapture about it for a paragraph and so it was really helpful to me to delve into that cause I could start to hear her voice in a way.

What other special research/training did you do to prepare?

I learned to side saddle a horse ride and I learned how to waltz. Both of them were frightening experiences but I overcame them in the end. It was a bit of a task but we did alright.

Is there one scene in the film that you are particularly fond of?

It’s funny, I really like the scene where she meets the privy counsel for the first time where she addresses the room full of sort of 60 old men who are there to judge her really, and doubtful of whether this young girl can..is up to the task. As an actress when there’s so much to play with that you know she’s terrified, she needs to assert herself, this is a huge moment for her, she knows that they doubt her, she’s feeling very vulnerable about the fact that her dearest uncle has just died and it was so much to play with that I really enjoyed that scene, I just really enjoyed it. I thought it was her really coming into her own. I think on the day that I read about it in biographies, she really did surprise them and they talked about the strength and the femininity but also that she was someone that was quite hard to read and I found that interesting that she was actually quite an ambiguous girl. You couldn’t quite figure out what she was thinking so there’s something quite powerful in that.  That’s the thing and that’s what I loved about the film. You see the private side and the public side and she lead such a duel existence as you know so many of the monarchs do.

We’ve heard that playing the young Victoria was a dream role for you, how did you first learn of the script?

My agent sent it to me and he said you know read it quickly cause everyone’s gonna want it. So, I got in very early and said to Graham I would love you to give me a shot but I knew that there were gonna be waves of women behind me being like I would also like a shot so I had to get in early I think.

@JulianatDerby: What was the most challenging aspect of this role?

I think trying to make it familiar to people. Trying not to be swallowed up by the costumes and the sets and trying to make it accessible for a modern audience. You know, trying to stray away from it being too arch and approaching her as the girl, almost eliminating the idea that she was the Queen from my brain. I think that was a big challenge for me.

@flubdubs: How much did you use your knowledge of Victoria’s later imperial self in your portrayal?

Well Flubdubs, I tried not to think about the later years cause obviously I have to play in the immediacy of what’s going on at that time, so, I’d seen Mrs. Brown years ago and had been swept away by it, just adored it and, stunned by what Judy did in it. Of course, again she just nailed something else but it’s hard because you have that image of her in your brain but you try not to be ruled by that because she was the antithesis of the older Victoria when she was younger. She was so full of life and exuberance that I had to really capture that rather than be swayed by the mourning grieving side that I knew.

@Jillglb: Emily, what was one thing that you most connected with the young Victoria?

I think I connected…I understood the teenage rebellion and I think everyone’s been through that and made silly mistakes. I think we can all identify with that and I think identifying with the fact that you know you are, I’m also in a job where I feel a bit over my head sometimes and exposed and that, you know, the implications of saying the wrong thing are so huge and so I think I understood that side of her life as well.

@EmilyKrasinksi – if you could keep anything from the movie, what would it be?

I had one, I had these earrings, these yellow diamond earrings which I wanted. I could have stolen them but that would be wrong.

Amina Powers (Facebook Fan): Did you feel any pressure playing such an important figure in history?

I did. I did feel pressure because I really wanted to do her justice. I really had read so much about her and I didn’t want to do an half ass job if this person that was so revered and she was so emblematic of our country but at the same time I wanted to approach her as a human being so there was pressure for sure but I honestly feel frightened every time I approach a new character whether their fictional or real.

Nancy Hackett Beyer (Facebook Fan): What was it like wearing those amazing dresses?!

It was amazing. I mean they do look beautiful. Their beautiful to wear for about half an hour until your inner organs are screaming and you feel like you’re being buried or something I mean it’s definitely quite, it’s a workout wearing those dresses.

Lisa Crispignani Rizzo (Facebook Fan): While preparing for this role were you surprised by any of Queen Victoria’s accomplishments?

I was surprised by, actually what her and Albert did together. They did such incredible feats for social reform and the arts and sciences and architecture and poverty. I think for me I was surprised on a whole like what they managed to achieve and how they went against tradition and wanted to make things better. There was a real need to make things better and I loved that about them. They were courageous in that way.

d she do. There’s no way she’d put up with it so why am I?

Are there other stories about the Royal Family, as captivating as Queen Victoria’s, that you’d like to see brought to the big screen?

Well when Graham left cinema, he held my hand and said Sarah come and see me next week with some more ideas. I rubbed my hands with glee because I have two corkers of stories which no one has heard before and I think they should be seen on the big screen. Strong, historic, royal women.