The film premieres on Prime Video on Friday, October 7, and follows its titular Catherine (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old whose father Lord Rollo (Scott) informs her that she needs to wed, much to her annoyance.
In order to avoid such a fate, Catherine uses mischievous behavior and all the tricks up her sleeve to stop anyone taking her hand in marriage.
‘Catherine Called Birdy’ Cast Members Share Thoughts on Lena Dunham
Alwyn, who plays Catherine’s uncle and crush George, said of the film: “It’s great fun, for me right from reading the script, having read a lot of period films which can be brilliant in their own more conventional way, it wasn’t stuffy and straight laced.
“It all had an immediate modern quality and slightly irreverent, and really off-kilter, and also it resonated with everything going on today as well.”
Scott added: “Yeah, totally, she can’t not have her own very singular voice, you know, Lena.
“It’s full of heart, she adores the book, she has [had] the book that she has loved since she was 10 years old, and so she just had a real passion in that way, and when somebody has passion in that way it always translates.”
On Bella Ramsey and the Film’s Take on Gender Norms
Catherine Called Birdy is based on Karen Cushman’s novel of the same name and Scott was full of praise for his co-star Ramsey’s interpretation of the character, calling The Last of Us actress “genuinely extraordinary.”
“It’s sort of like a young adult performance but it’s wonderful, she carries the entire movie on her shoulders and it’s very difficult to play a character like that.
“You really need a person with a real singularity to them, because she has to be so funny and endearing, and you have to love her but she got these comedic set pieces [and] comedy is hard.
“But you’ve also got to understand the very sort of particular stage of life that she’s at, where she’s an adolescent and where you understand her plight but also [think] this is a little awkward. She just captures that really, really beautifully, it’s an extraordinary performance.”
Birdy isn’t the only character being forced into a marriage she doesn’t want. Alwyn’s George is also in a similar predicament, one that men don’t often find themselves in.
Reflecting on this, Alwyn said: “Everyone, in their own ways, are slightly trapped. Whether it be a family that’s running out of money and having to sell off a daughter or George marrying someone he doesn’t want to […] so everyone’s kind of forced into a shape that they don’t necessarily want to fit into.
“I thought it was very relatable to be Birdy’s age, or slightly younger, and have those kind of people that you’ve put up on a pedestal, whether they’re family members, or friends, or someone you have a crush on, or whatever it might be, and really they’re not as strong and gleaming as you think they are.
“I liked that relationship and I liked that he had to kind of break it to her that he’s not really that person, because I can remember those kinds of realizations of people and how harrowing it can be at that age to realise that the person that someone you so idolize is messy and human.”
On the Challenge of Sword Fighting
The film may be a comedy but it also has its dramatic moments, particularly when Lord Rollo has to try to put his sword fighting to the test.
Scott’s character is the butt of a joke early on, that despite always training he is unable to wield a sword skilfully. Even so, he is forced to put this lack of skill to the test later in the story.
The actor admitted it was “bliss, absolute bliss” not to have to be good at sword fighting in this role. “I had to do a play, Hamlet, once and I had to learn how to sword fight, and I didn’t love that part of it I gotta say.
“It’s a great skill, but it’s just scary to sort of do onstage, and the stakes have to be high and there’s always—when you’re doing combat in a movie or a play—there’s always a story within, it’s not just a strike, you have to hit the marks.
“But, in this, me and Paul Kaye [who plays Sir John Henry Murgaw, aka Shaggy Beard] had to learn how to sort of sword fight in the movie, and I had to [try and] get a little better.”
Catherine Called Birdy is out on Prime Video now.
