From the Telegraph:
Rosamund Pike’s evolving portrait
Having played Shakespeare, Martin Luther and Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, Joseph Fiennes is to add another historical figure to his CV.
Mandrake, by Richard Eden Last Updated: 7:31PM BST 13 Sep 2008
Mandrake learns that the 38-year-old actor is to perform the role of Charles Darwin in Mrs Darwin, a film about the wife of the Victorian naturalist.
“I’m playing the title role and it is really fascinating,” said Rosamund Pike at the premiere of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, in Mayfair.
“I’m definitely a Darwinist, but playing his wife has been a real eye-opener. She was very religious and his discoveries placed a heavy strain on their marriage. We are exploring different angles to his life story.”
Last year, the diaries of Darwin’s wife, Emma Wedgwood, who was his first cousin, were published online.
The entries shed new light on the man who convinced scientists to believe in evolution. The diaries had been contained in 60 pocket books kept at the home of Darwin’s great-grandson Prof Richard Keynes.
