**Cheri **tells the story of Lea (Pfeiffer) a Parisien courtesan close to retirement who becomes involved with Cheri (Friend) the young but jaded son of a former fellow escort (Kathy Bates). Although their relationship seems doomed to fail from the outset, the pair remain happily together for six years, until Cheri’s mother arranges for him to marry a wealthy daughter of another fellow courtesan, leaving the pair inconsolable.
Said heiress is played by up-and-coming costume-drama favourite Felicity Jones who told us what it was like to work with Michelle Pfeiffer: “She’s brilliant. She is special because I think people underestimate her comic timing. She’s an incredible wit as well as being this beautiful woman and a good actress.”
We also got a bit of gossip about her upcoming film, 1970s insurance dramedy Cemetery Junction, and how her audition for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant was a concentrated one: “Ricky and Stephen are very funny, as you would expect. I just thought 'I’m not going to focus on the fact that I am auditioning for the comic geniuses of our time'. You sort of go into this strange mode of survival, and there is no point in feeling nervous; you’ve got to use those nerves, otherwise you don’t do the best that you can do.”
{Cheri UK Premiere}
Frears was a bit of a hard task master on set, and screenwriter Christopher Hampton told us how being on set throughout filming was a tiring task: “ It was hard work, because Stephen, and he’s got more this way as the years have gone one, likes to keep working on it all the time. I worked it out from the number of sheets of different coloured paper that were inserted into the script, that we did 21 sets of revisions during shooting. So typically, we would be doing a scene and he would say, “Something isn’t quite working, is there something you can do?” It was a constant work of refinement as work went on.”
Friend, meanwhile, admitted he had a “wonderful three months in France in bed with Michelle Pfeiffer.” He told us about his next role, very much a break from his run of period pieces: “I’m doing a film called The Kid based on a book by Kevin Lewis, about his abusive childhood. Nick Moran is directing and Natasha McElhone, Ioan Gruffudd and James Fox are in it. It’s set in the '80s in South London on an estate, so it’s Toffee Crisps and Pot Noodles. I’ve also just got back from filming in Canada, a thing called **Lullaby for Pi **with Clemence Poesy and Forest Whittaker.”
And then director Frears interjected with a big kiss on Friend’s sculpted cheek, telling us his favourite part about making Cheri: “The end! They’re such hard work, films, it’s finishing which is the good part!”
And on that note, Empire bid “bon nuit” to the Cheri folk - et dirigé a la maison pour écrire ce rapport.