Emily Browning will be seen as a strong-headed girl in Pompeii. She talks about how women had a lot more power in ancient Rome than expected
Your character is in a compromised position in this movie. How do you get into this position where a senator has a crush on youIJ
It’s not ever revealed how Corvis and Cassia know one another. She’s been in Rome studying, comes back, sees him and freaks out. So they have a little run-in in Rome and she’s grossed out by him. That’s what attracted me to Cassia — the fact that she has been brought up in this privileged world but is not interested in marrying some dude who has a bunch of money. She’s a bit hardened in the beginning, like maybe she’s got a lot of attention from such guys and is just not into it. It’s her meeting Milo and realising that she has feelings for a boy that softens her up a bit. I wouldn’t say that the volcano eruption is lucky for her (laughs) but it does get her out of a compromising position, because she’s in a place where it looks like she will marry him to save and protect her family.
Was it hard to fall in love with Kit HaringtonIJ
So difficult, he’s hideous! (laughs). It’s weird because we started hanging out when we were first shooting, but we didn’t film a scene together for like the first two weeks. So by the time we had to shoot the first scene where we were all gaga over each other, he’d already met my boyfriend and we’d become bros. So the day before that scene I was super nervous, like ‘Ah! Now it’s weird. We’re friends and have to pretend to like each other, it’s kind of strange.’
Rome was a man’s world, at that time. How does your character fit into that scenarioIJ
I read up a lot about the role of women at that time and it was interesting. Obviously girls were controlled by men and oppressed in that sense, but women actually had a lot more power in ancient Rome than expected. Daughters would often advise fathers on their business decisions. Women could represent themselves in court. So in a way it was horrifically sexist but advanced. But Cassia is pretty tough, she doesn’t want to be told what to do. She says right at the beginning of the film she doesn’t want to marry anyone. She manages to hold her own, but is still frustrated that her dad won’t listen to her as much as she would like because at the start she advises him against getting into bed with the Romans. She hates the idea that there’s a Roman Senator at the house and she disagrees with what’s going on with the Emperor.
In Sucker Punch, you got to sling swords like nobody’s business. Did you get any of this action hereIJ
I’m a part of the action in the sense that I’m running away from all that’s happening with the volcano.
There are cool scenes in the chariot with me and Kiefer where it gets intense and violent. There are big explosions, but I don’t get to have a fight scene and I was jealous when I saw the boys doing that. When we did Sucker Punch, I was into the training. I loved it, so seeing them getting to train everyday, made me want to do that kind of a film again. However, I do remember working out for seven hours a day. In a way it’s a bit of a relief to not have to do that. Also there were crazy diets on. We didn’t really have to do that for Sucker Punch thankfully.
What surprised you about Pompeii while you were doing your researchIJ Besides the women having power…
Everything because I am terrible with history... But the thing that was most interesting was just seeing the pictures of these mummified figures after the eruption. Because there are people embracing and they’ve been completely calcified or I don’t know exactly what it is scientifically, but there are these perfect statues of people in the moment that they died. That made me really emotional.
Have you shot a lot of disasterIJ
We have shot a lot, but I think we still have a lot more to shoot. It’s pretty hardcore filming that stuff because it’s like ash and dust in the air and by the end of the day you’re just covered in back greasy dirt. You blow your nose and it’s black. But it’s really fun. It’s a little bit of green screen but a lot of the sets are built in their entirety. It’s kind of cool to see. The way that they’ve built these massive sets like the streets of Pompeii and lifelike dead horses and dead bodies littering the streets, is great.
There have been two phases of the sword and sandal epic, like Ben-Hur and Spartacus, and then the more recent ones with Troy, Gladiator, 300… do you have a preference of those two erasIJ
I can’t say a preference because I haven’t watched any of those older Gladiator epics. The newer ones, yes. It’s a genre that I like, but have never been massively into because I feel like there’s rarely a cool female character and that always frustrates me. I know there are not many girls in this, but I liked the fact that Cassia gets to save Milo a couple of times and I think that’s rare to see in this kind of a film. It’s still boy-centric, but it’s nice to read it and think, ‘Oh the girl does something, she’s not a moron, she doesn’t just get saved and she’s not just a damsel in distress the whole time.’
Would you say it has a modern feelIJ
Of course it’s never going to be exactly period specific. It’s impossible to do something like that because we don’t know how things were. I guess that does make it a bit modern. And hopefully, slowly, people are learning that audiences do want to see girls doing something in a film. There are still a million films with just dudes and the girls are pathetic, but maybe that’s started to change.
Do Kiefer and you interact outside your scenes or do you stay away from each otherIJ
He’s so entertaining, he’s a total comedian. I’m so far from method it’s not even funny. I couldn’t stand that thing of, not interacting if you don’t like each other on camera. Obviously it works for some people, but for me, things just work so much better when you connect with someone. There are scenes where he has to throw me around and be quite rough and it’s nice to end that scene and say, ‘Oh well, let’s go have a cigarette and chat!’