TORONTO—There are few young actors with ambition who think that being stereotyped is a particularly good thing. They may work more often, but they will probably find few challenges. Ben Whishaw was supposed to break out into stardom with the 2006 film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, in which he played a man whose obsessions lead him to the dark side. The movie didn’t catch on, however, and Whishaw had to get back in line for good roles. Three years later, Jane Campion came calling. The Oscar-nominated director of The Piano wanted him to play the role of 19th-century poet John Keats in her film Bright Star. He says he was surprised when she told him that she wanted him to bring along some pieces of his Perfume character.

“She said she saw something in Perfume that she felt would work in this film,” Whishaw said in a Toronto hotel room during the recent Toronto International Film Festival. “I would love to try something different. It’s funny, though, because I don’t feel that I am ever being myself. You are always using parts of yourself, of course, but I do feel ready to dig around in another part of myself now. I am thrilled that I have had this run of roles that are very complex and interesting, and that is what you look for. But maybe I need to be in a youth-oriented comedy next.”

The film, which opens Friday (September 25), looks at a relationship Keats had with a seamstress named Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). At the time he was a struggling poet and not considered good marriage material. Whishaw said that when he agreed to take the role, Campion told him that although he may never be a great poet, he should know as much about how poets approach their craft as possible.

“I started off just reading as much as I could about his life,” he said. “Jane said that she wanted me to be able to answer any question”¦and I read heaps of poetry from men of his century and poets of our own time. She said, ”˜You have to experience the world as poetry to have a poet’s view of life. You can see poetry in everything, and poetry only reveals itself slowly over time.’ I visited his house and did everything I could to get myself closer to being in his spirit. I did learn to use the quill, and”¦I spent some time in class with a poet and we touched on some of the technical things.”¦But Keats said, ”˜Poetry should come as naturally as leaves to a tree.’ He was a smart man and educated himself to the technical stuff, but when he was writing, he was receiving it from somewhere else.”