Stefanie Martini and Max Irons star in the new murder-mystery Crooked House, based on a novel by Agatha ChristieIn the new film Crooked House, Max Irons plays private investigator Charles Hayward, who is called in to investigate the murder of a wealthy businessman. His client is the businessman’s granddaughter Sophia, who is also the former lover of the detective. At the premiere of the film, Ms. Martini and Mr. Irons talked with us about the making of the film and the excitement of working with other amazing actors.
Can you tell us a little bit about your character in the movie?
Stefanie Martini: She’s called Sophia de Havilland, and she’s the granddaughter of Aristide Leonides, who is the man who gets murdered. She is very power, she’s very intelligent, she knows what she wants, she’s clever and I think she’s really fun to play. And she very sassy, which is good.
What is it like working in the period setting of the 1950s?
Martini: It’s great. It makes you feel very much like you’re in that world, because the art department does such a good job and every little detail is really thought out. And it’s lovely wearing those costumes, it makes you feel kinda sexy and old-fashioned.
Were you a big fan of Agatha Christie‘s novels before this? Had you read Crooked House before?
Martini: As a British person, of course I was. It’s like drilled into you from a young age but no, she’s amazing. I had never read Crooked House before the movie, I think because there hadn’t been an adaptation of it done before, so I wasn’t aware of it. My character is very different in the film than she is in the book, so story-wise it’s brilliant but for my own character information I had to go a different way.
What was it like working with a cast including Glenn Close, Christina Hendricks, Gillian Anderson and more?
Martini: It’s just great. They’re all so powerful. The women are so powerful and I love that. I loved being around that and I loved being able to watch such incredible actors and see how they work and their different approaches. And Max is lovely, Max is a dream.
Max Irons: It was pretty wonderful, both off-screen and on. I was playing a detective which meant I just had to sit back and watch what other people were doing. That’s what I got to do as an actor as well, I got to sit back and see these people who are masters of their craft doing what they do best in a beautiful English palatial estate in the summer. It’s pretty good.
Tell us about playing Charles Hayward, a classic Agatha Christie detective character
Irons: I was trying desperately not to be intimidated by the quality of actor and category of actors who had played detectives before, and it is safe to say that it is a boy’s dream to step into the shoes of a detective like that, so it’s awesome
This is the second movie you did with Glenn Close this year, the other being The Wife. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Irons: The Wife is about a writer who wins the Nobel Prize for literature, and while I can’t give too much it’s safe to say that the relationship between the wife and the husband is fairly complex and things aren’t always what they seem.
– New York, NY – 12/13/17 – New York Premiere of “CROOKED HOUSE”. The is directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, and stars Christina Hendricks, Glenn Close, Max Irons and Stefanie Martini. It opens in theaters on December 22nd, 2017.
-Pictured: Max Irons and Stefanie Martini
-Photo by: Kristina Bumphrey/StarPix
-Location: Metrograph
