Edward Norton is really passionate about his latest film, so passionate that he even talked to us about it. Normally absolving himself from the marketing side of films, Norton has been with The Painted Veil for so long that had to tell the world about it.
Edward Norton Talks The Painted Veil
"Seven years," Norton recalled. "I guess, simply put, I think that, like anybody who loves movies, when you watch David Lean films, or a movie like Out of Africa, or something like that, you cannot help, as an actor, but think how fun it must be to have one of those kinds of experiences, and what a challenge it must be to make films with that kind of scope. I don’t think many of those films get made, and I think, a lot of times, when they get made, they don’t get sent to me. So, when I saw one that I thought had that potential in it, it was very hard to stop ruminating on it."
Based on the W. Somerset Maugham novel, Norton plays a doctor working with Chinese villages plagued by cholera, with his adulterous wife in tow. "On a specific level, I thought, as an actor, it was so complicated. I don’t tend to see my life reflected in movies about people who meet when their dogs tangle up. I’m not being specific. I’m just saying I thought that it was the kind of romance that touched me. I felt like it was a story about the long struggle of men and women to actually understand each other in a forgiving way, and I found that very touching because it’s challenging. It’s a challenge to say, 'Am I capable of that?,' or 'Have I done that? Have I been forgiving, myself? Have I had the courage to forgive somebody ever?' And so, when you have that kind of response to a piece of material, to me, it’s a good place to start because you already see what you can offer through it and what it might give back to people watching it. All of that, to me, is rare. Those things don’t bang across my desk every week, or every year, so all of that made me very persistent about it."
The Painted Veil
Edward Norton in The Painted Veil
The Painted Veil
The Painted Veil
Working in China through the duration of the shoot gave Norton another kind of life-changing experience. "I only missed the air conditioning one time, the entire time. Mostly, we had air conditioning. I’d spent some time in China because my father lived in China for a long time, but I had not been to the big cities, Beijing and Shanghai, and I had not been where we filmed, in South Central China, in the mountains there. The experience of all the places we worked was new and fresh to me, and really wonderful. It’s wonderful to work with Chinese colleagues and initially feel like you’re struggling to communicate across the language barrier, and then, in a fairly short time, find that you have much more in common with these people who also do what you do. They’re your brothers in filmmaking, and they know the same things you know. You find the little quirks of the way they work that is different from the way you work, but on the whole, I liked it much more than just being a tourist. I liked it much more than just traveling through a place. To work in a place and know the people is much more rewarding."
The Painted Veil is now playing in limited release.
For the trailer feeds, stills and more movie info, go to The
Painted Veil Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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