"Pride and Prejudice" director Joe Wright told Insider that he wasn't aware Mr. Darcy's hand flex in his 2005 adaptation had gone viral on TikTok.
Wright most recently directed "Cyrano," a film that's similarly full of yearning and the kinds of detail-oriented visual moments found in Wright's work. Starring Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennett, the film is an adaptation of Erica Schmidt's 2018 musical theater take on the original Edmond Rostand play "Cyrano de Bergerac."
Wright's work has been in spotlight on social media, however, in recent years, even before the premiere of "Cyrano." As Insider's Kim Renfro reported in 2020, one particular moment from Wright's "Pride and Prejudice" became a mainstay on TikTok 15 years after the film release.
"I would have never imagined that Darcy's hand flex would be iconic on TikTok," Wright told Insider, saying that he hadn't been previously aware of the fandom fixation.
In the film, Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) flexes his hand outward as he walks away from Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley), having touched her for the first time.
At the time the small moment went viral in 2020, Paul Tothill, the film's editor, told Renfro that he thought that Wright "had a fantastic time" shooting subtlety-laden film, and that the pair "had a very happy time in the cutting room."
@tori.hoover #fyp #foryou #prideandprejudice #mrdarcy #janeausten #prideandprejudice2005 ♬ My favourite thing - The IRA
Wright hypothesized about a potentially similar moment to Darcy's hand flex that happens in "Cyrano" during the balcony sequence, which he called the "fulcrum" of the film.
"I know that [in 'Cyrano'] there's a moment as Christian climbs the balcony to kiss Roxanne where Cyrano almost feels the kiss himself," Wright told me. "He kind of puckers up a little bit. And I know that tiny detail meant the world to me."
In the sequence, Cyrano (Peter Dinklage) speaks directly to Roxanne (Haley Bennett), hidden behind a pillar and pretending to be Christian, the man that Roxanne has fallen in love with through Cyrano's words. It's the first time that he's able to directly express his sentiments verbally to her, rather than in a letter signed with Christian's name.
"I wanted to get across a sense of yearning and a sense of how unfair love could be, and a sense of freedom for Cyrano to be able to freely speak from his own heart," Wright told Insider. "That felt most important and powerful."
