British actress Daisy Ridley and her screenwriter husband Tom Bateman are “already cooking up another two” film projects, because they loved the experience of working on upcoming thriller Magpie together.
Ridley appeared at the UK premiere of the Sam Yates-directed production at the Odeon Luxe in London alongside Bateman, who wrote the neo-noir film for his wife and actor Shazad Latif.
The Star Wars actress “came up with this seed of an idea” when the couple were “first talking about making a movie together”, Bateman told the PA news agency.
“We were inspired by quite a lot of different films in different tones, films like Tully, Memento, some Hitchcock stuff, so there was a real varied source of inspiration and I wanted to just pull it all together, because they’re my favourite kind of movies,” he said.
Bateman described working alongside his wife of seven years, who is “one of my favourite actors in the world”, as “heaven”, adding “I loved it so so much”.
“It’s crazy to be standing here and sharing it with everyone, because it honestly just started me and her talking in the car, I was picking her up from the airport,” he said.
“And then it was just us kicking it around in a house in the countryside, and me just writing pages in the morning, Daisy telling me what she thought, helping me steer it.”
Bateman said he catered the role for Ridley and one of his “dear friends” Latif, knowing what audiences expect of them and subverting it.
When asked about working on future projects with Ridley, Bateman told PA: “We’re already cooking up another two. One of them we might reveal pretty soon.
“It’s kind of in final stages of being put together and the other one, I’ve just handed her my second draft, she had a few notes, so it might be a little while – but we loved it so much, we’re 100% going to work together again.”
In the film, Ridley and Latif play Anette and Ben, a married couple whose lives are upended when their daughter is cast in a film alongside a glamorous actress, Alicia, who Anette suspects Ben is infatuated with.
“Anette certainly is quite different to the other characters I’ve played,” Ridley told PA at the premiere.
“I think I’m someone who finds those distinctions quite simple, as in quite easy to distinguish.
“Certainly with this because we created the film from scratch, I was so clear of who Anette was, and had built her so much through the development process that when it came to it, I really felt like I knew who she was.
“And then in between times I was also producing the film, so that also added a layer of switching out to get stuff done.”
Meanwhile British director Yates, who recently directed Andrew Scott in the National Theatre’s production of Vanya, described Ridley as a “wonderful actor”.
“I think it was quite important to put down her producing roles just before she stepped on set as the lead of the film,” he told PA.
“But she was wonderful, professional, very creative, incredible instincts for the material and we just tried to sort of keep it light and play and do various versions.
“She was very, very inside the role.
“Often times as a director, you’re a fan on set. There’s nothing much I can do to help Daisy give the performance she gives.”
