James McAvoy wanted his own space while making Atonement, and he found a way to make the request sound like character preparation.
Asked for a happy memory of the 2007 drama during a recent Reddit question-and-answer session, the actor recalled navigating director Joe Wright’s plans for communal living.
“I felt so socially awkward,” he said, according to Entertainment Weekly. He knew the arrangement mattered to Wright, but spending every hour with colleagues did not appeal to him.
McAvoy played Robbie Turner opposite Keira Knightley’s Cecilia Tallis in the adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel. He revisited the shoot while promoting his own directorial debut, California Schemin’.
Robbie’s Outsider Status Helped McAvoy Secure a Cottage
Wright had gathered principal cast members and key crew in a large house, where they ate dinner together each evening. Weekends brought parties and more socializing. McAvoy wondered how to opt out without disappointing the director: “How can I get away with this?”
He pointed to Robbie’s position in the Tallis household. The housekeeper’s son has an education and manner of speaking that allow him to move among the wealthy family, but he is never fully accepted as one of them. McAvoy suggested that separate accommodation would help him maintain that distance.
The argument worked. He got a small cottage on the estate, within walking distance of the main house. He could cross the grounds for dinner or a party, then return to a place of his own rather than remain in the middle of the gathering.
“Don’t tell Joe,” McAvoy added, before saying they had enjoyed making the film.
He Had Already Described the Arrangement in 2007
In a Dec. 6, 2007, interview with Rotten Tomatoes, McAvoy said both personal preference and the role influenced his decision. Having experienced college life, he was not eager to repeat that environment. Some of the people in the house had nevertheless become good friends.
He recalled joining them for dinner once or twice a week. Although he knew he was welcome any evening, he imagined that he needed an invitation. “I’m not a method actor,” he said, describing a small amount of make-believe in how he approached those visits.
Preparing Robbie had presented another problem: McAvoy initially struggled to believe in someone so straightforwardly good. He told the interviewer that attempts to make the character angrier or more conflicted were not working in rehearsal, and he eventually had to trust that a decent person could hold an audience’s interest.
Wright Gave the Cast Three Weeks to Rehearse Together
Wright organized three weeks of rehearsals before filming, according to the production notes published by Focus Features. Vanessa Redgrave, Romola Garai and Saoirse Ronan, who played Briony Tallis at different ages, worked on body language together so Wright could select details to carry through their performances.
For the Tallis home, the filmmakers used Stokesay Court in Shropshire. Its interiors and grounds gave them one location for the family’s rooms and gardens, rather than assembling the house from unrelated buildings. The crew spent seven weeks preparing it for five weeks of filming.
Knightley recalled that Wright brought the actors there a day before the shoot so they could walk the grounds and spend time in their characters’ bedrooms. She valued being able to work in a private home without tourists passing through.
For Cecilia and Robbie’s fountain scene, the production team built a fountain over and around an existing pond, protecting the original structure while creating the setting needed for the sequence.