A photogenic love triangle: Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgard and Jason Clarke

LOS ANGELES—Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgard and Jason Clarke make a photogenic love triangle in the post-World War II drama, “The Aftermath.”

Based on the best-selling novel by Rhidian Brook, the film stars Keira as Rachael Morgan, who arrives in 1946 Hamburg to join her husband Lewis (Jason), an officer of the British Forces in Germany who is assigned to lead in rebuilding the city in ruins from the war.

Devastated by a tragic loss as a result of the war, the English couple will live in a grand mansion previously owned by a German widower, Stefan Lubert (Alexander), an architect who is coping with the death of his wife, also a casualty of World War II.

Rachael is surprised when she learns that Lewis decided to let Stefan and his teenage daughter stay in the house, rather than evict them. The arrangement leads to passion and conflict between the film’s three good-looking leads. James Kent directs the film written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse.

Interviewed in London, Alexander (who is Swedish), Keira (British) and Jason (Australian) offered their takes on the love triangle that their characters find themselves in. Keira, always reliable, paints a conflicted woman whose unspoken grief is complicated by her impulsive dalliance with Alexander’s Stefan, whom she initially detests, especially for what he represents.

Alexander makes it plausible for Keira’s Rachael to suddenly fall for his grieving German architect. But it’s Jason who has the meatiest part and has a heartbreaking scene toward the film’s end.

Alexander Skarsgard

Alexander Skarsgard —PHOTOS BY RUBEN V. NEPALES

“No, I was not reluctant to do them,” Alex replied with a laugh when asked about the movie’s sex scenes. “They’re important for the narrative, especially the buildup to the first kiss, which is almost a provocation from Stefan’s side. And the way Rachael responds to that is not what he expected in a way.”

The star of two HBO series, “Big Little Lies” and “True Blood,” added, “We had a lot of fun exploring that affair—deciding how to map it out. Who’s in charge, who’s not, and play that back and forth.”

The equally talented son of actor Stellan Skarsgard explained the story’s origins. “Rhidian Brook, who wrote the novel, based it on a true story. The characters are fictional, but Rhidian’s grandfather was a British officer who moved to Hamburg to rebuild the city after the war and did what Lewis is doing in ‘The Aftermath.’

“Basically, he let the original family stay in the house. When they requisitioned these houses, a lot of them were big mansions for the officers.

“The grandfather was a  good man. And he felt like, if there’s enough space here for the family owners to stay, we don’t need to send them to camp. And they became friends.

“It wasn’t a love story per se, but a story of friendship, how they were able to, six months after bombing each other, live under the same roof, which I thought was a beautiful story.”

Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley

“It’s very Freudian, isn’t it?” Keira asked aloud about her Rachael, who initially expressed her hostility toward the Germans and their role in her family’s tragic loss but suddenly has an affair with Alexander’s hunky German architect.

“I think it is a provocation,” the former child actress said about Stefan’s surprise kiss to her Rachael. “That relationship is much more about her husband than it is about him (Stefan) or, if you want to go with the Freudian thing, she’s f***ing the man who killed her son.”

Asked if there is an element of revenge in Stefan’s affair with Rachael, the Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated actress answered, “I’m sure because sex is power so within that, the sex scene on the table was … very purposeful. It’s revenge for both of them.  She’s taking revenge on her husband for failing to be there for her. I don’t think it’s as simple as being a nice romance. That’s what I was interested in.

“So I think with him (Stefan), she has a holiday romance. Actually, that whole thing was more about the husband than it ever was about the affair.”

While her character is seen in nude scenes with Alexander, Keira revealed that wasn’t her. “I don’t do any nudity,” she declared. “It was a body double. But I get to pick the body double, then I get final approval over the cut of the sex scene. It’s literally a no-nudity clause unless … then it’s a discussion between me and the director. I had the choice over this one, and I saw this cut and approved it.

“I also had approval on the body that was my body that isn’t my body (laughs).  Wonderful nipples—my God, I’ll have those (laughs).  Yes, please.”

On Jason’s character who reflects many men of that postwar era who were silent and bottled their emotions, the actress who broke through with “Bend It Like Beckham” shared, “What I was interested in, particularly from the marital relationship—that was the silent generation, where men had to be ‘men,’ and they didn’t talk about their feelings. They didn’t openly express their emotions.

“And how on earth does a couple survive, where the wife needs to talk about this great tragedy and this man cannot speak about it? That’s something that takes apart a lot of relationships—that lack of ability to communicate and yet this is a film that’s about desperately trying to find that communication.”

On her experience working with Alexander and Jason, Keira replied, “It was different with each. I was lucky in this with Jason because we worked together before and I love working with Jason. He’s a phenomenal actor. There’s a shorthand and a trust just because we’ve worked together.

“With Alexander, he’s one of the nicest men in the entire world.  Hands down.  He just doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. If you’re doing something as intimate as this, it’s just a dream to have somebody who you’re like, ‘Oh, you’ve got my back.  I’ve got your back.’ We can just dive in.”

Jason Clarke

Jason Clarke

“This was my first full-on love story,” said Jason, whose credits include the recent “First Man,” where he played astronaut Ed White alongside Ryan Gosling’s Neil Armstrong, “Pet Sematary,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “White House Down,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Terminator Genisys,” “Everest,” “Mudbound” and “Chappaquiddick,” in which he portrayed Ted Kennedy.

“This is not a shellac or a bull,” he continued. “It’s not your classic love story. I was never interested in playing it where the other guy takes a man’s wife and Lewis has to be something bad in the end to justify that. I love that it was never what this film was about. That people can fight for their love and a woman can make choices. I’m very proud of it, I’ll say that much.”

“For me, it was about how Lewis doesn’t begrudge Stefan,” the Aussie pointed out. “People are just looking for happiness. I like that side of it …”

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