Rose Leslie's own marriage inspired Time Traveler’s Wife role
Rose Leslie used the stability of her marriage to make her lovesick character in ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ convincing.
The 35-year-old actress insisted feeling loved at home by husband Kit Harington made it easier to play Clare in the new HBO Max show.
She said: “I think being in a relationship and knowing that you have a supportive partner can only lend itself to feeling more secure in in yourself, and therefore, hopefully, kind of growing together into two people who are more anchored.”
Rose’s sculptor character Clare endures long stretches without husband Henry in ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ as he’s afflicted with a genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably travel through time.
But the actress – who married ‘Game of Thrones’ star Kit in 2018 – said there were limits to patience in reality.
When asked about true love, she said: “I think there is a time limit on that... twenty years is a long time to wait.”
Rose - who, last year, had a son with Kit - was speaking alongside Theo James, 37, her co-star in ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’.
She told ExtraTV they strived to make the series more in-depth than the film version released in 2009, which starring Rachel McAdams as Clare and Eric Bana as Henry.
Rose added: “We have more time to kind of delve into the characters and who they are and the kind of intricacies that they then have with one another.”
Speaking about her plans for the rest of the year, Rose revealed she wants to spend time with Kit, 35, “hunkering down and being with our boy”.
Theo said his marriage to actress Ruth Kearney, 37, also influenced the way he played Henry.
He said: “I definitely think being married… having children, having, you know, being a little bit hopefully older and wiser that enables you to inform a story like this.
“I think it would have been harder, for me at least, to play this part when I was younger because I was too much more of the younger Henry, you know?
“I recognized the kind of young, dumb, impulsive guy, and I remember him, but I feel like I’m less him now, even though I still make those mistakes, but then I’m old enough to know that I’m kind of heading in the direction of, you know, just being a bit more relaxed in myself.”
Theo also insisted the nudity in the show, which starts streaming on HBO Max on May 15, is essential to the plot.
Theo said: “What we wanted to do was make the time travel feel as urgent and as dangerous as possible… when he travels, it’s not for fun, it’s because it’s an affliction, it’s a disease, and he gets thrown around in time and he lands in a place he doesn’t know where he is, he’s got no clothes, he’s physically exhausted, he’s sweating … he’s got to kind of survive.”
