\u201cMy agent read it and she said, \u2018You\u2019ve got an offer from New Zealand,’\u201d she recalls. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018No way, I\u2019m not going there!\u2019 Not that I don\u2019t like New Zealand \u2013 my first husband was a New Zealander, my son is half New Zealander \u2013 but it\u2019s so far away and I just thought I can\u2019t hack it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, Rampling was persuaded to read the screenplay anyway \u2013 just so she could rule it out \u2013 and she ended up loving it so much that she felt the long trip would be very much worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really moved reading the script, there was just really something in it,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd scripts are difficult to read \u2013 you know, a film can be moving and scripts quite often don\u2019t reveal that. But this did, it sort of came across on the page.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/09\/Charlotte-Rampling-in-Juniper-e2d6a71.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Juniper is the feature debut of New Zealand writer\/director Matthew Saville \u2013 who also has two short films to his name \u2013 and Rampling admits that she enjoys the experience of working with young filmmakers, something she has done on numerous occasions throughout her long career.<\/p>\n
On this occasion, she was especially fond of how collaborative the process was, with Saville more than happy to hear feedback about which directions to take the character.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spoke on the telephone after I first read the script, and I said, \u2018Look, I really need to talk\u2019,\u201d she explains. \u201cThere was quite a lot of things I really wanted to talk about and maybe certain changes \u2013 and he came over with his producer, and we worked on the script for three or four days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love being able to work with the director,\u201d she adds. \u201cAnd with this \u2013 because it was a young man that was doing it \u2013 I really wanted to put in what I could of me in the film. It was [originally] a woman in her 80s, and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t want to play something, I want to be something\u2019. So I said I\u2019m in my 70s, so let\u2019s put her in her 70s. And that was fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then we started to branch out into areas that were more appropriate in a sense. So all the scenes stayed the same, but within the scenes we developed them from a 70-year-old woman\u2019s point of view. That all made it very moving for me to be able to do that. And he was so pleased to have that collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to working with a first-time director, the film also sees Rampling starring opposite an actor at the very beginning of their career. 21-year-old George Ferrier plays the role of Ruth\u2019s grandson Sam, who has many of his own struggles to face even before he\u2019s charged with caring for his grandmother.<\/p>\n
Rampling is full of praise for her young co-star \u2013 and in speaking of working with him, she reminisces about some of the acting royalty she learned from at the start of her own career.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/09\/Sam-and-his-friend-watch-Ruth-Shooting-clays-in-Juniper-705052c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\u201cWhen you\u2019re working with an inexperienced actor, it\u2019s about putting them at ease as quickly as possible \u2013 just making it fun and making it so they\u2019re not trying too hard,\u201d she says. \u201cSo they\u2019re not sort of wanting to be able to show you what they\u2019ve learned in acting school, et cetera.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd George was very willing to do that. Which is what you have to be when you\u2019re a young actor, you have to be really willing. I mean, I was very led for instance by Dirk Bogarde years ago when I did The Night Porter. You need masters, you need to watch people with a lot of experience \u2013 and you\u2019re not trying to emulate them, but you need to feel that you\u2019re going to become part of the filming family.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Rampling, one of the strongest appeals of this project was the way in which she could relate to the character of Ruth. Specifically she found common ground in the fact that the character was a former war photographer, something that tallied with some of her own ambitions from earlier in her life, before she became an actor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I relate to a character in a film, it\u2019s already somewhere in there \u2013 I could have been that woman,\u201d she says. \u201cI always wanted to be a journalist when I was young. Not necessarily a war journalist, but I wanted to be someone out there, someone experimenting with different forms and different people \u2013 getting into lives that were unknown to me so that I could experience how different things were and how unpredictable life is. I was very on the edge with that thinking, and so the character corresponded very much with that kind of spirit that I have in me.\u201d<\/p>\n