Charlotte Kirk | ©2024 Charles Sherman Public Relations

In the modern crime action thriller DUCHESS, arriving on digital and VOD on Friday, August 9, the title character works her way up from London pickpocket to international diamond smuggler and mob boss.

Charlotte Kirk and wrote DUCHESS with director and her producing partner Neil Marshall. This is their third film together, after 2020’s THE RECKONING and 2022’s THE LAIR. Kirk also stars in all three productions.

In DUCHESS, we meet Kirk’s character, real name Scarlett, as she is about to enact vengeance upon a foe. We then flash back to what has brought Scarlett to this moment. She and a friend are posing as sex workers in order to steal from drunken customers at a high-end bar. Then Scarlett catches the eye of charming world-class smuggler Robert McNaughton. They fall for each other, and Scarlett is drawn into Robert’s world of glamor, money and violence. As she learns how to hold her own, Scarlett is dubbed “Duchess” by Robert’s men.

Kirk gets on the phone to talk about DUCHESS and her career overall.

Originally from Kent, England, Kirk has been a professional actor since she was a child. “I’ve always wanted to do this, ever since I was a little girl. I was diagnosed with autism when I was very young. And I’m dyslexic as well, so it’s all always been a challenge to me, English and math.”

But then, “When I stepped into my drama class at school, it was the first thing that I understood and I loved, and it made sense to me, and I just absolutely adored it. So, it was then when I realized I just love acting. When I finished elementary school and secondary school, I went to do drama school. And then, as soon as I finished drama school in the U.K., I packed my bags and went to the States when I was nineteen. Someone said to me, ‘Charlotte, you want to be an actress? Go to America.’ ‘Okay’,” she laughs.

“I didn’t think twice, I just packed my bags and made it to the States. Then, after COVID, I went back to England, and now I’m back and forth. Ironically, when I was living in L.A., I was shooting a lot of films in Europe. Since I’ve been back in the U.K., I’ve shot two films this year in the U.S.”

What inspired Kirk and Marshall to create DUCHESS?

“We had done two films previously very, very different to DUCHESS. We were sitting there one day, and, ‘Okay, so what do we want to do next?’ And then we just started talking about some of our favorite movies, which for me personally are gangster movies. We were talking about the classics, SCARFACE, GOODFELLAS, THE DEPARTED, LAYER CAKE, and I was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to do an up-to-date gangster movie? But how about a gangster movie with a woman boss?’ And that’s how DUCHESS came to be.

“We wrote it in 2018, and we shot it in 2022. Neil said it was one of the best scripts, the most fun both of us had when writing a script, and you can tell – the dialogue and the characters are just so much fun to play. It did come from the idea very naturally that, let’s try and make a really cool British gangster movie. We haven’t seen a really good one in a long time.”

Initially, Robert and his gang were conceived of as drug dealers, but, Kirk says, “We thought, ‘Oh, it’s been done so many times, gangster movies, drug cartels.’ It was originally meant to be set in Mexico, based around drugs, and we thought, ‘It’s just been done to death.’

“We came up with the idea to make it about diamonds. Neil was like, ‘I don’t want any green-screens, I want it to look and feel like a Bond movie, beautiful locations, glamorous, glamour.’ And he said, ‘Well, what’s better than a diamond? There’s still corruption, there are still gangs and gangsters in the diamond industry. Let’s do diamonds.’ And I thought it worked really nicely, it makes that a little bit more interesting and glamorous.”

DUCHESS movie poster | ©2024 Saban Films

DUCHESS was shot on location in London and Tenerife. “Originally, it was meant to be set in South Africa, for the diamonds. But then, it logistically didn’t work out to film there. Then we were scouting locations. Neil had very particular locations in mind, beautiful views and houses, and have that feel of Africa. So, we adjusted the story a little bit, so Robert’s place was in Tenerife.”

Kirk notes with a laugh that when she writes, it doesn’t occur to her until she’s done with the script that she has set up some challenges for herself, like learning how to box.

“I write separate from my acting, and then when the script’s written and we’re ready to go into production, I sit there and try and look at it as if I’ve never read the script before, as an actress, and then I’m like, ‘Oh, okay, crap, I’ve got to learn boxing now.’ I’d never boxed before in my life. I didn’t put that in there because I wanted to box. Neil came up with the idea, and thought it would be really cool. Duchess isn’t a superhero, she’s not a spy, she’s just a normal girl who gets into these incredible situations. And we wanted her to have fight skills that were believable, and from where she comes from and who she is. So, Neil came up with the idea of her being an amateur boxer. And of course, it comes into play later on.”

The learning curve was brief and intense. “So, that was very challenging for me physically. I had a couple of weeks before production to learn how to box, or make it look like I’d been boxing for many years. One of the hardest days on set was the fight scene where I’m in the ring, and Philip Winchester comes to see me. Literally, it was like trying to pat my belly and rub my head at the same time,” she laughs, recalling having to throw and block punches while “trying to say all the dialogue. That was so, so tough. But I’m really glad we put that in there, and I think it adds more layers and makes Duchess more interesting. And again, I think we needed her to have some set of skills for it to play later on in her story.”

Kirk has also had to learn skills for previous films. For THE RECKONING, “I had to learn to horse-ride. I was actually terrified. I was like, ‘Let’s get stunt team, they know best.’ And then I learned to horse-ride, and then I ended up absolutely loving it. And I had to learn to sword-fight as well, something I’d never done before. For THE LAIR, I had to learn to shoot an AK-47, I’d never shot a gun before. There’s lots of shooting and firing and explosions in that one. So, yeah. Every single film, I’ve had to learn something physical.”

The gun action on THE LAIR turned out to be good preparation for DUCHESS. “Absolutely. It was a lot easier knowing that, even though I’d fired a few guns before previously; it definitely helped.”

How did the notion of giving Scarlett the nickname “Duchess” come about?

Kirk explains, “That adds a MY FAIR LADY element to the story, rags to riches. I think for the U.K., you think of ‘Duchess’ as royalty. Neil wanted to have something completely different. I’d come up with the idea. Baraka [one of Robert’s gang, played by Hoji Fortuna] says, ‘You have a grace,’ and then calls her ‘Duchess.’ From that moment on, that was it. And I think, in all these gangster movies, that the boss always has some kind of name, ‘the Don’ or whatever. That’s when Neil said, ‘Let’s call her Duchess.’ I was slightly concerned, because I thought, ‘Are people going to think this is a Keira Knightley period piece?’” she laughs. “It’s obviously not that, but it makes it more fun in a way, having that kind of name.”

The even more powerful gangster to whom everyone answers is Charlie, played by Stephanie Beacham.

“She’s great,” Kirk enthuses. “Originally, that role was written to be a male, Uncle Charlie. And we thought at the last minute, ‘Oh, if Charlie is Scarlett’s – not mentor, but her boss, in a way, and becomes her boss, and Scarlett really looks up to her, wouldn’t it be better to have a female Uncle Charlie?’ Scarlett in a way would have been a male role. We thought, ‘Well …’ We kind of did the same for Uncle Charlie.

“We looked at a lot of actresses, and Stephanie Beacham came our way, and we just thought she was absolutely perfect for it. I mean, how contrasting with her beautiful British RP voice is what she says and does?” Kirk laughs. “I think casting-wise, that’s exactly what Neil had in mind for that role.”

Beacham looks like she’s having a wonderful time playing the shrewd, homicidal businesswoman. “Oh, she was,” Kirk affirms. “She absolutely loved it. She brought some of her own [costume pieces]. Those were her red leather gloves. She had a whale of a time. And it was an absolute pleasure working with her – she was telling stories about back in the day with her and Marlon Brando [in 1971’s THE NIGHTCOMERS]. It was brilliant.”

As producers, what is the division of responsibilities between Kirk and Marshall?

“Neil likes to focus on the creative,” Kirk relates, “and I’m more logistical producing, putting the finance together, where are we going to shoot, and everything else. But DUCHESS was something that we co-created and co-wrote, so we both had that responsibility and that kind of pressure to make sure this was as good and as successful and we’ll make sure that we complete it.”

This wasn’t easy. “It was a very tough shoot. During filming, Neil got COVID, I got COVID. Yeah. It was very, very tough. But overall, I think we had a great, stellar cast. Philip Winchester was great to work with. He’s a great actor. And Stephanie Beacham, Colm Meaney, just great team players that helped us get through this challenging shoot.”

Kirk says that the way she and Marshall collaborate has remained similar over the course of their projects, even though the films are very different.

“We like to co-create projects, co-write, and then Neil focuses on all the casting, the story, the stuff that the director should be doing, really. He oversees producing, but I’m more day-to-day on this. After DUCHESS, we did shoot something else, which is called COMPULSION, that will be out next year. So, now we’ve done four films together.”

Kirk describes COMPULSION as “an erotic thriller set in Malta. There’s a serial killer on the island of Malta, and there are two girls that are suspects, and it’s a whodunit, and there are lots of twists and turns, kind of FATAL ATTRACTION meets BASIC INSTINCT. Again, it was one of those things where, after we’d shot [DUCHESS], we were like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do an erotic thriller? I haven’t seen an erotic thriller for a while.’ People love them, I just haven’t seen one done in a while. So, that’s something that just came very organically. It’s got a Giallo vibe to it. We were inspired by all the great Italian Giallo movies. So, it’s definitely got that vibe to it. Very, very different to DUCHESS. That one was completely different, because I wasn’t even the protagonist in it. I wanted to play something a bit different for a change. Every project always tries to adapt and to fit the genre and tone and feel of the production accordingly.”

As for upcoming projects, Kirk reveals, “I’ve just shot a horror film called THE POSSESSION OF GLADSTONE MANOR, with Lin Shaye, Barbara Crampton, Jesse Metcalfe, Caylee Cowan. It’s a possession ghost story. It was my first horror film where I was acting [that] wasn’t one of my productions. It was very fun. And then after that, I was in New Mexico filming an action film, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, with Dolph Lundgren and Michael Jai White, which is also out next year. I think DUCHESS prepared me for that. That was very action-heavy.”

As for what’s ahead, “I’m about to do a drama in a couple of months, very, very different. It’s untitled at the moment, with an English filmmaker called Jamie Agin, who’s absolutely fabulous, so it will be very nice to do something very different to what I’ve done before.”

DUCHESS ends on a note that suggests a sequel, or perhaps an entire franchise, is possible. Is that deliberate?

Kirk confirms this with a laugh. “I wanted to call it DUCHESS PART 1. And it was like, ‘No, don’t be so presumptuous!’ It’s really about her rise to power, and any great gangster film is about that. Yes, it’s a gangster action film, but it’s got layers to it. DUCHESS is about betrayal, and love, and family, all these elements. There’s so much story to it. I feel that at the beginning, really, she’s just starting her journey. She’s risen to the top – now what’s she going to do next? So, absolutely, I’d love to play the character in NUMBER 2.”

And what would Kirk most like people to know about DUCHESS?

“That it’s out on the ninth of August,” she laughs. “I’m hoping that they’re going to enjoy it, that at the end of the film, hopefully they’ll feel like they’ve just come off a roller-coaster. It’s full of emotions, and I think that’s the experience, really, of sitting through ninety minutes of having all these emotions of laughter and fear and sadness, and at the end, hopefully feeling empowered.”

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Article: Exclusive interview with DUCHESS actress-producer-writer Charlotte Kirk on new gangster action film

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