PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Cast Information: Mrs. Gardiner and Charlotte Lucas
A representative of Focus Features, the distributor of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, has confirmed that Penelope Wilton is playing Mrs. Gardiner in the film and that Claudie Blakley, who played Mabel in GOSFORD PARK, is playing Charlotte Lucas.
The representative also confirmed that Samantha Bloom, previously rumored to be playing Charlotte Lucas, is NOT in the film (and neither is her little brother! ;-))
EDIT 4 Feb. 2005: We just received word that Samantha Bloom is indeed in the film as “The Rosings Governess” (we presume meaning Miss DeBourgh’s companion).
August 21st, 2004 at 8:55 pm
Aargh! She’s too old, she’s too old!
Ms. Wilton was born in 1946! How in the world is a woman almost 60 years old supposed to have young children!?! The Gardiner children are six and eight, and two younger than that, so presumably two and four as well. I’ve heard of change of life children, but that’s ridiculous.
August 21st, 2004 at 10:21 pm
It is strange to me that they purposely cast Elizabeth and Darcy to be the age they are in the book and then cast the older generation so much older. I’ve always assumed Mrs. Bennet was around 45 tops, and Mrs. Gardiner in her mid-30s. But at least they’re casting good actors.
I wonder if the Gardiner children will be disposed with in the interest of time?
August 21st, 2004 at 11:32 pm
Yes, Mrs. Bennet would have to be around 45, tops, presuming she married in her early twenties. And as much as I like Judi Dench, casting a 70 year old as the mother of a 28 year old (or thereabouts) doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, Elizabeth Edwards notwitstanding.
I’ve always felt Mrs. Bennet’s abrupt stop to childbearing to be a bit too convenient. (Will that get me excommunicated?) Unless something really horrible happened when Lydia was born, Mrs. B should have also had a 13, 11, nine, seven and five year old, at least.
August 22nd, 2004 at 6:10 pm
Hmm…Maybe Mr. Bennet figured five daughters on his hands was enough? We know that Jane Austen didn’t really approve of large families where there was a lack of funds to provide for them (the Prices of MP, for instance). Mr. Bennet has his flaws, but he is a sensible man, and perhaps he shut the door at five daughters and felt there was no point in taking risks of more daughters and still no son.
I suppose it can be argued that people aged more quickly in those days, so the older folks may look older than what our modern eyes would expect of 45.
August 25th, 2004 at 11:01 pm
Didn’t the Bennetts have sons who did died in infancy or is that just a hallucination of my deteriorating brain cells? Guess I’ll just have to reread P&P again!
August 26th, 2004 at 2:14 am
You might be thinking of Sir Walter and Lady Elliot in Persuasion, who had a stillborn son. The Bennets had all daughters.