Olivia Williams

PRIDE, prejudice and pensiveness are three words that richly applied to author Jane Austen as she neared her 40th birthday.

As she worked on her fourth novel Emma in 1814, Austen reflected deeply on love’s vestige in her life and the reasons she remained in maidenhood.

Renowned actor Olivia Williams, who plays the much-feted writer in Miss Austen Regrets on ABC1 this Sunday, admits she also faced the same type of self-reflection at a similar stage in her life.

The telemovie examines why, despite setting the standard for romantic fiction, Austen died having never married or met her own Mr Darcy.

In Williams’ case, she was in her early 30s when thoughts of love, marriage and children preoccupied her mind.

"I was extremely depressed at being unmarried and childless at 32, and read Persuasion many times in those bleak years," an alarmingly open, now 41-year-old Williams admits, referring to Austen’s last completed novel.

The heroine in Persuasion, Anne Elliot, falls in love with handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth when she is 19. She is persuaded by family and friends to break off an engagement with the "not distinguished enough" Wentworth.

Romance eventually re-ignites when they meet eight years later as the still single Anne ponders the building pressure to find one’s true love and have children.

"I think the modern pressure is that if you want to have children you have to sort that out maybe before you have found the right partner ... for a small section of society, middle-class women of independent means, the pressure is finding the right sperm donor," Williams says.

"I was extremely lucky that my Captain Wentworth showed up right on time, but I have in my acquaintance friends who have had babies in every conceivable way, from egg donation to surrogacy, gay best friend to adoption."

London-born Williams married her Wentworth, US-born actor/playwright/singer Rhashan Stone, in November 2003. They have two girls: Esme born in 2004 and Roxana born in 2007.

Williams (who played Jane Fairfax in the 1996 TV version of Emma and now plays Adelle DeWitt in the Joss Whedon-produced US series Dollhouse) and Stone (best known for West End stage work and TV appearances in Mutual Friends and Bodies) are yet to work together on stage or screen.

"Other than raising two kids, no never," she says of joining forces. "But yes, I think we work well together, if the school run is anything to go by!"

Williams is carving out an impressive screen career of her own.

She is appearing in cinemas in Australia at present in An Education while her latest role was in director Roman Polanski’s upcoming film The Ghost.

When asked whether she had any comment on Polanski, who was still working on the film from his jail cell in Switzerland while awaiting extradition to the US on child sex charges, it is the only time Williams declines to comment.

"None," she says simply and, one believes, tactfully.

But she is more than willing to explain the intricacies and fun that went into making Miss Austen Regrets, which was filmed in England last year.

At first, Williams worried about stepping into Austen’s shoes.

"It was extremely daunting in theory, and completely comfortable in practice," she says. "I was frightened of taking on a character that so many people feel they know personally through her work, but whose life is a conundrum.

"Things that had seemed inconsistent or inexplicable in written histories of her life suddenly made total sense when I had investigated deeper, read her letters, and stood contemplating her choices."

It is not the first time Williams has played a real-life author.

In 2004 she played crime fiction queen Agatha Christie in the telemovie Agatha Christie: A Life In Pictures.

While both movies were faithful to actual events, Williams was spared from putting a lot of research into each role.

"Unlike major movie biopics, both shows were put together quite close to the shooting dates, so I didn’t have an opportunity to do years of research - and I’m quite grateful for that. It can become a millstone," she says.

"I read a biography of each and as much surrounding literature as I could get my hands on, but it is important to remember that the works must stand as drama in their own right, and both these projects had very particular styles and arcs that weren’t necessarily purely biographical.

"A Life in Pictures was exploring a particular chapter in Christie’s life through the hypnosis and psychotherapy we know she had after her amnesia, and Miss Austen Regrets was exploring Austen’s life via the chronology of her relationships with men.

"So my main task was to find the emotional triggers that would bring me to the places these real women went - a kind of emotional maze through which an actor has to feel their way to make sure they end up in the same predicament as their subject.

"In Christie’s case, distressed enough that a blow to the head causes her to suffer amnesia, and in Austen’s, quirky and unconventional enough to be a tricky marriage prospect, but entertaining and sociable enough to be the witty, popular, literary genius that she was."

The roles are quite removed from her Dollhouse turn where she plays a shadowy recruiter of "dolls", mind-wiped DNA-altered people implanted with false memories and skills for various missions.

"The structure of my time is very different in episodic TV - and it is the first time I have played a character without knowing what is going to happen to her - so working out motivation or character arc is not possible," she says of Adelle in the sci-fi suspense series.

"But I still try to make emotional sense of the choices my character makes, and find the humour and the tragedy, just to keep things interesting for me and the audience."

Keeping things interesting on the Miss Austen Regrets set, though, didn’t prove too difficult, especially considering the rich ensemble cast that included Greta Scacchi (Cassandra Austen), Pip Torrens (Edward Austen-Knight), Imogen Poots (Fanny Knight), Phyllida Law (Mrs Austen) and Hugh Bonneville (Reverend Brook Bridges).

Also on board was Adrian Edmondson who plays Austen’s banker brother turned clergyman, Henry.

It is a role far removed from his turn as punk-rock punk Vyvyan on The Young Ones. Edmondson’s performance showed "not a whiff of anarchy" according to Williams.

"Very disciplined and self-effacing, and profoundly moving," she says.

"Everyone was a pleasure.

"Greta and I have been mistaken for each other a few times over the years but had never met and were instant friends.

"Phyllida is one of my all-time heroines. Pip and I just gossiped and told filthy jokes in the back of that dark stuffy carriage for hours on end.

"Hugh is a great actor whom I knew socially, but we had never acted opposite each other, and I think we made a great connection which took us both by surprise and really changed the weight the film gives to that relationship in Jane Austen’s life. And it was a credit to the director that he respected the performances and the drama over historical accuracy on that point.

"Imogen Poots is as bright and delightful as her character, although I had trouble being the wise old bird to her ingenue.

"She got her A-level results while we shot the film, and I suddenly felt very old when I couldn’t remember how many A levels I’d done."

As for the continuing fascination with Austen and her work, Williams believes it is a cyclical thing.

"I think it happens every generation and I realise I have lived through three ’re-fascinations’ of Pride and Prejudice: David Rintoul, Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen," she says.

"My favourite is still David Rintoul.

"I don’t think you ever get over your first Darcy."

* Miss Austen Regrets, ABC1, Sunday, 8.30pm.

* Dollhouse, FOX8, Foxtel, Saturday, 8.30pm.