Cary Fukunaga on Jane Eyre

Cary Fukunaga is renowned for the gritty debut Sin Nombre, which followed teenage gang members on a dangerous and illegal train-surfing trip to the US border from the slums of Mexico. His decision to follow-up on his visceral and award-winning foray in filmmaking with an eerie and hauntingly gothic adaptation of Jane Eyre might seem strange, but it stands as testament to an important and seemingly limitless talent that it’s hard to pigeonhole. Starring AnOther cover star Mia Wasikowska as Jane and a tortured-looking Michael Fassbender as her would-be lover Rochester, the film takes a highly idiosyncratic approach to the novel, splicing into it and rearranging the narrative to draw out the elements that most interest Fukunaga, namely the timeless torture of the thinking individual’s existential choice. Here, the young, and startlingly talented director tells John-Paul Pryor why he is always drawn to strong female leads, the importance of self-belief and his fervent conviction in the power of love.

You seem to be drawn to very strong female leads with a feminist aspect. Why is that?
Yeah, I don’t know what that is. I had someone else point that out recently. I think any character has to be well-rounded whether they are male or female – they have to be complex and make choices that maybe we don’t agree with, you know? I guess that’s what makes them human. I like characters that make choices, and try to drive their own fate. I think it’s by chance that the two films I’ve made are about women, but I just think it’s a much richer narrative sort of experience to explore. I watched a movie last night and there was not one woman in the entire film. I felt myself thinking: ‘What’s missing in the story?’ Only one half of the species… I think what often happens in films is that the women are just pawns and set pieces – they are not really fully fleshed-out.

How does that notion of existential choice play out in your adaptation of Jane Eyre?
It’s part of the reason why it was important we had the St John Eyre Rivers character figure so largely in the story. She needs to make the choice at the end of the film between him and going back to Rochester. Rivers would have been the correct choice for that time period, and going back to Rochester would have been the incorrect choice. I mean, she has no idea what has happened with his wife – she just knows that he was the one she loved and that she has to go back to him. In most adaptations of Jane Eyre they don’t give her that choice because that part of the story is considered a long, slow narrative speed bump. By putting that at the beginning of the film and then spreading it across the rest of the film we were able to give her that choice.

What do you hope a viewer will take from witnessing that journey?
I don’t know specifically but I think my approach to Jane Eyre was different in the sense that I was fascinated by Jane as a character – fascinated by her convictions and her strength. I mean that in the sense that even I had thought of sticking with a person or relationships that aren’t perfect in the past because you don’t want to give up on love – even if it is to some degree degrading to your soul. She wouldn’t do that despite every hardship she experienced in her life. There is a strength in that – a sense of self-worth that overpowers what I think most people would have succumbed too. I think that’s an incredible story for anyone to witness because, man or woman, we are often weaker individuals than we like to believe we are.  All of us are children somewhere inside of us – sometimes it’s almost like we need a moral tale of what’s possible if you are strong and have that will.

Would you say you were a romantic?
When I was a kid, I knew the black and white version of Jane Eyre, and I guess I became interested in the idea of romantic love – of unrequited love and the tragedies of that; of what are the important things in life; what should one value over other materials… I would definitely say I fall on the side of things where love is more important than most other things, like material gain. I don’t believe happiness comes out of material gain, for sure.

Jane Eyre is released nationwide on 9 September.

Text by John-Paul Pryor

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