Like mercury, the more you try to grasp Shekhar Kapur, the more elusive he becomes. Yet, he is able to draw out unforgettable performances by instructing actors to connect with their own innate experiences. And, he is directly responsible for putting Cate Blanchett on the map. It is no surprise that she agreed to adorn the crown and sceptre, once again, in his new film, Elizabeth, The Golden Age, as the visionary director cast his spell and wove magic, whilst portraying his most passionate royal. This time around, he has depicted the queen with a mature presence that shows her reflecting on the middle point of her life. She is much older and discovers herself contending with the knowledge that she may have sacrificed her only chance of happiness, marriage and children, to her duty.

While his previous film, Elizabeth, in 1998, had earned seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actress, this one is grippingly laced with treachery and romance. Geoffrey Rush plays Sir Francis Walsingham; Samantha Morton embodies Mary, Queen of Scots and Clive Owen as Walter Raleigh – a heroic swashbuckler in the Errol Flynn style – captures the heart of the now middle-aged queen. Abbie Cornish, the young Australian sensation, is effortlessly sexy as Elizabeth Throckmorton, the queen’s lady-in-waiting who discovers her royal mistress, a rival, for the dashing Raleigh’s affections.

The historical event at the heart of this aesthetically-shot, thrilling film is the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the continuous crusade of a woman to control love, crush enemies and secure her position by solidifying absolute power in the 16th century. Kapur unfolds the story in an iconoclastic yet contemporary way, showing the conflict beteween fundamentalism and tolerance and has elicited from Blanchett, an extraordinarily mannered performance. Strikingly shot at some of England’s historic landmarks, the film has an eye-catching scene where Blanchette is seen riding out on a white stallion along a blustery cliff top, her long hair streaming in the wind, to rally the nation on the eve of battle.
Kapur on his film, his heroine, his inspirations and what the future holds....

“Elizabeth, The Golden Age, is a film about divinity.”
But, divinity is not something that is definable. You can say I am angry so this is what anger represents; or, I am sad and this is what sadness represents. These are emotions that are easier to explain than being divine. How do you represent that, what’s the journey? Not everything is definable in life if you have been through some undefinable emotions.
Cate Blanchett has become a mother twice since the last film we did together and it’s the unconditionality of love between mother and child that you don’t even want to define. You are more comfortable when one has that understanding, that acceptance, that not everything can be defined in life. I think she could not have done this film had she not experienced that kind of unconditional love and naturally grown with it.

We had a 70-day shoot, carried out in England. I had to plan all the locations in advance as one is carrying a crew of 250 people around. All the costumes for the film were designed by Alexandra Byrne. She has worked with me in my previous film, Elizabeth. In that film, I had a few costumes made in India but the person who did it is now too busy with other Hollywood films. This time, the costumes were all made in England.

“I cannot make this film with somebody else (Cate Blanchett).”
Because it’s an interpretation of someone who has become an icon. It’s through the emotional life and acting skills of Cate Blanchett that we perceive Elizabeth.That’s what it started with and if I make the next one, that’s what it will have to be. Other than the fact that she is one of the finest actresses we have....

“The most difficult scenes to shoot are those that are difficult for the actors...”
Because I have to allow the actors to breathe themselves and give them the space and let the camera angles tell the story, through the visuals, without interfering with them. So that the lecherous camera can find the right lighting, the exact right spot without constricting the actors and then capture it. For example, there is the scene where an actor has to beat up another. I needed big wide shots along with close-ups. In such scenes, the actors have to expend themselves and it’s difficult. How often can you ask them to do it? How do you, in extremely emotional circumstances, make sure the actors are able to give their emotional best? After three or four takes they too get tired of it and begin to lose it.