Make That Bonnet Work For You! Or Ruth Wilson's Guide to Surviving a Costume Drama

To mark the DVD release of "Jane Eyre", Time Out asked Ruth to give her top tips for anyone suceeding her as Jane Eyre.

Here they are!

1. Don't do the typical posh thing with your voice. Wilson says that she did her first audition in received pronunciation and the second one in broad Yorkshire. After some debate, the team decided to go with a mixture. "I put a bit of Yorkshire in the vowel sound, which shows she's different from the rest."

2. Remember that once you enter the loo in your voluminous costume, you may not be able to turn around, so go in facing the right direction. "I was wearing layers and layers of petticoats and thermals underneath, so it wasn't very easy. Luckily I managed to go to the loo without needing assistance."

3. Don't overdo it at lunchtime. "If you've got a corset on, you have to remember not to eat too much, or it just won't go down. But if you don't eat enough, your stomach will start rumbling mid-afternoon, which is not funny when you're miked up."

(Not actual corset)

4. If you have to suffer for your art, make the most of it and use the constriction to inform your performance. "I had a corset that was moulded to my body and used to think of as a shell that was holding her in while all those emotions are bubbling away inside her."

5. Jane doesn't have many lines, so know the book backwards and understand the emotions, "I went through the script and cross-referenced it with the book, so I knew exactly what Jane's reaction was to everything, even if she wasn't saying anything."

6. Make that bonnet work for you! "We were very lucky because we had these nice open ones which are like a halo around your head - sometimes with period drama they're a bit like a tunnel around your face."

Sorry I couldn't scan the article in, but there was niece with a nose bleed and well things got a little messy! Don't worry she's fine now.