For the sequences revolving around romantic rivals to both Jane and Rochester, Wasikowska and Fassbender were each reunited with actors they had previously played opposite – and in even colder climates. Rising star Imogen Poots, who had shared the sole low-key scenes with Fassbender in Centurion, was cast as Blanche Ingram, Rochester’s prospective fiancée; and Jamie Bell, whose character had courted Wasikowska’s in the fact-based WWII tale Defiance, would now be doing so again in the role of St. John Rivers.
In-between set-ups for his scenes with Wasikowska, Bell could be found dazzling crew members with his ability to tap-dance on soggy wooden boarding that was barely keeping thick, wet mud at bay.
Wasikowska offers, "Knowing somebody who you could have a laugh with in-between scenes balanced out the intensity of some of the material that we were playing out together on Jane Eyre. I don't think that I ever have as much fun working with anybody as I do with Jamie."
Bell takes care to point out that "from rehearsal rooms to walk-throughs on the set, Mia is willing to do the work to make it better and make it her own. I knew she would do justice to the role of Jane Eyre.
Jamie Bell as St. John Rivers in JANE EYRE..."As part of this film’s exploring this story and these characters, you see the awkwardness and the energy of youth; Mia is a young person playing a young person, not a 28-year-old playing a girl. There is also some casting against the grain – especially me as a man of the cloth."
Fassbender took note of how Bell incarnated "Sinjin" Rivers; "I liked the way Jamie brought an edge to St. John. He and I talked about it. He’s the character as a man who has to keep his life so strictly regimented and controlled because he is afraid of what he’s capable of doing."
Bell elaborates, "My take on St. John is that he is emotionally repressed. I believe that he considers it a weakness to express emotions. He makes choices out of pragmatism, rather than emotion; he is the antithesis of Rochester.
"Charlotte Brontë describes him in the novel as ‘as inexorable as Death,’ and that pretty much nails it. While the story to me is about a woman searching for her own self-respect and individuality in a world with barriers, Moira Buffini’s screenplay brings all of the novel’s themes and undercurrents together as Jane comes to the precipice of decisions about her life."
from the Jane Eyre Production Notes
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