Actor Emily Mortimer Talks About Shifting Into Writing & Directing For Amazon's 'The Pursuit Of Love' [Interview]

Jumping effortlessly between drama to comedy, musicals to harrowing, personal horror, Emily Mortimer has had an eclectic career in film and television. With Amazon’s “The Pursuit of Love” (also a BBC co-production) starring Lily James, Mortimer takes on a new challenge with her first-ever directing gig for all three episodes. Credited also as a writer of the series and appearing in her own small role, Mortimer’s handprints are all over the final product. She was able to take her experience as a show creator on “Doll & Em” and transfer it over into her first job as director.

“The Pursuit of Love” is a lavish coming-of-age story based on the famous novel from author Nancy Mitford which was first published in 1945 and considered radical for its time. The miniseries follows Linda, played by James as narrated by her cousin Fanny (Emily Beecham) and her desire for a great romance. Our critic was impressed with the stylish direction by Mortimer, praising, in particular, how she gave “her characters incredibly dynamic and stylish introductions.”

It’s an impressive debut for Mortimer, who manages to toe the line of the genres presented here, from scathing satire to emotional drama. We spoke to her about what drew her to this story, writing strong friendships and validating turbulent emotions felt by women.

Have you always known that you were interested in directing? Or was it the case of finding the right story at the right time?
I don’t think it was a conscious thing. I knew in recent years after doing “Doll & Em” with Dolly Wells, which we both wrote, produced and were very involved but didn’t direct. Dolly had directed a film called “Good Posture,” which I was in, and I saw her doing that and got inspired to think that maybe I could. I never thought consciously about it, but earlier in my life, I was always writing. I just literally this week was back at home with my mom, and I’ve been trying to write something else about my time living in Russia as a young student, and I was going through my old diaries and things in my mom’s attic back in England. I found I’d written “I want to direct something” years and years ago, more than 15 years ago, so I obviously had it in mind, and I was always really interested in stories. I studied English and Russian literature, and my father was a writer – a playwright and novelist and television writer. Hence, I think the whole business of telling a story and how to tell a story has always been really fascinating to me.

And when I was a little girl, I was always putting on plays for my parents. So it was always in me, but it wasn’t until this moment – and a moment that was given to me by Lily James. I’d already written the script, and Lily was attached as well, and when it came to getting a director, she was the one who suggested it to me. I never thought that I would be allowed to do something this ambitious as a first-time director in a million years. Lily was important enough to the producers, so they listened to her, and this amazing door opened for me, and I loved it. I really, really loved it.

Was this a series that you already knew of before writing the script, or were they books you explored once you were attached to the project?
I had read the books and Nancy Mitford as a teenager; they’re a rite of passage for girls particularly, and I knew that I loved her work. I was approached and asked to write a pilot to see if the producers could sell it. I went back to the book and reread it and realized it was a kind of radical novel and that there was something outrageous about the authorial voice and funny and wicked and forgiving about life and love and what it is to be a woman. So I said, “I’ll have a go at this,” and then the BBC commissioned the other two, and Amazon came on and then Lily asked me to direct it.

I love that between this and “Doll & Em,” that female friendship has really been central to the stories you help create. Is that an intentional aspect of the stories you’re telling?
It probably wasn’t a coincidence that the producers approached me about this novel, given that I had done “Doll & Em” and there is some overlap. I definitely think it’s a rich, fertile ground for stories, and it gives you such insight into the kind of female world. You grow up together, and while growing up, you’re thick as thieves and joined at the hip, and you’re just the same person in a way. Still, then you diverge as you get into your romantic led relationships and the rest of your life, but you’re always there with great affection for one another and yet you’re also put in a position where you’re comparing your life to your friend’s life. You go through these landmark moments with this person in a parallel way, and sometimes you are kind of jealous of where they are in their life and sometimes you’re protective and worried about them, and sometimes you want to kill them, but then you’ll feel nothing but this absurd love.

I thought with “Doll & Em,” what was cool was expressing the emotion of jealousy because I think it’s a very taboo subject. I think that people don’t like to talk about it because it’s embarrassing to admit that one feels it, but jealousy is so much a part of your relationships with everybody, even your children or your parents or friends. You’re always comparing yourself to these people you’re very close to. This paradox that you can want the world for somebody, but you can also find them very irritating and be very pissed off is an interesting, dramatic scenario to me.

That complexity is so interesting when it’s a story about women and directed by a woman who understands those intricacies of loving someone and being fed up with them.
It’s also a very passionate relationship. I feel that very strongly in my own friendships. But the relationship between Fanny and Linda is a really passionate one because it’s about so much more than sexuality; it’s about everything. I think that that’s something that’s often missed, just how passionate and ferocious those feelings can be for your friends.

You mentioned the radicalism of the novel. I love the show because it’s kind of radical in its own way in how Linda’s romanticism, along with Fanny’s intellectualism, is given the same level of respect. It just seems that when women get excited about things these days, they’re easily mocked or if you love something a lot. So do you think it’s important to show that array of emotions without knocking one for the other?
Definitely, I love that you picked up on that because that’s really what I loved and responded to in the book because one’s emotional life takes up as much air space as well as intellectual life. Rightly or wrongly, maybe it would be better to spend your life with your head in books and thinking erudite things, but that’s not the reality of what it means to live in this world. I love that Linda’s passions are celebrated despite how ridiculous they may be at times and how much trouble they get her into at times, and yet those mistakes are celebrated in the book in a way that feels very forgiving. She says something like, “I’ve had five months of unalloyed happiness, not many people can say that in the course of long lives, I imagine,” and you’re like, yeah, maybe it is worth it for five months of perfect bliss, I don’t know. I love how the novel is both a satire on romance and love and a celebration of it because that’s how we experience it in our own lives. It’s ridiculous, we know it’s ridiculous, it’s mad when you fall in love with the yearning and desperation and the fool you make of yourself – it’s completely insane and ridiculous. Yet, it’s the stuff of life, and without it, it would be very boring.

I love how serious Linda takes it and when Fanny says, “you’ve got to start believing in something other than love,” and Linda is like, “well, what else is there?” That’s the bottom line, really.

So you wrote and directed and appeared on the show as Fanny’s mother, known as The Bolter. Was that another aspect where you always knew you were going to be attached to this character, or was there something about her you found especially interesting to be able to play?
I may come off like a total megalomaniac, but really all of this rather fell into my lap. Still, if I’m going to write and direct a television show, it’s hard enough to be an actress, especially an actress of a certain age; I might as well give myself a good part because it’s not like they’re straightforward to come by. I did give myself a good part, but I regretted it immediately and kept trying to fire myself and get the producers to cast someone else because I thought there was no way I can do this; it was idiotic to think I could. I did spend a lot of time during the shoot with me as The Bolter being mortified as I ran back and forth to the monitor with a ridiculous wig on in a complete panic. But I did give myself a part that A. I knew was going to be brief enough that it wouldn’t be too taxing, but also, she’s a great character. I did love playing her because I feel as Nancy Mitford the whole book is kind of a very sleek “mess you,” and I don’t have that insouciance, so it’s wonderful adapting someone else’s work to live through them and be them in a way. With The Bolter, I felt the same way. She’s an absurd character, but she’s so totally shameless and unapologetic, and that’s the polar opposite of me because I’m so apologetic and aware of my own shame, so getting to play someone like that is a great relief.

“The Pursuit Of Love” is available to stream now on Amazon Prime.