Camille Rutherford gets Lit in ‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life’
Yes there is the revered name in the very title of the new rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life But as its star Camille Rutherford pointed out This is not just a movie for Jane Austen fans It s a film we can all relate to because the character I play Agathe a single Parisian who works in the legendary English language bookstore Shakespeare Co which sits on the Left Bank opposite Notre Dame she has doubts about everything She feels like an imposter She struggles with self-confidence and insecurity She feels that she s not intelligent and talented and cultivated enough to write a novel That s something very human We all have moments in our lives where we feel very depressed where we re lost Where we feel like we re not useful we re not worth anything It s a movie about that but it s also a movie about several things It s about a character who s lost who struggles to do what she likes We can all relate to that And we know that literature can help us to understand that feeling Rutherford a rising French star who had a key role in the Oscar-winning French thriller Anatomy of a Fall has just like her character Agathe an English father and French mother Agathe s friend in the bookstore conspires to have her attend a writing workshop the Jane Austen Residency in England in the hope that she will be spurred to finish her novel Naturally in Austen s handsome great-great-great nephew Oliver at the Residency Agathe meets her Darcy the Mr Right of her dreams and the hero of Pride and Prejudice I like to think that she is very romantic but it s not the main thing Rutherford emphasized in a Zoom interview The main thing is that she wants to finish a novel and the movie shows that it is not a man that saves her life It s not romance that saves her life She saves herself on her own because she eventually finishes a book Then because she s proud of herself she can have a love story with Oliver There are bits of slapstick in this Jane Austen with Rutherford scoring Lucille Ball-style comedic pratfalls Oh that s the best compliment I think comedy is very demanding the the bulk demanding thing really When you re acting comedy it s very complicated and it s also very subjective We each have our own sense of humor But authentically that s the only reason I craved to be an actress It was to do comedy So I really hope I will do more of it But I m not known for being a funny actress Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is in theaters Friday Camille Rutherford as Agathe and Charlie Anson as Oliver in a scene from Jane AustenWrecked My Life Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
