Watch an exclusive clip from The Other Boleyn Girl starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman

 Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman play the Boleyn sisters in Justin Chadwick's The Other Boleyn Girl. The film follows the plight of Anne Boleyn and her marriage to Henry VIII, played by Eric Bana, as her sister Mary muscles in on the King's affections with the help of David Morrissey's character, their uncle The Duke of Norfolk.
Here the actresses share their thoughts on why lunch and tight-fitting corsets are not advisable and how it feels to shoot a beheading scene. Plus, we've got an EXCLUSIVE clip from the film.

 

Sister act: Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johnasson as the Boleyn girls

So how familiar were you young ladies with Tudor history?

Natalie Portman: Unfamiliar.
Scarlett Johansson: Unfamiliar! I'll take that card as well. Um yeah we, you know as Americans of course you know Americans I should say, we don't really learn... this is a very kind of brief moment in our world history class. You learn about Henry and the wives and all this, and this tyrannical reign but, and I guess you learn about the Church of England, but it's...
Natalie Portman: Right.
Scarlett Johansson: ...It's a short kind of synopsis.
Natalie Portman: It's very breezed over.

So, did you do the rhyme at school that we did at school here, 'divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived'?

Scarlett Johansson: Divorced, beheaded, survived!
Natalie Portman: We did learn that.

So that was about it?

Natalie Portman: That was pretty much the extent of the er Tudor history I learnt
Scarlett Johansson: Yeah.
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Force to be reckoned with: Eric Bana plays the insatiable Henry VIII who vies for the Boleyn girls attention

So were you in a way excited/nervous about plunging in to play such iconic figures and to play them with very distinctive accents?

Natalie Portman: Well I think it's always exciting when you get to learn so much for a part. You know that you can walk away with actually this intense knowledge of a period or what life was like or, even you know to learn an accent. It definitely challenges but I think.
Scarlett Johansson: It's a challenge.
Natalie Portman: It would be boring without it.
Scarlett Johansson: Yeah it certainly gave us something to prepare with for and it was funny just to have like Natalie and I we're both from New York and, of course we're trying to practice our accents off the set as well and talking about, "Oh that great deli on like 51st Street" or whatever in these accents.
Natalie Portman: Yeah.
Scarlett Johansson: And I was like, "This is ridiculous. I have to just to keep this off and keep it on the set for the set." But er, it was challenging fun and luckily we were going through it together.

So how challenging were the costumes? I don't think they look desperately comfortable.

Natalie Portman: They're incredibly beautiful. Sandy Powell did an amazing job with the costumes. And they definitely help the character in that you walk differently, you hold yourself differently and like Scarlett was saying earlier you have a different sense of space because the skirts are so large you can't really just hug some one.
: Yeah everything is a constant reminder of these restrictions that were placed on women at this time. And, and you know the intimacy between people is, it's a much different kind of a communication because you're in this incredibly elaborate costume. Not fun after lunch though.
Natalie Portman: No. It gets a little, a little challenging, the eating and costume wearing.

In the film, Katherine of Aragon, who obviously has an axe to grind, calls the sisters "the Boleyn whores". Do you think that's a harsh description?

Natalie Portman: Well if two girls are sleeping with your husband and they're sisters I wouldn't have a very good opinion of them.
: No me neither. Yeah I think it was pretty accurate.
Natalie Portman: Pretty understandable from her perspective.

Don't you think it's pretty tragic their story altogether; that they come from a family where a weak father and a horrendously ambitious uncle forces them into this compromising situation?

Scarlett Johansson: Yeah I think it's sad because one of the saddest parts of this story is the fact that these girls ever since they're young have been told that they're one way and that this is the standards that they're supposed to live up to and one is, you know one is manipulative and one is sweet. Of course they grow up as, as fully formed people who know that they're, you know that they're...
Natalie Portman: They're many things.
Scarlett Johansson: ...there are many faces to their own characters but they are still trying to stuff themselves into these boxes. And it's sad I think when children aren't allowed to explore every aspect of their lives and imagination and fully develop that way. So it has a pretty bleak ending.
Natalie Portman: And they're very much a product of their families and, and the values that are instilled in them from such an early age or are so corrupt and not unlike many of our values today. You know, to seek power and wealth and prestige and to do anything to achieve those things. And, that really is sort of the difference between them; that you see that Anne really follows in that path and conforms to the values that are instilled in her, whereas Mary removes herself from that whole belief system.
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The Other Boleyn Girl is released on 7th March

Natalie, how spooky was it to do the execution scene which I was astonished to see is done accurately in the French style?

Natalie Portman: It was actually extremely eerie, because we had this location in Dover in December and there was sort of a wind vortex in the middle of the place while we were shooting. So it felt like all these spirits were sort of looming. And walking down the steps and imagining that this actually happened it really was a different feeling than playing a fictional character. You really feel and think about this woman having been Queen and having all these people cheering for her beheading. And it's just so gruesome and...
Scarlett Johansson: It was really scary. And also we had so many people that were dressed in costume and heckling. And then there was this eerie silence just as she arrived on the step and it was... it was really eerie feeling.

Scarlett, you're about to face your execution as a Queen I believe?

Scarlett Johansson: I know.

You're going to play Mary Queen of Scots.

Scarlett Johansson: I am.

I hope not with a Scots accent.

Scarlett Johansson: Well we'll see it's French and I believe there are many different thoughts on how this should be played of course. But I think that the safest bet would be to let my dialogue coach decide and then just follow her instinct. Her ladies in waiting I think were Scottish but she was living in France so her English would probably be with a Scottish accent, but some of her phrasing would be French. It's very confusing.
The Other Boleyn Girl is released on Friday 7th March