Hyde Park on Hudson

Directed by Roger Michell

Written by Richard Nelson

Production Notes

International Press Contact:

Focus Features International26 Aybrook StreetLondonW1U 4ANTel: +44 (0)203 618 5590

Anna BohlinDirector, International Publicityanna.bohlin@focusfeatures.com

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Hyde Park on HudsonSynopsis

Academy Award nominees Bill Murray and Laura Linney star in a historical tale that uniquely explores the all-too-human side of one of history’s iconic leaders. Blending literate wit and drama, Hyde Park on Hudson is directed by Roger Michell from a screenplay by Richard Nelson.

In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (played by Mr. Murray) readies to host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – marking the first-ever visit of a reigning British monarch to America. As Britain faces imminent war with Germany, the royals are desperately looking to FDR for U.S. support.

But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams), mother Sara (Elizabeth Wilson), and secretary Missy (Elizabeth Marvel) will all play a part in making the royal weekend an unforgettable one.

Seen through the eyes of Daisy (Ms. Linney), Franklin’s neighbor and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations, but, for Daisy – and through her, for us all – a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.

A Focus Features and Film4 presentation of a Free Range Film/Daybreak Pictures production. A Roger Michell Film. Bill Murray, Laura Linney. Hyde Park on Hudson. Samuel West, Olivia Colman, Elizabeth Marvel, Elizabeth Wilson, Eleanor Bron, and Olivia Williams. Hair Designer, Norma Webb. Make-up Designer, Morag Ross. Casting by Gail Stevens, CDG, and Ellen Lewis. Costume Designer, Dinah Collin. Music by Jeremy Sams. Edited by Nicolas Gaster. Production Designer, Simon Bowles. Director of Photography, Lol Crawley. Line Producer, Rosa Romero. Executive Producer, Tessa Ross. Produced by Kevin Loader, Roger Michell, David Aukin. Written by Richard Nelson. Directed by Roger Michell. A Focus Features Release.

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Hyde Park on HudsonWords from the Director, on FDR

After finishing this film, I happened to be re-reading my father’s tea-stained copy of William L. Shirer’s Berlin Diary.

Shirer was an American journalist who spent much of WWII heroically broadcasting from Berlin. In the entry for July 20 th, 1940, he talks of FDR being re-nominated in Chicago for a third term, an event which the Nazi press described as having been achieved by methods “sharply condemned by all eyewitnesses.” He goes on:

Hitler fears Roosevelt. He is just beginning to comprehend that Roosevelt’s support of Great Britain is one of the prime reasons that the British decline to accept his offer of peace.

Shirer then quotes the following telling passage from The Frankfurter Zeitung:

Roosevelt is the father of English illusions about this war. It may be that Roosevelt’s shabby tactics are too much for the Americans, it may be that he will not be re-elected, it may be that, if he is re-elected, he will stick closely to the non-intervention programme of his party. But it is also clear that while he may not intervene with his fleet or his army, he will intervene with speeches, with intrigues, and with a powerful propaganda which he will put at the disposal of the English.

By choosing to go against the immediate interests of his party, and against prevailing tides of isolationism or worse within his own electorate, FDR offered very real hope to England in what must have seemed at the time a hopeless situation. Many would have seen a kind of peace with Hitler as the only sensible way to avoid summary invasion.

The weekend at Hyde Park on Hudson, twelve weeks before the outbreak of the War and the subject of our film, becomes, in my mind, even more of an historical fulcrum: a moment where the smallest gesture has the greatest echo. Like catastrophe theory, which posits that a butterfly’s beating wings may generate by infinite degree of separation a mighty storm, so does a mouthful of hot dog (ironically a Frankfurter, no less) prefigure Omaha Beach and Victory in Europe.

Richard Nelson’s marvelous script delicately juxtaposes the public and the private, and the domestic and the epic. The sweep of great events and the persuasive power of great personalities vie for a hand at the tiller of history.

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My father flew Lancasters over Berlin, was shot down, and was a POW. He is long dead. I put his copy of the Shirer diaries back on the shelf and feel the echoes of the King’s Top Cottage picnic still vibrating around me.

Roger Michell London, U.K. June 2012

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Hyde Park on HudsonNotes from the Writer, on Daisy

In the late 1980s, a friend of mine invited me to visit what had long been a private residence in my town of Rhinebeck, New York. It had recently been given to a public trust by its elderly owner, with the provision that the owner could live there for the rest of her life.

The house sat overlooking the Hudson River, and looked like something out of a fairy tale – a dark one. It was pretty dilapidated, paint long weathered away. Wilderstein, as the home of the Suckley (rhymes with “Bookley”) Family for at least two generations is called, could be, I thought, the poster child for genteel poverty in America. My friend took me on a quick tour of the first floor. While passing through the living room, with its peeled wallpaper, tired sagging stuffed sofas, and worn and ragged Oriental rugs, I caught my first and only sight of the heroine of our film, Daisy Suckley. She sat alone reading, I think, a newspaper, oblivious to the strangers passing through. Soon after, in her hundredth year, Daisy died.

Wilderstein, which has since become a public park and is in the process of being restored to its late-nineteenth-century grandeur, is only one of the two legacies Daisy left to us; the other was found, at her death, in a small suitcase under her bed. Here were her intimate letters to and from her fifth cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, and her diaries recording in detail their relationship – a relationship that had remained a secret until her death. Pages had gone missing (burned?) from both the letters and the diary, but what remains gives a rich and moving portrait of a love affair between a woman who called herself “the little mud wren” and who saw herself as “part of the furniture,” and one of the greatest, most powerful and charismatic men of the century. Reading these letters and diary entries opens a window into a world only imagined; a world behind the façade of a presidency, where all conspired to hide the frailties and infirmities of its leader. Daisy, it now seems clear, was the person Franklin could relax with; could forget the world, the job, the troubles with; and just be himself with. It is no coincidence that the only photographs we have today of Franklin Roosevelt in his wheelchair were taken by Daisy Suckley.

The discovery of these letters and diaries was the impetus for Hyde Park on Hudson. It was a single entry in Daisy’s diary that gave the film its story; Daisy writes with wild-eyed enthusiasm and excitement of the visit of the King and Queen of England to Roosevelt’s Hyde Park home in June 1939. This was the first-ever visit by a reigning British monarch to the Western Hemisphere. She

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writes of being thrilled at seeing all this firsthand, as a guest at what became known as the “hot dog picnic.”

In June 1939, England was on the cusp of war with Germany, and it desperately needed America’s support. It was to help gain this support that the King and Queen were sent to America, and it was to help them with this cause that Roosevelt invited them to Hyde Park. But much of America needed convincing; the mood of the country was to stay out of another European war. Add to this an historical (and understandable) American reticence toward British royalty and all things royal, exacerbated by the recent royal abdication of Edward VIII forced by his wish to marry not only a divorced woman (Wallis Simpson) but also, “Heaven forbid,” as it was perceived by us, “an American, of all things.” The inexperienced and accidental King George VI, or Bertie, needed to show America that he admired our country and its people, and respected us as equals. That was his mission. And Franklin Roosevelt gave him just such an opportunity – by serving him a hot dog!

The two stories – the affair with Daisy and the weekend with the King and Queen – are at the center of our tale. As I worked on the script, the two stories became intertwined, each commenting upon the other; a woman painfully learns the truth behind the world-famous image of her lover, while a king learns to hide his insecurity and project courage. This allowed exploring the need to present a public front to save your country, as well as the recognition that the man you love is not necessarily the man you thought he was.

Finally, Hyde Park on Hudson is also a personal story. I have lived in Rhinebeck, Daisy’s home town, for over thirty years and raised a family here. Although this is a story with ramifications across the globe, dealing with great historical figures, it is also about a woman from my village, a woman I once saw on her sofa who for a time had a chance to see the world – the public and the private – through her own innocent eyes.

Richard Nelson

Rhinebeck, NY

June 2012

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Hyde Park on HudsonTopography and Tidbits

Hyde Park, NY, settled in the 18th century, is located @90 miles north of New York City, in Dutchess County, alongside the Hudson River. Its main movie theater is the Hyde Park Roosevelt Cinemas and its high school is Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, both named after the town’s most famous native son; FDR was born at the family estate in 1882.

FDR’s wife Eleanor Roosevelt converted Val-Kill cottage, part of the Roosevelt estate (known as Hyde Park on Hudson) but away from the main house (built in 1826 and known as Springwood), into a factory named Val-Kill Industries. Artists and artisans educated and trained people to produce handicrafts. Franklin Roosevelt was impressed by the initiative and furthered the concept in his federal stimulus programs. After the factory closed, Mrs. Roosevelt later moved into the cottage, which was furnished with items that had been made there.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s home at Val-Kill and Springwood are both on the National Register of Historic Places. The Roosevelt Farm Lane Trail, a 3.6-mile round-trip hiking trail, connects Val-Kill and the house.

The National Park Service operates the Roosevelt Ride, a free shuttle bus ferrying visitors to and from an area train station. The Ride makes stops at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum; Val-Kill; Springwood; and FDR’s hilltop retreat, Top Cottage.

Prior to the start of filming the 1939-set Hyde Park on Hudson, director/producer Roger Michell immersed himself in research at the Library and Museum; stars Bill Murray and Laura Linney and screenwriter Richard Nelson spent time there as well, and toured all of the grounds and buildings.

It was on and around the front porch (a.k.a. veranda) of Top Cottage that a picnic with the King and Queen of England was held in June 1939. The menu included green salad, strawberry shortcake, and hot dogs.

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Hyde Park on HudsonComments from the Cabinet

DA: David Aukin, producerSB: Simon Bowles, production designerDC: Dinah Collin, costume designerOC: Olivia Colman, actress (plays the Queen of England, Elizabeth, in film)LL: Laura Linney, actress (plays Daisy in film)KL: Kevin Loader, producerBM: Bill Murray, actor (plays U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt [FDR] in film)EM: Elizabeth Marvel, actress (plays FDR’s secretary, Missy, in film)MR: Morag Ross, make-up designerSW: Samuel West, actor (plays the King of England, Bertie, in film)OW: Olivia Williams, actress (plays the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, in film)EW: Elizabeth Wilson, actress (plays FDR’s mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, in film)

DA: Hyde Park on Hudson is a fiction based on real events, with Richard Nelson’s insightful screenplay brilliantly evoking the period and the people.

BM: Roosevelt is the most formidable character I’ve ever been asked to play, and this story that I hadn’t known about showed his personal side. There was a humanity to Richard’s script.

After I read the script, I called up [director/producer] Roger Michell and we had more conversations on the phone. He then said, “I’ll come visit you [in America],” and we went to the beach and kept talking about what we could do with this story.

EM: We weren’t making a re-enactment of history. It was about humanizing the political.

SW: Or, exploring what these public figures were like in private. Don’t presidents and kings make mistakes or have minor triumphs, at dinner parties or in their bedrooms, like us?

OW: This is meant to be an illuminating story told affectionately, not washing dirty linen in public or diminishing anyone in the eyes of the world. Facts have come to light over the years about some of these leaders’ domestic realities; I think people will be interested, entertained, and surprised.

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Richard puts massive world events into the context of a country house weekend, with all its social awkwardness. He’s made icons of the 20th century into three-dimensional people, and explores their political influence.

EW: When I read the script, I thought, “They’re not hiding anything.” I admire Richard’s writing, and this story was historic, honest, and humorous. I think the film is about survival.

I was thrilled to be asked to play this part by Roger because I grew up in Michigan in the 1930s and was such a fan of Franklin Roosevelt. I had been raised a Republican. But when Roosevelt became president – I was just as smitten as most of my friends, most of my family. We became Democrats.

It meant a great deal to me to be able to go back into the light of someone I worshipped.

DA: In terms of showing how a politician operates, it’s a story that still feels contemporary, blending the political and the personal.

There was a political bond that formed between Bertie and Roosevelt, but also an emotional one; FDR was older, and treated the King almost like a son. The King responded to that because his own father wasn’t caring.

LL: It was the first time that British royalty had set foot in the United States. Given the two countries’ histories, this was a big deal.

SW: They’d had that spot of bother two centuries earlier, and nobody had gone back…But the unthinkable, the second World War, was about to happen, and Britain needed to know if it had an ally in America.

DA: Historically, this weekend in 1939 is when “the special relationship” between England and America began. After he left, the King sent a telegram to FDR thanking him and saying, I feel we forged a special relationship – that’s how the term came to be. The King’s eating a hot dog showed that England would finally accept Americans as equals, that Bertie wasn’t looking down his nose at them.

KL: It was a key moment in Anglo-American relations. The royals intuited the symbolic significance of the act of eating the hot dog, and they rose to the challenge.

EM: A lot of mutual effort led up to that day; there was a long period of correspondence and diplomacy to make the visit happen, to build that bridge.

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LL: At the time of their visit to America, the royals were vulnerable. There was anti-British feeling in the United States.

SW: Because Richard comes to screenwriting as a playwright, he trusts actors; he doesn’t put words in brackets that tell you how to play the part, like “worriedly” or “with anger.” This gives you an enormous amount of freedom, and makes you feel that you’ll be trusted to interpret the scene properly.

His writing is spiky, and feels spontaneous. He’s interested in little things that build up slowly, so then there’s a cumulative power that you didn’t see coming. I think that’s a real skill.

OC: I’m not one for homework terribly, but Sam West would have books and pictures at the ready.

SW: I read biographies of Bertie and Elizabeth, and dipped into a couple of ones on Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt said that Elizabeth would smile or wave at a crowd and everybody would think that the smile or wave was just for them.

OC: Sam and I talked about how the King and Queen were this young couple with so much pressure on them, having to go and try to win over the Americans.

SW: They had made the mistake of reading their reviews before opening night, as it were.

OC: Elizabeth was dealing with cruel remarks comparing her unfavorably to Wallis Simpson [for whom King Edward VIII had forsaken the throne]; she had lost weight for the trip. All eyes were on them – not just their country’s, but the American public’s.

SW: These two had spent years thinking, well, I’m not going to be Queen, or King. It could have all been so different with Edward VIII [if he had remained King]…Bertie’s back was against the wall. One of the reasons he took the name King George VI was to name himself after his grandfather, to ensure continuity. He told Winston Churchill that he hoped he would reign long enough to make things good again. The trip was important for the country, but also for the institution of the monarchy.

BM: It was brave of the King and Queen to come and put themselves at the mercy of the American populace – to let themselves be gawked at, touched, and spoken about. They had to bring the idea to the American people of conceivably joining them in the war, but make it as if they were neighbors coming over because

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they needed a cup of sugar. They changed what people thought the royal family was about.

SW: We believe in America as a place where you can reinvent yourself. Bertie and Elizabeth came back to Britain in triumph. I think Bertie got out from the shadow of his father, and Elizabeth found that she was very good at meeting informally – which America loved. They both got on with Roosevelt.

OC: Acting with Bill Murray was a dream come true. On the set, he has a streak of anarchy. Between scenes, he would play the most random music on a large stereo; Beatles, Sinatra, Russian church music…

KL: …Simon & Garfunkel, traditional jazz, a bit of funk, traditional choral music…It wasn’t there at first; I think it crept in around week three.

OC: He would let other people mind the stereo while he did takes. He sincerely believes that if the atmosphere is fun and friendly, then the work will be good. He would order up doughnuts for everyone.

EM: When the camera wasn’t rolling, it was a party. But when it was rolling, he would morph…he would transform like any good actor does.

OC: People adored FDR’s wit, kindness, and generosity, and that seemed to fit rather nicely with Bill.

DA: When I went out with Bill, he was greeted wherever he went. People are so affectionate towards him, because he’s given so much pleasure in so many films to so many people.

Bill is a wonderful actor. What he plays so well is how the president manipulates and charms to get his way, but Bill catches the full spirit and essence of the man. Bill did a huge amount of research into FDR, who was never filmed or photographed with the effects of his polio made apparent.

KL: To fulfill the physical portrayal of FDR, Bill came to England a little early and met with representatives of the British Polio Society; a physiotherapist made calipers and taught him how to walk with them.

BM: My sister had polio, so I grew up with her wearing a brace. She’s had some of what they call post-polio effects that you have much later in life. It was extraordinary how FDR’s will overpowered that. You never saw self-pity from the man.

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He was very straightforward about how there were not to be pictures of him being carried around on his crutches, or in his wheelchair. There was an understanding; in exchange for that, he would present an openness and have regular press conferences, which [the preceding U.S. president] Herbert Hoover had not.

SB: We wanted to recreate the wheelchair that FDR used, but found out that he had a number of different ones. We decided to go with the one that’s preserved today at Springwood, by his desk in the library. You would think that making one would be simple, but no; the wheels had to come from Holland, and we had to cut down a specially made kitchen chair to fashion a chair that would have parallel sides so that the wheels are able to pass. The metal structure underneath had to be made as well. We had to decide what kind of oak it should be and what color it would get stained, and check on the screws and bolts.

BM: The physical things were important. I also listened to his voice a lot, to his speech. In terms of upbringing, this was a man who grew up in New York City, in Hyde Park, and on Campobello – off both the U.S. and Canada. He’d travel to England; he went to school in Groton, Connecticut. So there were a lot of different vocal influences in his tones, yet his voice was very distinct.

You’ve got to be able to have a twinkle in your eye to get people to do what you want. He knew you had to be willing to give and take. He made people believe in him.

DA: With the full moon out, there was something in the air that weekend; for me, there was a bit of the quality of Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night and that was part of the charm of the script.

DC: Roger had referenced Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to me. Richard’s piece has a strong narrative, tells an emotional story, and it’s funny, too.

I had a lot of pictorial resources to work from, but at the nub of everything was that we were going to be making this in the U.K., so I realized early on that all our costume stock had to come over from America. I went to Los Angeles for two weeks and found lovely dresses, hats, and suits in four costume houses there. We shipped over 54 boxes.

There weren’t many pictures of Daisy, so I had to rely on photos of American women in the late 1930s.

MR: The film is about specific people, but it was helpful to have reference files on general life in the States at the time. For make-up,

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we used modern products, which are better for the skin, and worked to achieve a period look.

DC: We were using original fabrics as well as newly created ones. One dress I had brought over was almost disintegrating, but I wanted it for when I met with Laura Linney in New York, just as a starting point. I also had these white shoes that were lace-up with a tiny buckle, and they actually fit Laura; we had duplicates made.

SW: The nicest costume I had was an original pair of Macclesfield silk pajamas from the 1930s. Dinah had them fitted and altered to make the silhouette quite tight.

EW: I wasn’t terribly proud of my size, but Dinah was so helpful. I couldn’t believe that she came to America with all this wardrobe.

DC: I first met with Bill Murray in Boston, near where he was making Moonrise Kingdom. At the fitting, we talked about how President Roosevelt had upper-body bulk because he had strengthened that area.

BM: He rebuilt his upper body. He rebuilt his abdominal muscles, which had been lost, and got back movement in part of his upper thighs and the tops of his legs.

DC: Some of the older clothing was continuing an amazing journey. The costume has to take the actor into the character so that the audience will be brought along too. It may all be period, but you have to imagine someone in these clothes, not just who wore them originally but also the characters in the story and maybe even yourself.

DA: We did get the right clothes, cars, furniture, settings, and so forth, but Roger kept a balance so that it wasn’t “a period film.” You’re watching a story about people that just happens to be in a period setting. When you are in FDR’s study, you think, “Here is the office of a very powerful man.”

EM: My character is called Missy, and her actual name was Margaret LeHand. She was secretary to FDR even before his presidency; they were introduced to each other when she started working for the Democratic Party in D.C.

People would say that she was like a wife to him; they were that close, that intimate. When he was struck with polio and went down to Florida, she lived with him on a houseboat. She helped him resurrect himself. Then, she helped him run the White House; she was a great organizer, and a cosmopolitan woman. She also had depressions, and suffered a lot to do the job that she did; she made

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her choices knowing that she would be in the room for history-making decisions, these incredible moments.

BM: Franklin Roosevelt would make a decision, and it would change the existences of millions of people. In a leadership role, he had to walk a very fine line of involvement and detachment in what was happening overseas, as well as trying to rebuild the American economy from the Depression. He had to balance fiscal responsibility and military responsibility. He knew when the time was to compromise, and he knew when the time was to be strong.

One night after filming, I drove to Grosvenor Square in London and by the American embassy, where there’s a great statue of Roosevelt, dedicated a year after he died. He’s standing in a navy cape, looking like the best friend England ever had.

LL: What that man accomplished in his life…! He was charismatic, vibrant, handsome, intelligent, and was skilled in political intrigue…People liked him, and liked being around him. My favorite scene in the movie is between Bill Murray and Sam West as FDR and the King.

SW: Getting to do a long two-hander scene with Bill Murray? Thank you very much indeed, that is one for the grandchildren. Bill was wonderful and generous; we did full run-throughs of the whole scene.

LL: It’s a scene between two incredibly powerful men who both have debilitating handicaps, finding a mutual understanding that only people in comparable situations could have.

SW: Bertie had largely conquered his speech defect by this point, but it still made him shy about speaking in public and it could be very pronounced. When he’s with someone he likes and trusts, the stutter comes out less.

BM: Reading all the background on Bertie and Elizabeth, it seemed like theirs was a great love.

SW: He respected her, and she gave him confidence. Other people wanted to marry Elizabeth, but she said yes to Bertie. I feel that – with the children they managed to bring up – their family was the beginning of the idea of the Royal Family as family, rather than as figureheads or status symbols.

OC: During the Second World War, the King and Queen stayed in the palace through all the bombings and then would go out into the East End and shake hands. They were in tune with the people, and that was a similarity they shared with another popular leader – FDR.

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SB: When I first was asked to do this project, I realized how important it would be to visit the main house, Springwood, as well as Top Cottage and the nearby town and countryside. Internet pages are helpful, but there’s nothing like actually going there and seeing for yourself. There were so many details we were able to add in. It was also a chance to meet with Richard Nelson – and I was very well looked after by him and his wife, with whom I stayed.

Since Springwood was turned into a national monument in the 1940s, almost nothing has changed. We went into the kitchen, the bedrooms, the study…the period details were still there for us to see. There were already Life photographs of the house in 1939, the year in which the movie takes place, which documented the décor. But those were in black-and-white, and by going there we could see the full color of the spaces. I took measurements and photographs that went back with me to the U.K., where Springwood was recreated at a private mansion.

KL: We found one within 10 miles of London, and couldn’t quite believe our good fortune. This meant that we didn’t have to spend to move a unit into the middle of nowhere. Much of what we hoped for, and needed, was already inside.

SB: I had taken pictures of the vents in Springwood, and we worked those in. Then there were the stuffed birds, which FDR created when he was a teenager, that we also put in. Throughout the actual house, it was more of an eclectic mix, a mishmash, than you would think; remember, it was FDR’s mother’s house and even he was a guest there.

KL: During his presidency, he split his time between the White House and his mother’s house, where he’d be surrounded by all the important women in his life.

EW: I was very proud to play [FDR’s mother] Sara Delano Roosevelt. Her family went through a lot, physically, emotionally – and they would have had more trouble financially, but she had a good deal of money. Things might not have happened the same way for Franklin if it hadn’t been for her willingness to support them.

BM: I couldn’t get enough of Elizabeth Wilson. She’s got a million stories; “Okay, about Jason Robards…” Roosevelt’s mother was a strong woman, and Elizabeth is old enough to be my mother. So when Olivia Williams was playing scenes as Eleanor with her, there was definite subtext; everyone had to defer.

OW: I was playing a woman whose mother-in-law dominated what was an [laughs] extraordinary domestic set-up.

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EW: I feel that Sara knew what was going on, and that she could handle it. Franklin was her one child, and she loved him so much.

EM: So many American presidents – Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, FDR – have had profound relationships with their mothers. These women were dominant in their lives. Also, Eleanor was such a force for women’s rights.

BM: I think of how she impressed Admiral Halsey, who commanded the Pacific, with what she did in World War II, going out to visit the troops and being a representative for the Red Cross.

I feel that at the heart of FDR and Eleanor’s relationship was the education which formed them. He was taught to be fearless, and Eleanor had that famous quote; “Do one thing every day that scares you.” At the dinner table, growing up, they were told that they had to accomplish something.

They weren’t a traditional husband and wife. They both knew that they were about something else, that they could better achieve what they each had to do by staying with each other and working with each other.

OW: I’d made Rushmore years ago with Bill, so we had a pre-existing friendship – which was good for Hyde Park on Hudson, because at this stage of the Roosevelts’ marriage there is a longstanding understanding of each other, and there is an acceptance. Politically, she would be his emissary, traveling to places he couldn’t; he listened to her ideas, and incorporated some of them into government.

BM: With the hair and the dresses and the pearls, Olivia looked uncannily like Eleanor and unlike herself. She went for it.

MR: Olivia looks different and is younger than Eleanor was, so that was a challenge; Roger and I agreed that we would have to be subtle. So I did a bit of aging on her really lovely skin, and changed her teeth to match Eleanor’s.

OW: At the read-through, I had the teeth in and my accent would go all over the place. Fortunately, we had a proper rehearsal period.

EW: Each day we would sit and read different sections of the script and get to know each other over coffee, tea, and little snacks. It was very relaxing. We read through the entire script just before we started filming.

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OW: I believe in over-researching, but Roger didn’t want me to do an impersonation. I would look at her speeches, but those were in her distinctive public-speaking voice.

I had begged, in a slightly undignified way, to be part of this movie. But it was very daunting playing someone of Eleanor’s caliber; she did so much for civil rights and race relations, using her position as First Lady to help others. I wanted to do her justice, and I also got to explore this world figure in a domestic situation – one where she had less power; her bedroom was her mother-in-law’s dressing room.

Eleanor didn’t patronize people. She wouldn’t curtsy to the King and Queen because she didn’t feel that anyone should be curtsied to. This was her principle, and I aimed to carry that off with dignity and without looking petty.

MR: Roger had found one image of Eleanor at the picnic, where her hair was very loose and free, and said he wanted to capture that flyaway feeling and not have all this set hair.

OW: I wanted it to be unkempt; I felt it demonstrated her informality. Even when Eleanor made an effort with the hair, it seemed to be quite out of control.

MR: Norma Webb, the hair designer on the movie, did a fantastic job. Wigs weren’t used; Norma adapted and colored the actors’ own hair. Roger wanted the hair to look as natural as possible. The King and Queen did have to look more put-together and perfect than the Americans. I loved seeing Sam West and Olivia Colman in those iconic period looks and thinking, “It’s working!”

But Roger also didn’t want dead ringers to be created; it was about trying to catch the essence of the real people. FDR’s face is well-known, so I had tiny prosthetic molds made for Bill Murray of the melanoma above the left eyebrow and the mole on the right cheek. Bill asked that he look like someone who had been in the sun a lot, because FDR loved to sunbathe as often as possible.

SB: The pieces in the house show the family history, and point to the character of Sara and her influence.

Roger and [cinematographer] Lol Crawley and I would always have to check on how spaces would work for the actors and crew to maneuver through, including for possible 360-degree coverage.

We added shutters to the windows like you would find in that region of upstate New York, a classical balustrade atop the porch, flags and flagpoles at the front, and replaced the gravel in the driveway.

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BM: The thing about rich people’s gravel is, you can walk on it without hurting your feet. It’s like reflexology.

KL: We knew we couldn’t recreate the house brick by brick, so we concentrated on the scale and the atmosphere.

BM: As the first president to use radio as a force, Roosevelt would give these very conversational addresses from home, at the dinner table with the mikes moved in after the family had eaten. He’d talk to America as if he was a father speaking at the head of the table.

SB: For the “Fireside Chat” scene where FDR gives his address to the nation while sitting at his desk, we brought microphones over from the United States. Also on his desk, my wonderful props department did a lot of research into finding out exactly what the stamp collection looked like, since it’s a key part of when Daisy first comes to see FDR, including what the book was that the stamps were kept inside. There was some photographic evidence, but FDR’s collection was sold at an auction house some time ago, and apparently the stamps weren’t worth very much because he didn’t collect specialized ones; it really was more of a hobby.

We needed to have the large oil portrait of FDR that hung in his study, so [stills photographer] Nicola Dove posed Bill as identical to the painting as possible. He would often talk and act in character when being photographed at length, and this took a lot of patience but he was game. He made his own suggestions to help get it just right. We then got the finished photo and made it into a canvas; it looks like the real thing.

To recreate Top Cottage, the President’s retreat where he wanted to write detective novels, we built a house entirely from scratch in a woodland clearing in the Chilterns [Hills in southeast England]. We had sketches and models, including with little plastic people, for the process. It was an impressive set; Roger would sit on the porch and read a newspaper.

BM: I went from visiting the real Top Cottage to the recreation in the space of a few weeks. The view from the elevation was so much alike.

KL: FDR took genuine solace at Top Cottage. It was where he recharged. He encouraged friends to buy adjacent plots and build their own cottages nearby, so he had a great impact on the growth of the Hudson Valley.

SB: At that location, we had to know where everything was going to go for the picnic. There was a record of the schedule, so there could

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be no surprises; “the drinks will be prepared here, the plates will be here…” We had to know where the characters were going to sit, too, of course – just like that day in 1939.

I had pictures from the picnic up on my wall. Everyone would look to them for reference. Someone took a few photographs of his children that also captured the excitement “in the background.” You can see the moments between the King and Queen.KL: We had 100 extras for the sequence. The Chilterns were a pretty good ringer, with their gorgeous beech woods. There was a cultural convergence even before it happened on-screen.

SW: The photos from the picnic showed how at some point Bertie took off his tie. To do that at an official engagement was a statement. So we could get that in, his catching the American vibe and thinking, “Perhaps I don’t need to wear this.”

MR: It was very satisfying to walk onto the finished set that day; there was a great sense of achievement. You saw everyone’s contributions, dozens of people’s work, coming together.

LL: When I heard the movie would be shooting in the U.K., I thought, “I see how that could work.” We would be re-creating a different era and time. Also, it looks like Hyde Park; there’s the occasional odd tree. After we finished shooting, I missed England; everyone was terrific over there.

KL: We were only sorry there wasn’t more sunshine. But people enjoyed themselves; they socialized after work, going to see shows.

Roger and I have made a lot of movies, but here we were bringing American actors over to work with British ones. It was an inversion of the movie’s story.

BM: As a director, Roger asks real simple questions, gets you to say “yes” a lot, and then doesn’t stop until he gets what he wants – which is good. You feel comfortable.

SW: Roger would have, for our scenes together, Bill play with responses and words slightly so that I would be slightly surprised and be able to react to what was happening in front of me. The takes were fresher.

This was the fourth time I’d worked with Roger. He is so attentive, and he makes things un-scary. On our first movie together, Persuasion, we were doing a scene and he said, “Don’t do that, it’s too much. We’re looking for ambiguity, not confusion.” That remains perhaps my all-time favorite note from a director.

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OW: To me, Hyde Park on Hudson has the same qualities as Persuasion, in that Roger completely nails how much passion and how much import can lie beneath a polished social surface.

I wanted to work with Roger because I wanted to be directed; I wanted someone to tell me what I might not be doing quite right – which he does, with extreme charm!

EW: I think Roger enjoys his work, because he smiles a lot; many directors never smile. His technique is to do a lot of takes, which is terrific. I trusted him.

SW: When he gives you notes, like “Try this on that line,” you want to use them.

LL: I had such good notes from Roger while I was working. He’s so good about watching a take; he will literally write down notes and come over to you. Most directors don’t do that. He sees what you’re doing, or trying to do, and helps you make it better.

DA: Laura brings such positive vibes to a set, such warmth and friendliness, that I would recommend having her around whatever the film.

OC: Her character of Daisy is at the heart of the story. She shows the hurt in Daisy’s eyes, and the adoration as well.

LL: Richard knows how to write for actors. The story explores how people deal with fame, and power. What is the psychology of fame? How does it affect someone’s day-to-day life, their decisions, and the way they treat people? In the movie, Daisy is often quiet. In many ways, she is Alice in Wonderland. She’s brought into a world of big personalities, and observes.

MR: Laura’s look in the film is a bit more free-looking than the real Daisy. Our Daisy is more ephemeral, whereas the real Daisy was neat with never a hair out of place.

EM: We all did research, but Laura arrived fully loaded. [Laughs] Then what we had to do was lay that aside, and play the emotional truths.

LL: I’ve always had a deep fascination with the Roosevelts, particularly Eleanor, and their era. I’ve visited Hyde Park many times. But I knew nothing about Daisy Suckley. When this script came along, I felt grateful that this movie was getting made at all.

By 1939, Daisy’s family had lost a good deal of their money. Her father had passed away, and she had a number of siblings, so Daisy

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became responsible for the family. Daisy went to go work for her aunt [Mrs. Woodbury Langdon] as a secretary and paid companion. The small amount of money that she made was handed back to her family to help keep their home – the large mansion they lived in – going.

I spent a little time on the property, with its entire history of Daisy’s family, and was able to learn about her and her disposition. I visited her bedroom. I saw the books on her bookshelf, and got a sense of her interests.

BM: When you read Daisy’s letter and diary, you see what Roosevelt shared with her as someone who he could trust completely to be supportive. There were moments when his job had to be the loneliest in the world.

Top Cottage was built with his post-politics life in mind. But that never got to happen; it was two terms [as president], then three, then a fourth. He died on the world stage, with America a different country in 1945 than it was in 1933. I envy his kind of courage.

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Hyde Park on HudsonAbout the Cast

BILL MURRAY (FDR)

Bill Murray’s portrayal of Herman Blume in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore brought him the New York Film Critics Circle, National Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Independent Spirit Awards for Best Supporting Actor. He has acted in all of Mr. Anderson’s subsequent features, including The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox (in voiceover), and Moonrise Kingdom (also a Focus Features release).

Born in Chicago, he began his acting career there with the improvisational troupe Second City. He joined the cast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live in the show’s second season, and shortly thereafter won an Emmy Award as one of the show’s writers. He later authored the book Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf.

After making his screen debut in Ivan Reitman’s Meatballs, Mr. Murray reteamed with the director on Stripes and the Ghostbusters movies. His film credits also include Harold Ramis’ Caddyshack and Groundhog Day; Art Linson’s Where the Buffalo Roam; Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie; John Byrum’s The Razor’s Edge (1984); Richard Donner’s Scrooged; Frank Oz’s What About Bob?; John McNaughton’s Mad Dog and Glory and Wild Things; Tim Burton’s Ed Wood; Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s Kingpin; Jon Amiel’s The Man Who Knew Too Little; Tim Robbins’ Cradle Will Rock; Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet (2000); Gil Kenan’s City of Ember; Aaron Schneider’s Get Low, for which he received Spirit and Satellite Award nominations; Mitch Glazer’s Passion Play; and, upcoming, Roman Coppola’s A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.

For his performance as Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (also a Focus release), Mr. Murray received the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Independent Spirit, and New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago film critics’ Awards, among others, for Best Actor. He also was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards.

He has starred for Jim Jarmusch in the “Delirium” segment of Coffee and Cigarettes; in Broken Flowers, also a Focus release, for which he was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actor; and in The Limits of Control, also a Focus release.

LAURA LINNEY (Daisy)

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Laura Linney has been nominated three times for an Academy Award, for her performances in Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me, alongside Mark Ruffalo and Matthew Broderick; in Bill Condon’s Kinsey, opposite Liam Neeson; and in Tamara Jenkins’ The Savages, with Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The performance in You Can Count on Me also earned her Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe Award, and Independent Spirit Award nominations; and Best Actress awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. The portrayal in Kinsey also garnered her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations as well as the National Board of Review’s award for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance in The Savages additionally brought her a London Critics’ Circle Film Award nomination for Best Actress, among other honors.

Ms. Linney has won a Golden Globe Award and been an Emmy Award nominee for her starring role as Cathy Jamison on the television series The Big C, on which she is an executive producer and which recently aired its third season. She starred opposite Paul Giamatti as First Lady Abigail Adams in the critically acclaimed miniseries John Adams, directed by Tom Hooper, for which she won Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe, and Emmy Awards. She has also won Emmy Awards for her guest role on the final season of Frasier, opposite Kelsey Grammer, and for her performance in the telefilm Wild Iris, in which she starred with Gena Rowlands and Emile Hirsch for director Daniel Petrie.

Among Ms. Linney’s other feature credits are Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, opposite Jeff Daniels, for which she received Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations; Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination, and Absolute Power; Peter Weir’s The Truman Show, with Jim Carrey; Gregory Hoblit’s Primal Fear and Mark Pellington’s The Mothman Prophecies, both opposite Richard Gere; Richard Curtis’ Love Actually; George Miller’s Lorenzo’s Oil; Ivan Reitman’s Dave; Steven Zaillian’s Searching for Bobby Fischer; Gillies MacKinnon’s A Simple Twist of Fate; Frank Marshall’s Congo; Terence Davies’ The House of Mirth; Michael Uno’s “Hallmark Hall of Fame” telefilm Blind Spot, with Joanne Woodward; and Stanley Donen’s telefilm Love Letters, opposite Steven Weber.

She memorably starred as Mary Ann Singleton in three Tales of the City miniseries, based on the novels by Armistead Maupin, and directed respectively by Alastair Reid and Pierre Gang.

The Juilliard graduate was recently a Drama Desk and Tony Award nominee for Time Stands Still, written by Donald Marguiles and

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directed by Daniel Sullivan. She previously starred on Broadway in, among other shows, the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Ben Daniels, directed by Rufus Norris; Richard Eyre’s staging of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, opposite Liam Neeson, for which she was a Tony Award nominee; Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, staged by Sarah Anderson, for which she won a 1994 Calloway Award; and Donald Margulies’ Sight Unseen, staged by Daniel Sullivan, for which she received her first Tony Award nomination. She had starred off-Broadway in the latter play over a decade earlier, earning her first Drama Desk Award nomination as well as Drama League and Outer Critic Circle Award nominations, and a Theatre World award. 

SAMUEL WEST (Bertie)

Samuel West has previously worked for Hyde Park on Hudson director Roger Michell in the features Notting Hill and Persuasion, and in the Donmar Warehouse production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal.

In addition to the latter, Mr. West’s stage appearances include the title roles in Richard II and Hamlet in Steven Pimlott’s Royal Shakespeare Company productions, winning Critics’ Circle and Theatregoers’ Choice Awards for Hamlet; Rupert Goold’s production of Enron, for which he received Olivier and Evening Standard Award Best Actor nominations; Jonathan Munby’s production of A Number, performed in the U.K. and South Africa; and Arcadia, directed by Trevor Nunn, The Sea, directed by Sam Mendes, and Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Sean Mathias, all at the National Theatre.

His many telefilms and miniseries include Tim Fywell’s Cambridge Spies; Charles Sturridge’s Longitude; Michael Samuels’ Any Human Heart; and Philip Martin’s Murder on the Orient Express. He recently starred as Zak Gist in the television series Eternal Law. Mr. West is currently at work on a new series, Mr. Selfridge.

He came to critical and audience attention as Leonard Bast in Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning Howards End, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award. Among his other movies are Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre; Christopher Hampton’s Carrington; Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing; Julien Temple’s Pandaemonium; Jonathan Tammuz’s Rupert’s Land, for which he earned a Genie Award nomination; and Richard Eyre’s Iris.

OLIVIA COLMAN (Elizabeth)

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For her performance opposite Peter Mullan and Eddie Marsan in Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur, Olivia Colman won a World Cinema Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival; and the British Independent Film Award (BIFA), Empire Award, and Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress. She also won the London Critics’ Circle Film Award for Best British Actress, for her work in Tyrannosaur and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, opposite Meryl Streep, in tandem.

She will soon be seen in James Griffiths’ Cuban Fury, with Nick Frost, Chris O’Dowd, and Rashida Jones; and Dan Mazer’s I Give It a Year, with Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall, Simon Baker, and Anna Faris. Her other movies include Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz, also for Focus Features; Amy Heckerling’s I Could Never Be Your Woman, with Michelle Pfeiffer; Shane Meadows’ Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee; and Grow Your Own, directed by Richard Laxton.

Ms. Colman’s notable U.K. television credits include starring on the award-winning series Rev., Peep Show, Green Wing, and, most recently, Twenty Twelve. She was a BAFTA Award nominee for her performance in the latter. She appeared in the miniseries Exile alongside John Simm and Jim Broadbent, directed by John Alexander. Alongside Sharon Horgan and Julia Davis, she conceived of the idea for, and starred in, the 2012 sitcom pilot Bad Sugar; the script is by Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, and the director is Ben Palmer.

She has also filmed Accused and Run, both due to air later in 2012, and is currently filming the crime drama series Broadchurch, starring alongside David Tennant. Ms. Colman trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Her stage credits include Hay Fever, directed by Howard Davies, at the Noel Coward Theatre; England People Very Nice, directed by Nicholas Hytner, at the National Theatre; Long Day’s Journey Into Night, directed by Robin Phillips, at Lyric Shaftesbury Ave.; and The Threesome, directed by Gordon Anderson, at Lyric Hammersmith.

ELIZABETH MARVEL (Missy)

Elizabeth Marvel, a native of Pennsylvania, studied at Michigan’s Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Juilliard School in New York City. Her off-Broadway stage credits have since included What the Butler Saw; As You Like It; Henry V; Macbeth; Alice in Bed; Lydie Breeze; Terrorism; Almost an Evening; and Misalliance, Hedda Gabler, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Therese Raquin, all of which brought her Obie Awards.

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Ms. Marvel’s Broadway stage work includes The Seagull; St. Joan; An American Daughter; Taking Sides; Seascape; Top Girls; and, most recently, Other Desert Cities, reprising the role she originated off- Broadway.

She has appeared on television in episodes of Law & Order; 30 Rock; Homicide: Life on the Street; The Good Wife; The District and Lights Out, on which she was a series regular; and Nurse Jackie and Person of Interest, in guest arcs.

Ms. Marvel’s features include Steven Spielberg’s soon-to-be-released Lincoln; Tony Gilroy’s The Bourne Legacy; Craig Lucas’ The Dying Gaul; George LaVoo’s A Dog Year, with Jeff Bridges; Paul Schneider’s Pretty Bird with Paul Giamatti and Billy Crudup; Amy Redford’s The Guitar; Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York; Don Roos’ The Other Woman; Kevin Asch’s Holy Rollers; and Nancy Porter’s Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind ‘Little Women,’ in which she starred as the famed author. For Joel & Ethan Coen, her films include Burn After Reading, also for Focus Features, and True Grit, which she narrated and appeared in as the adult incarnation of Mattie (played as a young woman by Hailee Steinfeld).

ELIZABETH WILSON (Mrs. Roosevelt)

Moviegoers have seen Elizabeth Wilson in, for Mike Nichols, The Graduate (as Benjamin’s [Dustin Hoffman] mother), Catch-22, Day of the Dolphin, and Regarding Henry; Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (as Charles Van Doren’s [Ralph Fiennes] mother); Barry Sonnenfeld’s The Addams Family (as Fester’s [Christopher Lloyd] wicked mother); Robert Benton’s Nobody’s Fool (with Paul Newman); Anthony Harvey’s Grace Quigley (with Katharine Hepburn); John Schlesinger’s The Believers; Colin Higgins’ Nine to Five (as Roz, the office snitch); Melvin Frank’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue; Alan Arkin’s Little Murders; John Cassavetes’ A Child is Waiting (with Judy Garland and Burt Lancaster); John Cromwell’s The Goddess (with Kim Stanley); Fielder Cook’s Patterns (for which she was a BAFTA Award nominee); and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, among many other films.

Her numerous Broadway appearances include the Yale Repertory/Arvin Brown production of Ah, Wilderness! with Jason Robards, Colleen Dewhurst, and George Hearn; the Tony Award-winning revival of Morning’s at Seven, which originated at the Lake Forest Theatre in Illinois, where she won a Joseph Jefferson Award as Best Actress; and the New York Shakespeare Festival’s production of Sticks and Bones, for which she won a Tony Award. Ms. Wilson’s Broadway debut was in 1952, in Picnic; she reprised her role in Joshua Logan’s film version.

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Her Broadway and off-Broadway credits include Taken in Marriage, for which she won an Obie Award; Threepenny Opera, for which she was a Drama Desk Award nominee; Salonika, opposite Jessica Tandy, for which she won a Drama Desk Award; You Can’t Take It With You, again alongside Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst; All’s Well That Ends Well; Sheep on the Runway; the Playwrights Horizons production of Harry Kondoleon’s Anteroom, for which she won an Obie Award; and Mike Nichols’ revival of Uncle Vanya, with George C. Scott, Barnard Hughes, and Julie Christie.

Ms. Wilson was an Emmy Award nominee for her role as Frances Schreuder’s (Lee Remick) mother in the miniseries Nutcracker, directed by Paul Bogart. Her other miniseries and telefilms include Queen and Scarlett, directed by John Erman; In the Best of Families, directed by Jeff Bleckner; and Joseph Sargent’s Skylark, with Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. Her TV work also includes starring in the series East Side/West Side with George C. Scott, and Doc, with Barnard Hughes; and guest-starring on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, All in the Family, and Murder, She Wrote.

She studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Ms. Wilson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and now lives in New York City.

ELEANOR BRON (Daisy’s Aunt)

Among Eleanor Bron’s motion picture credits are several much-admired: Richard Lester’s Help!, with The Beatles, Lewis Gilbert’s Alfie, with Michael Caine, Stanley Donen’s Two for the Road and Bedazzled, and Ken Russell’s Women in Love.

Her other notable films include Terence Davies’ The House of Mirth; Richard Eyre’s Iris; Alfonso Cuarón’s A Little Princess; Caroline Thompson’s Black Beauty; Christine Edzard’s Little Dorrit; Mandie Fletcher’s Deadly Advice; Jan Sardi’s Love’s Brother; Richard Loncraine’s Wimbledon; Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s The Heart of Me; John Irvin’s Turtle Diary; and Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini’s StreetDance.

Ms. Bron got her start in satirical revue with The Establishment nightclub and on television. She appeared in the comedy series Where Was Spring? and After That, This, which she co-wrote with John Fortune; and in Beyond a Joke, written with Michael Frayn, who subsequently wrote the series Making Faces for her. She also co-wrote and contributed to several comedy series with John Bird and Alan Bennett.

She went on to play leading roles in drama in both television and theatre, including Yelena in Uncle Vanya; Natalya in A Month in the

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Country; Amanda in Private Lives; Madame Dubonnet in The Boyfriend; Stephanie in Duet for One; Melanie Garth in Quartermaine’s Terms; Jocasta in Oedipus; Beth in Changing Step; and the Pastor in Hour of the Lynx. Ms. Bron has also portrayed Hedda Gabler, Jean Brodie, Cleopatra, and the Madwoman of Chaillot.

Her other stage work includes The Miser, The White Devil, The Cherry Orchard, The Real Inspector Hound, and The Duchess of Malfi, all for the National Theatre; Hamlet and The Late Middle Classes, both at the Donmar Warehouse; A Perfect Ganesh, with Prunella Scales, at West Yorkshire Playhouse; All About My Mother, at the Old Vic; and her one-woman show Desdemona – If You Had Only Spoken!, at Edinburgh and the Almeida Theatre.

Ms. Bron authored the books Life and Other Punctures and The Pillowbook of Eleanor Bron as well as the novel Double Take. She has also written new verses for Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals” and a song cycle with John Dankworth.

OLIVIA WILLIAMS (Eleanor)

Olivia Williams has played notable roles in a number of memorable movies. These have included Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, opposite Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, for which she was named Best Supporting Actress by the National Society of Film Critics and the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards; and Lone Scherfig’s An Education, opposite Carey Mulligan. The latter film earned Ms. Williams a London Critics’ Circle Film Award nomination as well as a shared Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with her fellow actors from the ensemble.

After completing her university studies, she spent two years at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company for three years. In 1997, Ms. Williams was chosen by director Kevin Costner to star opposite him in the drama The Postman. Subsequently, she played opposite Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman in Wes Anderson’s acclaimed Rushmore; and appeared as Bruce Willis’ wife in M. Night Shyamalan’s blockbuster The Sixth Sense.

She has since appeared in a number of U.K. independent films, including Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s The Heart of Me, for which she was honored with the British Independent Film Award (BIFA) for Best Actress; Peter Cattaneo’s Lucky Break, for which she was an Empire Award nominee; and Mat Whitecross’ Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, opposite Andy Serkis. Among her other movies are George Hickenlooper’s The Man from Elysian Fields; P.J. Hogan’s Peter Pan; Martin Donovan’s Collaborator; and, also for Focus Features, Hanna

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and the soon-to-be-released Anna Karenina, both directed by Joe Wright.

In addition to the latter, Ms. Williams’ upcoming movies include Ol Parker’s Now is Good, opposite Dakota Fanning; Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ruairi Robinson’s The Last Days on Mars; and Sergey Bodrov’s The Seventh Son, with Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Ben Barnes, and Alicia Vikander.

On television, she has portrayed celebrated authors Jane Austen and Agatha Christie, respectively, in the telefilms Miss Austen Regrets (directed by Jeremy Lovering) and Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures (directed by Richard Curson Smith); starred on Joss Whedon’s cult favorite series Dollhouse; and guest-starred on such shows as Friends, Terriers, and Beck. She most recently starred on television as London’s Mayor in City Hall, directed for “Playhouse Presents” by Richard Loncraine.

Ms. Williams’ West End stage work includes starring opposite Matthew Fox in the world premiere of the play In a Forest, Dark and Deep, written and directed by Neil LaBute, at the Vaudeville Theatre; and starring with Tom Hollander in Robin Lefevre’s Donmar Warehouse production of John Osborne’s The Hotel in Amsterdam.

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Hyde Park on HudsonAbout the Filmmakers

ROGER MICHELL (Director)

The son of an English diplomat, Roger Michell was born in South Africa and as a child lived in Beirut, Damascus, and Prague. He started directing plays at school before going on to Cambridge. In 1977, he won the Royal Shakespeare Company Buzz Goodbody Award at the National Student Drama Festival as well as a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival.

He has subsequently directed plays at the National Theatre, the Old Vic, the Lyric Hammersmith, Donmar Warehouse, Hampstead, the Royal Court, the Almeida, in the West End, and on Broadway and elsewhere. For six years, Mr. Michell was resident director at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and London.

In the early 1990s, he began directing in additional mediums. His work for television includes the award-winning miniseries The Buddha of Suburbia, starring Naveen Andrews, Brenda Blethyn, and Roshan Seth, and marking the first of his many collaborations with writer Hanif Kureishi; documentaries for the BBC; and a number of commercials.

His features as director have included Persuasion, which starred Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds, for which he shared a BAFTA Award with the creative team; My Night with Reg, adapted by Kevin Elyot from the latter’s play; Titanic Town, for which Julie Walters received an IFTA Award nomination; the smash Notting Hill, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, which received the Evening Standard British Film Awards’ Peter Sellers Award for Comedy and for which Mr. Michell won an Empire Award; Changing Lanes, starring Ben Affleck and Prism Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson; The Mother, for which Anne Reid was honored by the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards; Enduring Love, for which Mr. Michell received Directors Guild of Great Britain Award, European Film Award, and British Independent Film Award (BIFA) nominations as Best Director; Venus, for which Leslie Phillips won the BIFA as Best Supporting Actor staring opposite Peter O’Toole; and Morning Glory, starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and Diane Keaton.

Mr. Michell has directed several productions of plays by Hyde Park on Hudson writer Richard Nelson, including the spring 2012 world premiere staging of Farewell to the Theatre, starring Ben Chaplin, Jemma Redgrave, and William French.

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RICHARD NELSON (Writer)

Richard Nelson’s plays have been produced on Broadway, off-Broadway, in the West End, by numerous national theatres across Europe, and at major theaters in Japan, Israel, and Russia. Ten of his plays have been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he is an Honorary Associate Artist. He has directed productions of his plays in the U.S. and the U.K.

He has written a cycle of plays for the Public Theatre including Sorry, Sweet and Sad, and That Hopey Changey Thing. His other plays include Farewell to the Theatre (staged in its March 2012 world premiere by Hyde Park on Hudson director Roger Michell), Nikolai and the Others, Conversations in Tusculum, How Shakespeare Won the West, Frank’s Home, Rodney’s Wife, Franny’s Way, Madame Melville, Goodnight Children Everywhere, The General From America, New England, Misha’s Party (with Alexander Gelman), Columbus or the Discovery of Japan, Two Shakespearean Actors, Some Americans Abroad, Left, Life Sentences, and Principia Scriptoriae.

Mr. Nelson has written the musicals Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano (with Peter Golub), James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey), and My Life with Albertine (with Ricky Ian Gordon). He has written numerous translations as well as co-translated a series of Russian classical plays with the eminent translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. He adapted Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome into a feature screenplay; the movie, directed by John Madden, starred Liam Neeson and Patricia Arquette.

His honors include a Tony Award (Best Book of a Musical, for James Joyce’s The Dead) and Olivier Award (Best Play for Goodnight Children Everywhere); two more Tony nominations (Best Play, for Two Shakespearean Actors, and Best Score, as co-lyricist for James Joyce’s The Dead) and another Olivier nomination (Best Comedy, for Some Americans Abroad); two Obie Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila Wallace-Readers’ Digest Writers Award, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award; and the PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award.

KEVIN LOADER (Producer)

Kevin Loader is one of the U.K.’s most established film producers.

He was a double BAFTA Award nominee in 2010 when two of his productions were nominated for Best British Film. These were Armando Iannucci’s political comedy In the Loop, starring Peter

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Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, and James Gandolfini; and, co-produced with Ecosse Films, Sam Taylor-Wood’s Nowhere Boy, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff, and Aaron Johnson as John Lennon. Among other honors worldwide for the two movies, In the Loop was Academy Award-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Ms. Duff won the British Independent Film Award (BIFA) for Best Supporting Actress.

Mr. Loader has a production company with Hyde Park on Hudson director Roger Michell, Free Range Films. For Free Range, Mr. Michell has previously directed Venus from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi, earning Peter O’Toole Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, and Jodie Whittaker London Critics’ Circle Film and BIFA Award nominations; Enduring Love, from Joe Penhall’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel, starring Daniel Craig, Rhys Ifans, and Samantha Morton, and nominated for 4 BIFA Awards; and The Mother, written by Mr. Kureishi and starring Mr. Craig opposite Anne Reid, who received BIFA and BAFTA Award nominations. The Mother won the Europa prize at the 2004 Cannes International Film Festival. Upcoming Free Range projects include a film version of the bestselling novel Sister, and Roger Michell directing a new Hanif Kureishi screenplay, Le Weekend.

Mr. Loader is also producing The Alan Partridge Movie, starring Steve Coogan, for release in 2013. His previous movies as producer include Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights; Alex de la Iglesia’s The Oxford Murders, starring John Hurt and Elijah Wood; Julian Jarrold’s Brideshead Revisited, co-produced with Ecosse Films; Nicholas Hytner’s The History Boys, adapted by Alan Bennett from his play; John Madden’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, starring Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz; and Mike Barker’s To Kill a King, starring Tim Roth.

He began his career in 1982 at the BBC, producing and directing documentaries, arts programs, and television dramas. His BBC productions included three award-winning miniseries: Clarissa, directed by Robert Bierman, The Buddha of Suburbia, directed by Roger Michell and adapted by Hanif Kureishi from his novel, and Holding On, directed by Adrian Shergold and written by Tony Marchant. Mr. Loader also worked for Sony Pictures Entertainment and Le Studio Canal Plus as manager of their London-based joint venture, The Bridge.

ROGER MICHELL (Producer)

Please refer to above bio.

DAVID AUKIN (Producer)

David Aukin was Head of Film for Film4 from 1990-1998. During that

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time, he commissioned over 100 films, many of which won awards all over the world. Among the movies developed and financed by Film4 were Nicholas Hytner’s The Madness of King George, which won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (Ken Adam, Carolyn Scott) and was nominated for three more; Mike Newell’s Four Weddings and a Funeral, which was an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay (Richard Curtis); Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game, which won the Academy Award for Mr. Jordan’s original screenplay; Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, which won four Empire Awards; and Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies, nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

Mr. Aukin was subsequently executive producer of such films as Patricia Rozema’s Mansfield Park, starring Frances O’Connor; and Stephen Frears’ Mrs. Henderson Presents, starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins.

He runs his production company Daybreak Pictures, which is part of the Mentorn Group, with Hal Vogel. Daybreak has made numerous dramas and miniseries for U.K. television; Mr. Aukin executive-produced Jon Jones’ A Very Social Secretary, for which star Bernard Hill received International Emmy and BAFTA Award nominations. Its latest series, Sirens, has been optioned for a U.S. adaptation.

Daybreak’s feature films have included Pete Travis’ Endgame, starring William Hurt and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The company is currently developing features for Fernando Mereilles and Justin Kurzel to direct; and with screenwriters John Hodge and Joe Penhall.

Prior to Film4, Mr. Aukin worked in the theatrical arena, and from 1986-1990 was Executive Director of Britain’s Royal National Theatre.

TESSA ROSS (Executive Producer)

Tessa Ross was appointed Head of Film4 in December 2002. Since November 2004, she has been Controller of Film and Drama at Channel 4. Film4, which is Channel 4’s theatrical feature film division, is known for working with the most innovative talent in the U.K., whether new or established. The division has built a reputation for developing and financing distinctive films such as Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire; Shane Meadows’ This is England; Steve McQueen’s directorial debut Hunger; Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries; Kevin Macdonald’s Touching the Void and The Last King of Scotland; Richard Ayoade’s directorial debut Submarine; Joe Cornish’s directorial debut Attack the Block; Mike Leigh’s Another Year;

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Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights; and, also in partnership with Focus Features, Kevin Macdonald’s Roman epic adventure The Eagle and Lone Scherfig’s romance One Day.

In addition to Hyde Park on Hudson, Film4’s recent and forthcoming releases include The Iron Lady, directed by Phyllida Lloyd and the winner of 2 Academy Awards; Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur; Steve McQueen’s Shame; Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers; Walter Salles’ On the Road; Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths; and Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin.

ROSA ROMERO (Line Producer)

Rosa Romero has enjoyed an ongoing collaboration with Hyde Park on Hudson director Roger Michell and producer Kevin Loader’s Free Range Films; she was previously line producer on the team’s acclaimed movies Venus, Enduring Love, and The Mother. Also for Mr. Loader, she was line producer on Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, Julian Jarrold’s Brideshead Revisited, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, and Alex de la Iglesia’s The Oxford Murders. The latter earned her a Goya Award (Spain’s Oscars equivalent) for Best Production Supervision.

Ms. Romero speaks five different languages. She was born in Barcelona, where she began her production career with the Catalan television channel TV3. She subsequently produced short films and documentaries. Her first narrative feature as producer, Boom Boom, directed by Rosa Vergés, won the Goya Award for Best First Film. She later reteamed with Ms. Vergés on Souvenir, after producing Marion Hänsel’s Sur la terre comme au ciel (a.k.a. Between Heaven and Earth) and Félix Rotaeta’s Chatarra, both starring Carmen Maura.

After relocating to the U.K., she worked as production and/or location manager on such features as Phil Davis’ I.D., Jake Scott’s Plunkett & Macleane, and Mike Figgis’ Hotel (on-site in Venice).

In addition to the movies previously mentioned, Ms. Romero’s features as line producer include Michael Winterbottom’s Code 46; Christopher Smith’s Severance; Dan Wilde’s Alpha Male, starring Jennifer Ehle and Danny Huston; Ben Palmer’s sleeper hit The Inbetweeners Movie; Michael Radford’s La mula [The Mule], and, currently in production, Kevin Macdonald’s How I Live Now, starring Saoirse Ronan.

LOL CRAWLEY (Director of Photography)

British cinematographer Lol Crawley’s first feature credit was on an American independent film, Lance Hammer’s Ballast, which earned

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him the Excellence in Cinematography award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival as well as a Spirit Award nomination. He was also cited by Variety as one of “10 Cinematographers to Watch,” and Ballast received awards and critical praise around the world.

Prior to Ballast, he was director of photography on short films. These included multiple collaborations with directors Richard Fenwick, Chris J. Taylor, and Duane Hopkins. His work on the latter’s Love Me or Leave Me Alone brought Mr. Crawley a Special Mention at the 2003 Brest European Short Film Festival. He reteamed with the director for the feature Better Things, which world-premiered at the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival.

His next features as cinematographer were, for Film4, Chris Morris’ acclaimed satire Four Lions, which won a BAFTA and an Empire Award, among other honors; Morag McKinnon’s Donkeys, which won the Best Film prize from the BAFTA (Scotland) Awards; the Armenian road movie romance Here, starring Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal for director Braden King; and Andrew Okpeaha McLean’s Alaskan thriller On the Ice, for which Mr. Crawley was honored with the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography at the 2011 Woodstock Film Festival.

He was recently a BAFTA Award nominee for his work on the BBC miniseries The Crimson Petal and the White, directed by Marc Munden and starring Romola Garai and Chris O’Dowd.

Mr. Crawley is currently at work in South Africa as cinematographer on The Long Walk to Freedom, directed by Justin Chadwick and starring Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela.

SIMON BOWLES (Production Designer)

Simon Bowles’ work as production designer is familiar to movie audiences from his imaginative collaborations with director Neil Marshall. These have included Centurion, starring Michael Fassbender; Dog Soldiers, starring Sean Pertwee and Kevin McKidd; Doomsday, starring Rhona Mitra; and The Descent. He returned to the latter subterranean environments for The Descent: Part 2, directed by John Harris and executive-produced by Mr. Marshall.

Mr. Bowles’ other features as production designer include Edgar Wright’s A Fistful of Fingers; Dan Reed’s Straightheads; James Watkins’ Eden Lake; Simon Hunter’s Lighthouse, for which he received a British Independent Film Award (BIFA) nomination, and short film Wired; Jeremy Lovering’s telefilm A Plot to Kill Hitler (a.k.a. Killing Hitler); and Jim O’Hanlon’s telefilm The Reckoning. He again worked with the latter as production designer of the

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miniseries The Deep, also directed by Colm McCarthy, starring James Nesbitt, Orla Brady, and Goran Visnjic.

A graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, he segued into movies by way of the art department. His features as art director included Michael Anderson’s The New Adventures of Pinocchio; Russell Mulcahy’s Tale of the Mummy and telefilm The Lost Battalion; and Kevin Allen’s Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. Mr. Bowles was also art director on several episodes of Foyle’s War; and worked as concept artist on Simon West’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie.

NICOLAS GASTER (Editor)

Nicolas Gaster’s feature films edited for director Roger Michell include The Mother, Enduring Love, Venus, and now Hyde Park on Hudson.

He has also been the film editor for director Ralph Fiennes, on Coriolanus and the currently-in-production The Invisible Woman, as well as Milcho Manchevski, on the Academy Award-nominated Before the Rain, for which Mr. Gaster was also the second unit director, and Dust; Lindsay Anderson, on The Whales of August and the documentary Is That All There Is?; and Lavinia Currier, on Passion in the Desert and Oka! (a.k.a. Oka Amerikee).

Mr. Gaster edited the Academy Award-winning short film Six Shooter, directed by Martin McDonagh. Among other award-winning features that he has edited have been Chris Menges’ A World Apart; Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead; and Duncan Jones’ Moon.

He has also edited such cult favorites as Dave McKean’s MirrorMask and Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s Brothers of the Head, as well as foreign-language features and multiple documentaries.

JEREMY SAMS (Music)

Jeremy Sams is a theatre director, lyricist and translator of plays and opera libretti; and is also a composer, orchestrator, and musical director.

Hyde Park on Hudson is the fourth feature that he has scored for director Roger Michell. It follows Persuasion, for which he won a BAFTA Award; the highly acclaimed The Mother; and Enduring Love, for which Mr. Sams won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Score for a Feature Film.

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He studied music, French, and German at Magdalene College in Cambridge as well as piano at the Guildhall School of Music. Early on, he worked as a freelance pianist and coach, giving frequent recitals and tours and doing stints as a répétiteur (e.g., a musician doubling as a vocal coach) at opera houses in Brussels and Ankara.

Mr. Sams’ stage directorial credits include reviving Michael Frayn’s classic farce Noises Off, in the West End and on Broadway, where Katie Finneran won a Tony Award for her performance; Spend, Spend, Spend, at the Piccadilly Theatre, for which he was an Olivier Award nominee; The Wizard of Oz, currently running at the London Palladium, which won Best Musical Revival at the What’s on Stage Awards; Educating Rita, at the Menier Chocolate Factory and Trafalgar Studios; The Sound of Music, at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, which won the Dora Mavor Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical; Donkey’s Years, in the U.K. at the Comedy Theatre and then on a national tour; and the U.K. tour of Little Britain, adapted from the popular television series. He created the hit stage adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

His many translations include Figaro’s Wedding, The Magic Flute, La Bohème, and The Ring Cycle, at ENO; The Merry Widow, at Covent Garden; Les Parents Terribles, The Miser, Mary Stuart, for the Royal National Theatre; and, on Broadway, Amour. For his translation and composition work on the latter, directed by James Lapine, Mr. Sams received two Tony Award and two Drama Desk Award nominations.

In addition to his feature work, he has composed music for radio programs and television dramas, the latter including Gregory Mosher and David Mamet’s adaptation of Uncle Vanya, starring David Warner, Ian Holm, and Ian Bannen.

DINAH COLLIN (Costume Designer)

For her memorable costume design on the miniseries Pride and Prejudice, directed by Simon Langton and starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, Dinah Collin won an Emmy Award and received a BAFTA Award nomination. She had previously won a BAFTA Award for her work on the miniseries Portrait of a Marriage, directed by Stephen Whittaker and starring Janet McTeer and Cathryn Harrison; and received prior BAFTA nominations for her work on Claude Whatham’s teleplay The Gay Lord Quex and Elijah Moshinsky’s miniseries Cymbeline.

She was costume designer for Paul Greengrass on six features and telefilms: The Bourne Supremacy, Bloody Sunday, The Theory of Flight, The Fix, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, and the Academy Award-nominated United 93. Her other feature work includes Roman

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Polanski’s The Ghost Writer; Michael Caton-Jones’ Shooting Dogs (a.k.a. Beyond the Gates); and Michael Radford’s Flawless, starring Michael Caine and Demi Moore.

Ms. Collin’s television series credits as costume designer include one season of the long-running Last of the Summer Wine; installments of Campion, starring Peter Davison, which aired in the U.S. as Mystery! presentations; and episodes of the cult favorite Doctor Who.

More recently, she has expanded her purview to design costumes for two National Theatre productions: Nicholas Hytner’s staging of Much Ado About Nothing, with Zoë Wanamaker and Simon Russell Beale, and Melly Still’s staging of Nation. She then reteamed with the latter director to design costumes for his production of the opera Cunning Little Vixen, which debuted in May 2012 at The Glyndebourne Festival.

MORAG ROSS (Make-up Designer)

Morag Ross previously teamed with Hyde Park on Hudson star Bill Murray on Sofia Coppola’s Academy Award-winning Lost in Translation, also for Focus Features, on which she was key hair and make-up artist; and on Andy Garcia’s The Lost City.

She was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, and studied at Glasgow School of Art, graduating with a B.A. Hons. Ms. Ross then spent several years with the BBC’s make-up department in London.

Her freelance career since then has included designing make-up and/or hair for, among other feature films, Derek Jaman’s Caravaggio, Edward II, and Wittgenstein; Mike Leigh’s High Hopes; Mel Smith’s The Tall Guy; Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire, and The Butcher Boy; Milcho Manchevski’s Before the Rain; and Alan Rickman’s The Winter Guest. Ms. Ross has won two BAFTA Awards, for her work on Sally Potter’s Orlando, starring Tilda Swinton, and Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator; she has also been BAFTA-nominated for her work on Mr. Scorsese’s Hugo and Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility. In 2008, she was honored with the BAFTA (Scotland) Awards’ Craft Award.

NORMA WEBB (Hair Designer)

Prior to Hyde Park on Hudson, Norma Webb previously worked with director Roger Michell on the smash Notting Hill, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, on which she was both hair stylist and make-up artist.

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Ms. Webb won a BAFTA (Cymru) [Wales] Award for her work as chief make-up designer on Coky Giedroyc’s WWII-set telefilm Carrie’s War, starring Keeley Fawcett; and shared an Emmy Award as part of the make-up department honored for its work on the miniseries Merlin, directed by Steve Barron. As senior hair stylist and senior make-up artist on Lasse Hallström’s Chocolat, she shared a BAFTA Award nomination.

After studying at the London College of Fashion, where she was named Student of the Year, she trained and worked at BBC London. Since then, she has worked on feature films, telefilms, and miniseries as a make-up and hair artist.

Ms. Webb has worked on four 007 movies with three different James Bonds, most recently as make-up artist on Skyfall, starring Daniel Craig for director Sam Mendes. Her other make-up artist credits include, also for Focus Features, Joe Wright’s Atonement, also as hair artist; Robert Altman’s all-star Gosford Park; Martin Campbell’s miniseries Edge of Darkness, Michael Apted’s Gorillas in the Mist, starring Sigourney Weaver; Merchant Ivory’s The Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson; Lasse Hallström’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen; and Christopher Hampton’s Carrington and The Secret Agent, both also as hair stylist.

Her many other projects have included Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code, as hair stylist and make-up artist; and make-up and/or hair work on the second unit of three Harry Potter movies.

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Hyde Park on HudsonCredits

CASTFDR Bill Murray

Daisy Laura Linney Bertie  Samuel West

Elizabeth  Olivia ColmanMissy  Elizabeth Marvel

Eleanor  Olivia WilliamsMrs. Roosevelt Elizabeth Wilson

Tommy Martin McDougallCameron Andrew Havill

Daisy’s Aunt Eleanor BronMrs. Astor Nancy Baldwin

President’s Aides Tim BeckmannGuy PaulEben Young

Mary the Maid Samantha DakinCook Buffy Davis

Plumber Morgan DeareHungry Drivers Tim Ahern

Tommy CampbellJeff MashKevin Millington

Superstitious Maid Nell MooneyWaiter Robert G. Slade

Ish-ti-opi Jonathan BrewerPrincess Te Ata Kumiko Konishi

Butler Blake RitsonThomas Parker Sawyers

Photographer James McNeillBrass Bands The British Imperial Military

BandThe Amersham Band

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CREWDirected by Roger MichellWritten by Richard Nelson

Produced by Kevin LoaderRoger MichellDavid Aukin

Executive Producer Tessa RossLine Producer Rosa Romero

Director of Photography Lol CrawleyProduction Designer Simon Bowles

Edited by Nicolas GasterMusic by Jeremy Sams

Costume Designer Dinah CollinCasting by Gail Stevens, CDG and Ellen

Lewis

First Assistant Director Barrie McCullochSecond Assistant Director Harriet Worth

Production Manager Nicola MairsLocation Manager Jonah Coombes

Supervising Art Director Mark RaggettSet Decorator Celia Bobak

Production Sound Mixer Danny HambrookPost-Production Supervisor Louise SeymourSupervising Sound Editors Matt Collinge

Danny Sheehan

Art Director Hannah SanteuginiStandby Art Director Fiona Gavin

Assistant Art Director Sophie BridgmanArt Department Assistant Sarah Priest

Art Department Trainee Oliver Charles BensonGraphics Artist Chris Lunney

Illustrator Charlie Cobb

‘B’ Camera/Steadicam Operators

Simon BakerJulian Morson

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First Assistant Camera/‘A’ Camera

Derrick Peters

Second Assistant Camera/‘A’ Camera

Henry Landgrebe

First Assistant Camera/‘B’ Camera

Tom Wilkinson

Second Assistant Camera/‘B’ Camera

David Mills

Camera Trainee Ben Wearing‘C’ Camera Operator Steven Hall

First Assistant Camera/‘C’ Camera

John Bailie

Second Assistant Camera/‘C’ Camera

Dashiel Lilley

Aerial Camera Operator Jeremy BrabenWescam Technician Oliver WardUnderwater Camera

OperatorTim Wooster

Video Playback Brian LockyerOn Set DIT Mark Purvis

Script Supervisor Sue Hills

First Assistant Editor Andy JadavjiSecond Assistant Editor Kieran Waller

Post-Production Coordinator Robin Davies

Sound Maintenance Adam LaschingerSound Assistants Nick Gillett

Nadine RichardsonAdditional Sound Recordists Rashad Omar

Paul Paragon

Assistant Costume Designer Jeremy TurnerCostume Supervisor Dulcie Scott

Costume Design Assistant Caroline McCallCostume Maker Sarah Humphrey

Standby Costumes Paul YeowellYasemin Kascioglu

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Costume Trainee Daisy BabbingtonCostume Assistants Pol Kyriacou

Emma Bevan Hyde

Make-up Designer Morag RossHair Designer Norma Webb

Make-up Artists Pauline FehilyEmilie Yong

Hairdresser Lisa PickeringCrowd Make-up Supervisor Karen Z. M. Turner

Crowd Hair Supervisor Kathryn FaMake-up Trainee Joanna Sim

Chief Lighting Technician Stefan LissnerBest Boy Electric Jimmy Russell

Rigging Gaffer James SummersElectricians Mark Alvarez

Adrian MackaySteve O’DonaghueRob Walton

Key Grip David McAnultySecond Grip David Littlejohns

Standby Rigger Mark RichardsStandby Carpenter Peter Ford

Property Master Tom ReadProps Storeman Michael Rawling

Production Buyer James HendyAssistant Production Buyer Katie Turner

Drapesman Anthony SzuchHome Economists Katherine Tidy

Catherine KinzigCharge Hand Dresser Don Raphael Santos

Dressers Beau ReadJevon Edwards

Standby Propmen Kevin DayAndy ForrestDan Taylor

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Special Effects Supervisor Chris ReynoldsSpecial Effects Technicians Harry Bryce

Steve BowmanMike CrowleyJohn Timlin

Assistant Location Manager Amie TridgellUnit Manager John Crampton

Location Scout and Assistant

Jeremy Levy

Location Assistant Rachel TaylorLocation Scouts Hanna Lamb

Nick MarshallPrincipal Location

ConservatorRosemary MacDonald

Location Conservator Kate Bertenshaw

Production Coordinator Gabby Le RasleAssistant

Production CoordinatorsEmily GardnerHelen Turner

Second SecondAssistant Director

Carley Lane

Crowd Second Assistant Director

Sarah Macfarlane

Third Assistant Directors Vaughn SteinTom Reynolds

Key Floor Runner Daniel SmithFloor Runners Karl King

Joe PainesSet Production Assistant Gabriel Henrique Gonzalez

Trainee Assistant Director Jack BinghamOffice Production Assistant Ben Coren

Crowd Production Assistants

Layla GilhoolyDaniel CoxKay MichaelSam Barry-Parker

Assistant to Mr. Murray Sam RossAssistant to Ms. Linney Sian Anthony

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Sound Editing by Phaze UKDialogue and ADR Editor Gavin RoseAdditional Effects Editor Danny Hambrook

Foley Supervisor Barnaby SmythFoley Recordists Glen Gathard

Keith PartridgeFoley Artist Peter Burgis

ADR Voice Casting Sync or SwimRe-Recording Mixers Chris Burdon

Matthew CollingeSound Mix Technician Nick Del-Molino

Re-Recorded at De Lane Lea

Construction Manager Gene D’CruzeSupervising Carpenter Danny Margetts

Supervising Painter Mark BerosConstruction Driver Clive D’Cruze

Charge Hand Carpenters Brian StaggDominic Ackland-Snow

Charge Hand Rigger Ian Grant

Insurance Provided by AON/Albert G. RubenInsurance Services

Legal Services Provided by Wiggin LLPCharles MooreAlexander Lea

Development Legal Services

Sara Curran

Clearance Services Provided by

Ashley Kravitz

Music Legal and Clearances by

Christine Bergren

Production Accountant Maxine DavisFirst Assistant Accountant Marie Dong

Payroll Accountant Ellie DownhamCashier John Steele

Post-Production Accountant Lara SargentPost Assistant Accountants Louise Green

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Kirstie WhitePayroll Services Sargent-Disc Ltd, London

Stunt Coordinators Abbi CollinsJames O’Donnell

Stunt Performer Lucy Allen

Publicists Charles McDonaldMatthew Sanders

Stills Photographer Nicola Dove

Casting Associate (UK) Colin JonesCasting Assistant (UK) Becks FarhallCasting Associate (US) Matthew Maisto

Polio Advisor Mike EganMilitary Advisor Paul Hornsby

Chickasaw Research Consultant

Judy Lee Oliva

Dialect Coaches Julia Wilson DicksonLouis Calaianni

Animal Handlers Emma Dent Jez Rose

Assets/Green Manager Anna HindsCatering Healthy Yummies

Chefs Nichola SmithDavid Yorkston

Front of House Kelly MaarschalkJulie Bailey

Assistant Chef John HancockFirst Aid Elton Farla

Location Security Company A R Location ServicesLocation Security Anthony Stagles

Rodney DewinterJohn BarnesDean WillmottBill CharmanDanny Gooner

Facilities Captain Greg Howard

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Facilities Dean Clack

Vintage Vehicles TLO Film ServicesVehicle Coordinator Martin Alderdice

Camera Truck Driver Derrick FosterUnit Drivers Mark Richards

Mike BeavenChris DudleyJohn Kemp

Rushes Services provided by

Sixteen19

Rushes Manager Chad AndrewsRushes Operators Justin K. Stanley

Kaitlyn FoxRushes Runner Derek Ewers

For Film4Head of Development Sam Lavender

Head ofCommercial Development

Sue Bruce-Smith

Head of Business Affairs Harry DixonHead of Production Tracey Josephs

For Daybreak PicturesProduction Executive Hal VogelProducer’s Assistant Thomas Hawkins

Visual Effects by Union VFXSupervisor Adam Gascoyne

Producer Tim CaplanProduction Coordinator Noga Alon Stein

Lead VFX Artist Mervyn NewCompositing TD Kaveh Montazer

VFX Artists Mitch CreaseWilliam JeffersMaria PeraltaValeria Oss

VFX Editor Kieran Waller

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Digital Intermediate Provided by Company 3 LondonColorist Adam Glasman

On-Line Editor Emily GreenwoodHead of Department Patrick Malone

Producer Marie FernandesAssistant Producer Cheryl Goodbody

Digital Film Technical Supervisor

Laurent Treherne

Digital Film Bureau Fiorenza BagnariolTimothy P. JonesGordon PrattLaura Pavone

Assistants Aurora ShannonPeter Collins

Data Wrangler Dan Helme

Avids Provided by Pivotal PostTitle Design by Matt Curtis

Color Timer Clive NoakesDolby Sound Consultant Robert Karlsson

Post-Production Script FATTS

Music Performed by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestra Recorded at Angel Recording StudiosMusic Scoring Mixer Gary Thomas

Music Scoring Mix Assistant Chris ParkerConductor Christopher Austin

Orchestrations Christopher AustinJeremy SamsIan Humphris

Music Editor Rael JonesCopyists Daniel McCallum

Daniel Saleeb

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Songs

“Moonlight Serenade”Written by Glenn Miller and Mitchell Parish

Performed by Glenn Miller and His OrchestraCourtesy of Sony Music Entertainment

Under license from Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd.

“I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire”Written by Bennie Benjamin, Eddie Durham, Sol Marcus and Edward

SeilerPerformed by The Ink SpotsCourtesy of Geffen Records

Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

“If I Didn’t Care”Written by Jack Lawrence

Performed by The Ink SpotsCourtesy of Geffen Records

Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

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“Chief Mountain Song”Traditional

Arranged by Ben BrewerPerformed by Jonathan Brewer

“Thunder Song”Traditional

Arranged by Ben BrewerPerformed by Jonathan Brewer

“Squaw Mountain”Traditional

Arranged by Ben BrewerPerformed by Jonathan Brewer

“Benny’s Song”Traditional

Arranged by Ben BrewerPerformed by Jonathan Brewer

Made with the support of the UK Film Council’s Development Fund

Originally commissioned by the Watershed Partnership Ltd

This motion picture used sustainability strategies to reduceIts carbon emissions and environmental impact.

For more information visit www.focusfeatures.com/FocusOnGreen

Color by Deluxe

Special ThanksRobert Clark and The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum,

Hyde Park, NY

The US Park Rangers and staff at the Homes of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt Historic Sites, Springwood and Val-Kill, NY

Gregory J Sokaris, Wilderstein Historic Site, NY

Ned Chaillet

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Jared Levitus-McCulloch

Motion Picture Association of America #47399

Copyright 2012 Focus Features LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Focus Features LLC is the author of this motion picturefor purposes of the Berne Convention and all national laws giving

effect thereto.

While this picture is based on a true story,certain characters names have been changed,

some main characters have been composited or inventedand a number of incidents fictionalized.

This motion picture is protected under the lawsof the United States and other countries.

Unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may resultin civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Running Time: 95 minutes

Aspect Ratio: Scope [2:35/1] Dolby Stereo SR/SRD/DTS, in selected theaters

www.HydeParkOnHudsonMovie.com

www.Facebook.com/HydeParkOnHudsonwww.YouTube.com/HydeParkOnHudson

Twitter Hashtag: #HydeParkMovie

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A Focus Features Release

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