Mary Reilly
Short description
Mary Reilly is a servant in the household of Dr. Henry Jekyll, a respected physician in Victorian London. Having survived a childhood marked by violence at the hands of her father, she finds a sense of safety in her employer's home and gradually earns his trust. Jekyll's behavior grows increasingly strange, and the arrival of a mysterious assistant named Mr. Hyde disturbs the orderly life of the house. Mary becomes drawn to Hyde even as she senses the danger around him, and she alone comes to understand the connection between the doctor and his sinister associate.
The film was directed by Stephen Frears, the eighth of the twenty-three features he has made, following The Snapper and preceding The Hi-Lo Country. Christopher Hampton wrote the screenplay, adapting Valerie Martin's novel, and the production was handled by TriStar Pictures with NFH Films. Julia Roberts plays Mary, with John Malkovich as Jekyll and Hyde, supported by George Cole, Michael Gambon, Glenn Close and Kathy Staff among a credited cast of twenty. It was made for roughly 47 million dollars and returned about 12 million worldwide.
Audience response has been modest, with a rating of 5.8 on IMDb from around 17,000 votes and the same figure on TMDB from far fewer. A critics' score of 4.7 from forty-three reviews places it slightly below those audience ratings.
What's left behind the scenes
- John Malkovich wore blue contact lenses for the role of Henry Jekyll and darker ones when he had to play Edward Hyde.
- The props were mostly authentic items from the Victorian era. They were borrowed from museums and galleries.
- As the director of the project, Tim Burton intended to cast Winona Ryder in the lead role.
- Three finale options were considered but ultimately rejected: Mary stays with Dr. Jekyll, she stays with Mr. Hyde, and she leaves both of them.
- Tim Burton initially took on the direction, but received the script for the film "Ed Wood" (1994) and abandoned "Mary Reilly" to film a movie about the director who gained fame as "the worst director of all time and peoples."
- Julia Roberts was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for her role in this film. The award went to Demi Moore for her role in Andrew Bergman's drama "Striptease" (1996).
- The ending was initially filmed exactly as it appeared in the book (Jekyll dies, Mary lies next to the body), but the screenwriters then proposed at least 25 more variations. In the winter of 1995, several months after the crew and cast had been dismissed, the producers demanded that everyone be reconvened to film three more endings. For one of them, a special "Concorde" was sent for Glenn Close, which brought the actress to London for one day of filming.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
