THE EX FILES

DAPHNE DU MAURIER’S TIMELESS TALE OF ENVY, COMPARISON AND PASSION GETS THE BEN WHEATLEY TREATMENT IN THE LATEST ADAPTATION OF GOTHIC ROMANCE, REBECCA. TOTAL FILM STEPS ON SET TO DISCOVER A UNIVERSAL TRUTH – WE ARE ALL LOOKING OVER OUR SHOULDER TO THE PAST…

- JANE CROWTHER

Thinking about the ex?” Armie Hammer asks in a cut-glass English accent. He nods knowingly. “Yep…” It’s late June 2019 and TF is sitting with the actor (dapper in impeccable evening tails and wearing a beautiful vintage watch) in his trailer, parked up on the driveway of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. This beautiful stately home will provide the staircase and great hall for Manderley, the house at the centre of a new marriage haunted by the myth of previous one.

As a young woman (Lily James) becomes the second Mrs. de Winter to a rich widower (Hammer) she finds herself in jealous competition with the memory of his first spouse – the fabulous, beautiful, accomplished, beloved (and never seen) Rebecca. A literal Becky with the good hair. Though set in ’30s England (when Daphne du Maurier penned it), this idea at the heart of Rebecca – of being obsessed with the other man/woman – is a universal, contemporary one, says Hammer. “There’s always the ghost of Christmas past that’s there, nipping at your heels. Everyone’s got something in their past rearing its head. Everyone’s come into someone else’s life, realised the ghosts and demons there, and been like, ‘Is there even a place for me here?’”