Emily Watson Makes Waves Again -- Actress Takes Risks In A New Film Of Cellist Jacqueline Du Pre's Life

The life of the late cellist Jacqueline du Pre was the subject of a two-character play, "Duet For One," that was filmed before her death in 1987. Julie Andrews played the young musician crippled by multiple sclerosis and Alan Bates was her conductor-husband.

For all its similarities to reality, however, that was a work of fiction. "Hilary and Jackie," a new movie based on "A Genius in the Family," a 1997 memoir by Jacqueline's siblings, Hilary and Piers, claims to stick much closer to the facts. (It opens here Friday.)

It's also more shocking in some of its details, including the revelation of a nine-month affair between the married Jacqueline and Hilary's husband, Kiffer. At first this concerned Emily Watson, who was being courted to play Jacqueline.

"It is an extraordinary thing to have happened," said Watson, speaking by phone from Los Angeles. "It was the hardest thing to understand why that was there. If you just hear it secondhand, you'd say `what?,' but I think I got to a place where I could understand how it would happen.

"This was a turning point in her life. She was heading down the very dark corridor to MS, knowing something was wrong with her hands, and losing a sense of her identity. Anyone in that situation would say `help' to the person closest to her."

In the movie, Hilary, played by Rachel Griffiths, is so concerned about her sister's state that she agrees to the affair, and her husband acquiesces.

"Jacqueline needed someone to love her just for her and not for the cello," said Watson. "Kiffer was the only one who saw her as Hilary's kid sister. In hindsight maybe it was not the wise thing to do."

Some critics think Hilary and Piers betrayed their sister in the book. "Whether the world needed to know any of this is moot," wrote James R. Oestrich last week in The New York Times. He suspects that "Hilary, a pianist and flutist of some accomplishment, was simply trying to bring her famous sister down to her size."

Yet another biography, "Jacqueline du Pre: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend," will be published this spring by Arcade Publishing. Described as "definitive," it was written by one of the cellist's friends, Elizabeth Wilson, who doesn't get around to the affair until Page 381.

"I understand that is more about Jackie as a musician," said Watson.

At times it does read like a roundup of a series of concerts, but Wilson has her own view of the affair, suggesting that Kiffer and Jacqueline were drawn to each other and Hilary was obliged to condone the relationship. Watson sees no contradiction here.

"I think it was mutual," she said. "She said `I want this,' and they agreed to it."

The movie, which is divided into sections labeled "Jackie" and "Hilary," is almost set up to invite different interpretations.

"When you remember an event, you'll remember it one way and a partner will remember it another," said Watson. "There's also this sense of a musical structure, of variations on a theme."

Watson made her film debut in a similarly controversial role in 1996's "Breaking the Waves," earning a best-actress Academy Award nomination for her role as a desperate woman who becomes sexually promiscuous when her husband is paralyzed.

She has been nominated for a Golden Globe for "Hilary and Jackie," and seems likely to earn another Oscar nod for playing du Pre. What really drew her to the film was the enthusiasm of the first-time director, Anand Tucker.

"I knew of Jacqueline, I'd heard her recordings, and I knew she had died of MS," said Watson. But the idea of making a standard "biopic" didn't interest her.

"Then I had lunch with Anand, and I came away shaking with excitement," she said. "He's an incredibly impassioned man. There wasn't really a script at that point, but I called my agent in London anyway."

That was two years ago. Once the script was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Watson read "Genius in the Family" and other biographies. She read Jacqueline's letters and Hilary's original manuscript, then watched all the videos of Jacqueline's performances.

"I played the cello for about six months when I was 14," she said, though that wasn't much use for the movie. Returning to the instrument, she practiced every day for four months.

"There's nothing like knowing you'll be faking a world-class artist to spur you on," she laughed. She's pleased with the way she looks in the film, "but I made a horrible noise." On the soundtrack, Watson's cello noises are replaced by more professional recordings.

"Technically and musically I couldn't begin to understand what she was doing," she said. "Jackie's teacher told me to look at the look in her eye when she's playing. She was just directly in touch with music."

Hilary du Pre visited the set once, but Watson wasn't around that day. She prefers it that way.

"I didn't want to meet her," she said. "I was afraid she'd say `You're so wrong.' "