The cast of Les Miserables did a film shoot, one photo of which graces the cover of the current Hollywood Reporter. Excerpt ~
Before shooting, the actors gathered for an almost-unheard-of seven week rehearsal period. “Everyone knew what we were doing could not be done lightly,” says Hooper. “You need a huge amount of voice training to do several takes. That was a big question: Would they have the stamina to do take after take of different setups?”
When filming commenced in March, he found they did. Still, “I don’t think any of us fully realized what the casual comment, ‘Every take is sung live,’ would really mean,” quips Crowe, who did 40 takes of one song back-to-back. “When the voice started to show some wear and tear, it also underlined the character and the emotion of the moment.”
After a skeletal crew was sent to Gourdon in France to shoot Jackman wandering the mountains, filming shifted to England and the British coast, where a massive early sequence takes place with scores of convicts dragging a ship into port while being doused with waves. “It was 12 degrees, and the water was coming straight off the ocean,” sighs Jackman. “We were there for three days.”
Following other location work in England, the crew moved to Pinewood, where Stewart constructed a 160-foot-long barricade built by rebel students — a structure that has become famous from the stage production’s extravagant creation. Even here, there were problems — like when the extras got out of hand. “Tom whipped them into such an anarchic frenzy, they got carried away and were trying to build the barricade by ripping off bits of scenery,” says Stewart, laughing. “They were even taking chickens from the cages. And a cow we had kept escaping, right in the middle of the revolution.”
At one point, the heat inside the studio caused Seyfried to faint. “There was a physiotherapist on the set, and my neck had been hurting for four days,” she recalls. “I asked if she could work on it, and she said, ‘I have needles [for acupuncture].’ She put two needles in my neck and two in my hand.” Moments later, Seyfried was called on set, with the needles still in place. In her heavy clothes, she “had a terrible feeling” and “woke with Russell holding my feet and Hugh massaging my neck.”
Throughout, she and the principals managed to sustain their voices, something Hooper had feared they wouldn’t and had anticipated by using at least three cameras at all times — sometimes as many as six — with two microphones placed on each lead’s costumes before their digital elimination. (About 200 major CGI shots were used in addition to these minor ones.) The only true disaster he faced was when Sacha Baron Cohen (providing comic relief as an innkeeper who inherits the orphaned Cosette) lost his voice. “He had been working flat-out on The Dictator,” says Fellner. “He was not well when he came to us, and then he got really ill. He could not sing. We had to shut down for a few days until his voice came back.” The whole 68-day shoot “was a harrowing emotional experience,” says Jackman. “But in the end, it was worth it.”
Whatever the result, “Les Miserables was a magnificent experience,” says Crowe. “The challenge of it, the beauty of it, the camaraderie — it was such a profound experience that I’m sure every time I start a new movie, some part of me will be wishing I was starting Les Mis again.”
And there’s a video of the shoot, which is mostly Eddie and Amanda, but Russell’s there, too.
anne looks stunning! russell is channelling bud white…