The Story: Hamlet is a contemporary adaptation of the classic play set in New York City, 2000 -- a world of laptops and limousines. The President of the Denmark Corporation has recently been found dead, and his wife has re-married the man suspected of the murder. Nobody is suffering more than her son Hamlet � who is not only determined to avenge his father�s murder but is also in love with the enchanting but forbidden Ophelia. And so begins a series of discoveries, lies, and loss that will destroy the lives of everyone involved.  
�It's weird when I went to this audition, I thought I'm never going to get this role because it's too great a role. Don't ask me why - but, then I did get it and I was really, really happy but I was also intimidated." "People have this stigma attached to Shakespeare especially if it uses the original language. I would study other actors who were in original adaptations and they would sometimes have English accents. I thought that I had to be like that and it wasn't really what I was use to. So, then after a lot of rehearsals, I decided to make it my own - just what I related to. I had to sit down and think about what Ophelia met to me and understand the emotions I thought she was going through - and not repeat other actresses performances. And it was really frustrating. She doesn't really do much for the first half of the play. She just sort of absorbs all the information and doesn't really develop her own opinion and I think that's what made her explode at the end." "It was fun especially filming out at the Guggenheim Museum. It was like therapy. Anything that was bothering me - I think everyone can relate to no one listening to you - so I got to release all of that. It was really exciting. Even the drowning scene in the pool - it was November and it wasn't heated and it wasn't clean. But, I was doing the Ophelia drowning scene."
Did You Know? Diane Venora (Queen Gertrude) played Ophelia in a 1990 TV version of Hamlet, and also played the role of Hamlet on stage in New York Other actresses to play Ophelia on screen include Kate Winslet (1996), Helena Bonham Carter (1990), Helen Mirren (1976), Marianne Faithfull (1969) and Jean Simmons (1948)
View the trailer here |
