It’s not just kissing. It’s all that stuff that leads up to feeling like you might be able to do that. I love etiquette for that reason — it’s so sexy! The Victorian period, the Edwardian period, all these periods where you’re not allowed to touch. I was very clear with the actors when they went on this journey with me: I want to follow these etiquette rules. Don’t touch anyone’s arm unless it is a distinct moment where we are allowing contact. (..)
The fact that you establish those rules so strongly means that, as people break down underneath that cool veneer of politeness, you really feel it. And especially, never more so than at the dance, when there’s so much going on that Knightley and Emma are kind of just unraveling in each other. So, that sense of nearly touching—and then they do touch, when they hold each other —should feel revolutionary.
— Autumn de Wilde
