In Entertainment today, we listen to an interview with the young and talented

English actor Anna Maxwell Martin.

Anna is only 28 and she won a Best Actress BAFTA award in 2006 for her

stunning performance as the plain and shy Esther Summerson in a TV

adaptation of Charles Dickens’s novel ‘Bleak House’. She is currently

appearing on stage in London, playing the outrageous Sally Bowles – the lead

role in the classic musical ‘Cabaret’, set in 1930s Berlin.

But in our programme today, Anna talks about her new film, ‘Becoming Jane’,

in which she plays Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen was one of the

greatest English novelists and she is best-known for her clever love story ‘Pride

and Prejudice’.

Jane Austen lived from 1775 to 1817. She was an extraordinarily clever writer

and she did not marry. ‘Becoming Jane’ is about Jane Austen herself falling in

love and it is based on what we know of Jane’s life. We do know that Jane was

very close to her sister Cassandra.

Here’s Anna talking about Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra. As you listen,

try to catch how she describes Cassandra – in terms of her relationship with

Jane. What roles did Cassandra play for Jane? 

Playing Jane Austen’s sister © BBC Learning English

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Anna Maxwell Martin

‘Well, she was very much a levelling force for Jane – Jane was the misfit of the family really

– very ambitious, wanted to be a writer. Whereas Cassandra was very aware of her duty to her

family, which was a hugely prevalent thing at the time - marrying for the right reasons, to the

right person. Jane didn’t feel any of those obligations because she had another passion, and

Cassandra was really the one who tried to … she was a sounding-board for Jane, but also she

tried to level her a bit and that didn’t really work!’

Amber: Did you catch Anna’s descriptions of Cassandra? She says Cassandra was very

‘much a levelling force for Jane’. ‘A levelling force’ – someone who smoothes

another person’s extreme responses to things, who calms them. Anna also calls

Cassandra ‘a sounding-board for Jane’. ‘A sounding-board’ is someone who

listens to your ideas and gives you helpful feedback, or comments.

Anna explains that Jane Austen didn’t feel the usual obligations, or duties, of

women of her time, because she had her ‘passion’, her love of writing. She was

‘ambitious’, determined to succeed. And she was ‘the misfit of the family’ – a

misfit is someone who is out of place in a particular situation. Listen to Anna

talking about Cassandra and Jane Austen again.

Anna Maxwell Martin

‘Well, she was very much a levelling force for Jane – Jane was the misfit of the family really

– very ambitious, wanted to be a writer. Whereas Cassandra was very aware of her duty to her

family, which was a hugely prevalent thing at the time - marrying for the right reasons, to the

right person. Jane didn’t feel any of those obligations because she had another passion, and

Cassandra was really the one who tried to … she was a sounding-board for Jane, but also she

tried to level her a bit and that didn’t really work!’ 

Playing Jane Austen’s sister © BBC Learning English

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bbclearningenglish.com

Amber: Next, Anna explains that she thinks it’s difficult to imagine how close Jane and

Cassandra were because women today have more opportunities to make their

own friends, to have their own ‘social circle’.

As you listen, try to catch the word Anna uses to describe her brother.

Anna Maxwell Martin

‘I think it’s quite difficult for us to understand that kind of closeness now. I mean, I’m very

close to my sibling, my brother, but in those days, especially with sisters, you shared the same

bedroom, maybe the same bad, sometimes all your life, or certainly until you left the home

and got married. And that’s the way with Jane and Cassandra, and they didn’t have the social

circle in the sense that we do as independent women – there was a social circle, but you

visited as a family, you visited people’s houses, or you went to a ball, or whatever. So your

sister was your best friend in many respects. So it was a different kind of relationship and we

tried to get that right.’

Amber: Did you catch it? Anna calls her brother, her ‘sibling’ – a sibling is a brother or

a sister.

Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in the programme today.

a levelling force

a sounding-board

feedback

the misfit of the family

ambitious

obligations

a passion

social circle

sibling