Director Joe Wright Says Pride & Prejudice Hand Flex Scene Wasn’t Scripted: ‘I Didn’t Think We Got It’ (Exclusive)

The internet’s favorite scene from Pride & Prejudice almost didn’t happen

Director Joe Wright admits exclusively to PEOPLE that Mr. Darcy’s hand flex scene in his 2005 classic, Pride & Prejudice, wasn’t scripted — it was the idea of actor Matthew Macfadyen.

“It wasn’t in the script, but that was an important moment in the book,” Wright, 52, shares. “This sudden realization, as they were parting, of what they meant to each other or the kind of disturbance they caused in each other.” 

The moment in the movie appears when Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy reaches out his hand to aid Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennet into the carriage. Once their hands disconnect, the camera catches Mr. Darcy stretching out his hand. Wright emphasizes that this is an important moment for their relationship and wanted the scene to “convey the intelligence of our bodies really over our minds.”

“Our bodies are so much smarter than our minds often. Although their conscious minds are fighting against each other, their bodies are two magnets drawn to each other,” Wright recalls. “As they touch, even that little hand lifting helping her, which is pure etiquette of the period, somehow creates this kind of electronic shock wave through them both, and he has to shake it away.”

The 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice was released in November of that year and is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Knightley, 40, received an Oscar nomination for her performance. 

The cast also included Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Judi Dench, Carey Mulligan, Talulah Riley, Rupert Friend, Brenda Blethyn and the late Donald Sutherland. The film grossed more than $120 million worldwide and has become a favorite for romance lovers everywhere, many of whom claim the hand flex scene as the ultimate show of romance. 

Wright initially didn’t think the scene adequately portrayed the relationship and attraction between the two main love interests. 

“It had been a gloomy day when we shot it,” Wright shares. “I felt like I hadn’t conveyed what I wanted to, and it’s odd and gratifying to find that we told our story, and people have responded. Because on the day, I thought, ‘Oh no, we didn’t get it. It was rubbish. It didn’t work.’ Now, people are still posting it. It’s odd and really nice.”

The hand flex scene, as it’s referenced, went viral on TikTok and has been parodied in movies and television shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty. 

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In an interview with Letterboxd in March, Macfadyen, 50, remarked on the movie’s staying power.

“Pride & Prejudice has had legs, hasn’t it?” Macfadyen shared. “I don’t know how things are going to continue and whether they’ll last or whether people will keep watching them, but people are still watching it.”

In an interview with CBS Mornings last year, Macfadyen shared that he still gets recognized as Mr. Darcy, despite the time passed. “I think probably the most flattering thing that happens to me now is people say, ‘Were you Mr. Darcy?’ and it’s a good 20 years later,” he said. “So I think, ‘I can’t be aging that badly.’ “