In Canada you are taking your chances if you show up at an event wearing the team jersey of the host cities’ arch rivals.
Toronto-born David Cronenberg looked none too pleased at the nerve of Keira Knightly and Viggo Mortensen who chose to bug the director by attending the press conference for A Dangerous Method wearing Montreal Canadiens jerseys.
“I actually have to admit that I have no idea what the jersey is I was wearing,” Knightley said. “I’m going to be huge in Montreal.”
Both actors star in Cronengberg’s latest film, a period piece that explores the complex and volatile relationship between the fathers of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.
A Dangerous Method is based on a play by Christopher Hampton who also attended the press conference.
The stars and director spoke about the complicated and challenging film.
Knightley plays Sabrina Spielrein, a mental patient who forms a complicated triangle between Carl Jung, played by Michael Fassbender, and his mentor Sigmund Feud, played by Viggo Mortensen.
“It was a very challenging role and I think that was one of the reasons why I really wanted to play her (Spielrein) because I really didn’t know who she was,” Knightley told reporters.
Spielrein went from being a patient and Jung’s mistress to becoming one of the first female psychoanalysts.
“One of the things I really wanted to do was to bring her back into prominence,” said Knightley. “She was a remarkable woman who had an exemplary career and actually had a lot of input into the ideas of both the men.”
Known for directing horror and psychological thrillers, Cronenberg was the perfect fit to plunge the depths of the minds of these two titans of the psychoanalytical world.
“In the hands of another director who was less assured, less knowledgeable, less well read, it would have been a very dull movie I think,” said Mortensen.
“The movie works because it doesn’t get bogged down in being academic. The academic values are there but the purpose is to tell an entertaining story.”
Mortensen, who has starred in two other Cronenberg films: A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, had nothing but praise for the director’s ability to bring out the best in his actors.
“I think the best thing that David did, which is always my experience with him, is that he instils confidence by creating a calm, professional, and fun atmosphere on the set.
“He can get you under his spell and create the illusion that there is plenty of time, no pressure, and that it’s all going to work out.”
A long time in the making, the movie almost never was. The two lead roles of Jung and Freud originally went to Christoph Waltz and Christian Bale respectively but both pulled out of filming, leaving the director with two major roles to fill.
Additional reporting by Kristina Skorbach
