It was the hand flex that launched a thousand swoons and even more fan fiction. The moment Mr. Darcy walks away from helping Elizabeth Bennett into a carriage in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice, flexing his hand as if hers still lingered there. Lives were changed. A classic romance meme was born. Now, in honor of the film’s 20th anniversary, the Pride & Prejudice director confirms that the hand flex was unscripted and reflected on actor Matthew Macfadyen’s viral gesture in a new interview.
“It wasn’t in the script, but that was an important moment in the book,” director Joe Wright told People. “This sudden realization, as they were parting, of what they meant to each other or the kind of disturbance they caused in each other.”
Joe explained that he filmed the close up of the gesture because he wanted the physicality in the scene to show how Mr. Darcy’s body recognized his feelings before he did. “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,” Joe said of Elizabeth and Darcy. “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.”
Of course, real ones have known that the hand flex was Matthew’s idea for a while. In a 2022 interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, the actor was asked about the iconic moment, revealing that it was just a choice he made while rehearsing. Joe apparently noticed it and decided to get an extra close up of the hand flex.
“It’s credit to Joe, because he’s—I think, he doesn’t miss a trick, and he’s so alive to things, and he saw me do it in a rehearsal take and I remember him just going, ‘Get that!’ So they just did an extra shot on the hand,” Matthew said.
To say the moment has taken on a life of its own would be an understatement. The hand flex is now synonymous with yearning. It’s so huge that Focus Features is selling Pride & Prejudice hand flex merch to celebrate the film’s anniversary.
Pride & Prejudice Mr. Darcy Yearning Oversized Unisex T-Shirt
Pride & Prejudice will be rereleased in theaters for a limited engagement on Sunday, April 20.