BECOMING MANNERED JAMES MCAVOY

James McAvoy had to study 18th century courtship rituals for Becoming Jane.

Playing an 18th century gent with all the polish and manners of the time was foreign to Scottish actor James McAvoy who had to learn the proper ways of courtship in Becoming Jane.

James worked with an etiquette teacher who showed him how his character should bow when first meeting Jane Austen played by Anne Hathaway.

“We had a week with a fantastic lady who came and taught us everything that has been known about how you bow and how you reference someone and how you say hello, what a different kind of a bow means and how low you go. The strangest thing about it was when you bow the ideal is that you don’t go too early and you don’t go too late. You have to do it at the same time so every time you meet someone it’s not just to shake hands. You look them in the eye and you both decide to go at the same time. I don’t know it immediately creates a connection between people you know.”

James who is married to Anne Marie Duff says he’s glad he doesn’t have to contend with old-fashioned courtship.

“I don’t know. I think I would’ve gotten frustrated. Nowadays you go, ‘hey I really like you, do you want to have woo hoo,’ whereas then it was four years of courtship before touching hands. The guys who’s operating the camera told me this story that his friends who got married recently decided not to kiss until the wedding day and had been going out with each other for four years. That’s the modern day and it wasn’t even that bad back in the Regency period but it was pretty sexually charged because you weren’t allowed to touch hands with somebody so then a public dance when you’re finally allowed to hold hands, you can imagine how haw that would’ve been you know.”

Becoming Jane is currently playing in theaters.