Mia Wasikowska on "Jane Eyre" Being Modern, "Cool"

2010 was a big year for Mia Wasikowska -- she was the lead in Tim Burton's re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland, and she was the teenage daughter of Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right. With that increase in exposure, the Australian actress had her pick of roles, but she chose her next film based on a classic she missed out on in school: Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Wasikowska explains why she thinks Jane Eyre is a timeless and modern heroine, and why she'll never miss the corset.

Q: How did you pick this project?

A: I had just finished Alice, and I made a list of the classics that I thought I should get through. I read To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Animal Farm, Love in the Time of Cholera, and I started reading Jane Eyre. I got to chapter nine, when I emailed my agent to ask, "Is there a script around? This is so cool!" At the time, there wasn't, but two months later, she emailed me a script and told me the director wanted to meet me.

Q: Why did you think this was so cool?

A: I think Jane is such an important character for young women. She's got an innate sense of self-respect, and there's really nowhere that would have come from. It's not like she had a loving upbringing or anything. But she has something inside of her that says, "I'm worthy of being treated right. I'm worthy of having a good life. I'm worthy of being loved." And I think that's something people connect to, and that's what makes her timeless and modern as well. Everything that she has, she's built herself. And I thought she was powerful. Lots of women connect to her spirit and her inner strength, so I feel lucky to take her on. There's so many different interpretations, and often it's a reflection of what's going on in our day.

Q: What did playing her make you think about how women were treated in that era, which is so often romanticized when there were some harsh realities?

A: I've never been happier to be someone borne of our era than when I put on the corset. It's true, everything they say about them is true. It's just a horrible repression. It helps for the character and the story, but there's not a whole lot I would enjoy about that society, especially if you're not someone of class, which again is why Jane is fantastic, because she really has worked for everything she got, which is honorable. But on set, I would have to be, "Do I have the water, or do I have a muffin? Because I'm really thirsty and kind of hungry. Which one? I've got this much space in my stomach." It really restricts your breathing and your voice. It's such a strain. I only had to have it for two months, so I was glad.

Q: And courtship was also kind of confined. Jane and Rochester have a modern version...

A: Rochester and Jane have their games, "Is he or isn't he? I can't quite tell." I feel like that part was very modern, subtly putting himself out there. But otherwise courting was obvious and formal. I guess at least it was honest -- if you're courting someone, they know. Nowadays, though, she would have found out about his wife on Twitter. In her day, you would have to walk to somebody's house and deliver a letter. We're so many degrees removed.

Q: Have you read Jasper Fforde's fantasy book The Eyre Affair, where his literary detective heroine Thursday Next goes into Jane Eyre and is the one responsible for upsetting Rochester's horse, burning down Thornfield, and Jane hearing the voice on the moor, among other things? If they adapted that book into a film, would you want to play Jane again, as a cameo?

A: Oh, wow. That's really funny. I'm really curious to read that. Maybe as a cameo. I haven't even thought about that before. That could be fun.