Chevalier, a lavish new period drama starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Lucy Boynton, depicts the fascinating actual story of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the first Black classical composer to earn broad acclaim in Europe in the eighteenth century.
The famed violinist-composer and fencer found his life intertwined with that of Queen Marie Antionette (Boynton), who welcomed him into her court, honouring his skills, before eventually falling out.
Along with shedding light on a previously overlooked musical great, the film also examines Marie, a highly well-known historical character whose actions here lead Boynton on a voyage of research about the queen that resulted in what she believed was a ‘deserved’ villainisation of her.
Chevalier begins with a dramatic ‘violin off’ between Harrison (who really plays) as Joseph and a young Mozart, whose paths would have met in Paris at the period.
It’s not a situation Harrison expected to be a part of throughout his career.
‘Absolutely not,’ he said before joking that he was ‘destined’ for it.
‘No, no, I think even when I was about to do it – even after I watched it – I was just kind of like, what happened Kelvin? How did you get here? But I’m not mad at it, it looks pretty cool,’ he added.
Much has been made of his meticulous preparation for the part on the violin, which he spent hours a day rehearsing, and he confessed that he purchased the instrument before he even knew he had the role.
‘That was the first thing I did. I got the job – well actually, I didn’t even get the job yet and I still think I bought a violin! Because I was just kind of like, “I’m gonna get this job…” I’m just kidding.’
Even with that mentality, the 28-year-old wasn’t prepared for the rigours of the task, which he described as a “nightmare.”
‘It took five months, seven days a week, six hours a day, my dad [a professional musician] came up with the routine. And then I got to set, and that was a whole different story because I was working all day, then they would have me go to fencing training, which I was just like, “Are you kidding me?”
‘And then I finished that and then my violin teacher would be waiting for me in the living room with rosin to rosin the bow, and I was like, ‘Here we go…’ It felt like it was, oh God, kind of a nightmare, but it paid off!’
Boynton plays a far less overlooked character in history, Marie Antionette, who had her own challenges to confront in court as a woman, despite Chevalier’s open support for the brutally discriminatory treatment of Black people in France in the late 1700s.
Boynton explained: ‘So much of her image, she was trying to be the author of how she presented [and] how she was perceived, so she was a woman of “more is more is more” kind of extravagance.’
The actor, on the other hand, discovered a useful practical history lesson in her extravagant clothes and corsets.
‘It’s interesting, the contrast between the opulence and scale of the exterior versus the interior, which is as restrictive as possible for women at that time. And thankfully, as an actress now you don’t need to go that far, but it is interesting to at least experience that in the fitting – obviously when someone is tying it safely – because you realise how restrained you are in your movement, in your breath and the way that you can project your voice, even,’ she noted.
‘So that fed this idea of what a woman is, restrained and limited and quiet in all of those ways. [It was] a fascinating kind of version of the research.’
The Bohemian Rhapsody singer, 29, was intrigued to the project because it is a narrative that has largely gone unwritten, and she wanted to ‘to educate myself on Joseph but also be a part of bringing his story to a broader audience, having been so wrongly erased from the history books’.
‘The craziest thing about Joseph’s story is the fact that he is the son of a slave and a slave owner,’ Harrison chimed in.
‘He was never meant to be doing all of these things according to what they wanted, what the expectation was of him, and through some extraordinary circumstances and his incredible gift, he ended up being this icon that we are literally making a movie about today because of the work that he did. And not just as an artist, but as a philanthropist.’
Chevalier, according to the actor, “does a reasonable bit of confronting the inequities of the racial dynamics of the time,” in which Joseph is portrayed being tormented at school, physically attacked, and publicly discriminated against as a result of the time’s ugly speech.
He said that Boynton’s Marie Antoinette “really leans into it,” and joked that he “still hasn’t forgiven” his co-star.
A lot has been written about the French queen, but Boynton said that the most beneficial element of her study was ‘putting behind the preconceived notions’ she – and the world – had about her – and remembering that she was only a young girl.
‘She was 14 when she entered the French court, no 14-year-old should be put in that position of responsibility, and she had such a sheltered life,’ the actress pointed out.
‘Her reputation is so specific, and she’s blamed for so much – and yet as a woman, especially at that time and in that position, you were told that you there are no real repercussions to your actions, you had no power. And then she’s put in this position where she realises the repercussions of that.’
Boynton reckons that doing away with prejudices was what enabled her to ‘really drive home this version of her and what was specifically necessary for this story’. That did also mean looking at her as a villain, something she was ‘reticent’ to do at first.
‘She has been so historically villainised, but then it just made sense with this film – had she been villainised for what she does in [Chevalier], it would have been much more earned, and so having the licence to kind of really lean into that and into the remorselessness of that, was I think a very different side of her.’
Chevalier, a historical drama set in pre-French Revolution Paris, goes all out in terms of production design and amount of detail, with its players frequently taken aback by the cinematic scale.
Boynton chose an opulent ball scene to recall a specific day when she was astonished because she remembers going onto the set and felt completely engrossed in the event.
‘Karen Murphy, our production designer, did the most unbelievably intricate job of designing that environment, but then also having things like – all the flowers you see in a film are real. It was a completely immersive experience being on that set and in that environment.
‘And then also getting to do a scene that is the happier side of this relationship and the friendship side of it and the youth as well – I was able to just sit in it more and enjoy it and hang out.’
Harrison, on the other hand, informed her that the fish in the scenario, stacked on lavish food platters, were also real, generating a not-so-pleasant scent for them to be ‘immersed’ in.
‘I didn’t shower because they didn’t do that at the time… I’m method,’ he joked, seemingly wishing to add to the smell on the day.
‘Because why would you want to wash off the oysters? That’s what that was…’ Boynton hit back.
Chevalier opens in UK cinemas on Friday June 9.
