Oscar Nomination Affirms the Storytelling of “A Royal Affair”

Alicia Vikander and Cyron Melville, stars of  "A Royal Affair," which has been nominated for an Academy Award. Photo Credit: Dennis J. Freeman
Alicia Vikander and Cyron Melville, stars of “A Royal Affair,” which has been nominated for an Academy Award. Photo Credit: Dennis J. Freeman

HOLLYWOOD-During the weeklong celebration of the Oscars with the 85th Academy Awards spectacular finale awaiting Sunday, a lot of the focus hasn’t just been on the hyperbole of mainstream films such as the civil war timepiece “Lincoln” or the suspenseful “Argo.”  The so-called little guys in the running for an Oscar have generated a lot of buzz as well.

The nominees for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign-Language Film fit that category.

The film “Amour” can best attest to that. An Oscar nominee in the Foreign-Language Film category, “Amour” has struck all the right notes with Academy Awards voters, earning nods in the Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Director categories. The competition is stiff in all those categories as it is in the Best Foreign-Language Film category.

The challengers to “Amour” in that Oscar chamber are Canada’s “War Witch,” Chile’s “No,” Norway’s “Kon-Tiki and Denmark’s “A Royal Affair.” Speaking of “A Royal Affair,” actor Cyron Melville and actress Alicia Vikander, co-stars of the romance-drama piece, spoke on the their respective roles and the prospect of the movie being nominated for an Academy Award during a media session at the Academy Awards’ foreign-language film red carpet photo-op ceremony.

Vikander, portrays a married woman who has an indiscreet love affair with her husband’s doctor. Vikander’s character (Carolina Mathilde) in “A Royal Affair” isn’t just married any ordinary fellow. He is King Christian VII of Denmark. The film is based on actual events that occurred during the 18th century. Vikander spoke briefly about her role in the film and the excitement about the film being nominated for an Academy Award.

“Well, I’m thrilled to be here,” Vikander told News4usonline.com. “It has been a very long journey. Me and Nikolaj (Arcel), the director, we sat down just a few days ago discussing the fact that we had met two and a half years ago at the first casting. Then, we hoped that a lot of Danish people would go out and see this film. It’s been a long journey. This feels like the best.

“I play Caroline Mathilde, who was the British Princess who got married to the Danish king in the middle of the 18th Century… It was during the time when Enlightenment had spread throughout the entire Europe and so it is about that and it is about a love story, between-not her and the king-but his physician.”

Members from the film "A Royal Affair," attends a media session during Oscar week. Photo Credit: Dennis Freeman
Members from the film “A Royal Affair,” attends a media session during Oscar week. Photo Credit: Dennis Freeman

Vikander said the the biggest challenge she faced when taking on the role was speaking the language.

“Well, to take this on…I’m Swedish, so it was quite a big thing to take on, probably one of the historical events in Denmark’s history and to learn Danish that was a big part,” Vikander said.

She wasn’t the only cast member faced with a similar task. Melville said just being able to incorporate understanding of the dialogue from the script proved to be his biggest hurdle.

The challenge was the language,” Melville said. “You can’t improvise. It was tougher because you had to know the lines more than I was used to. I was kind of stuck.”

Outside of working out the kinks on the language, Melville, who stars in “A Royal Affair” as Enevold Brandt, said he is excited about the film receiving Oscar consideration.

“It is a big, big thing for me, personally,” Melville said. “I had always wanted to be here since I was a kid. I did my first film when I was ten. It’s a big dream come true. It’s fun. I’m only here for a week, but I’m pretty impressed. I had a feeling it would be intense-and it is.”

As to what attracted her to take on the role of Caroline Mathilde, Vikander she is intrigued to good storytelling from the characters she plays.

“It’s very difficult to find a very rich-style and very good, young female roles,” Vikander said. “This one is a young woman who kind of has to close in all of her feelings; she can’t even express herself coming to visit this new country. Her expectations of love just fall apart and then it’s her journey to survive this destiny and find love.”

 

 

 


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