Warning: This article contains spoilers aboutRebecca.
Rebeccaalways has some surprises in store.
But directorBen Wheatleyhad strong reasons for both major shifts.
Credit: KERRY BROWN/NETFLIX
On the page, Danvers' fate is ambiguous.
“Her understanding of what happened to Rebecca is that she drowns.
So, she joins her in the sea.
And that made sense to me,” Wheatley tells EW.
Partly this change was motivated by his desire to tone down the character’s explicit villainy.
“She never says anything that’s particularly wrong.
She goes over the top sometimes, but her actual instinct is right.
She’s the conscience of the film.
We should be siding with Rebecca and with the law.”
Because the fiery version of her demise was Hitchcock’s invention, Wheatley wanted to avoid repeating that.
But he also felt the book’s ambiguous ending was unsatisfactory for a character who looms so large.
Who’s with me?
Wheatley even hints that her plunge into the sea might not be as fatal as it looks.
“There’s a possibility she’s not dead either,” he adds.
It’s a decidedly happy ending in comparison to the novel and the 1940 film.
But Wheatley pushes back against reading it as a happily-ever-after.
“But it’s not romantic in many ways because she knows his nature.
She knows what he’s done.
And they’ve both decided to cover that up.
It’s bittersweet really.”
“The camera’s like, ‘What is that?
Is she worried, or does she not care?'”
“The film needed closing down and to see the final bit of her development.
Rebeccais now available on Netflix.
