It’s been 28 years since Marianne Jean-Baptiste burst onto the international film scene with Mike Leigh’s film. secrets and lies.
Fresh out of drama school, the British actress starred in the 1996 comedy Hortense, a black middle-class professional who was adopted as an infant and decides to search for her biological mother after her parents die. Hortense discovered Cynthia, [Brenda Blethyn] A working class white woman with a barely normal alcohol addiction and a very dysfunctional family. The contrast between Bryce’s twitchy, emotionally raw and vulnerable Cynthia and Jean-Baptiste’s Hortense, who is calm, controlled and often confused, forms the emotional core of the film.
secrets and lies The film premiered in Cannes, where it won the Palme d’Or and entered awards season, ultimately receiving five Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Jean-Baptiste. Her career was officially launched. Over the next nearly three decades, she thrived primarily on the small screen, most notably in her role as Vivian Johnson on the long-running CBS show. no trace to be found (2002-2009), as FBI agent Bethany Mayfair on “FBI” blind spot (2015–2016) and Stephan James Gloria Morisseau, mother of veteran Walter Cruz, on Amazon Prime Return (2018).
Jean-Baptiste spent nearly thirty years reuniting with Leigh. cruel truth. She plays Pansy, a depressed and angry woman who often lashes out at the world around her in public, sometimes tragically, sometimes hilariously.
The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last month and generated awards buzz, especially for Jean-Baptiste. When the actress was interviewed hollywood reporter ahead of cruel truthBritain takes its bow at the London Film Festival on Monday.
If this isn’t too fanboyish, I have to say that after all these years, I really miss seeing you on the big screen and seeing you again in Mike Leigh’s movies. Why did it take so long for you two to work together again?
Well, I moved to Los Angeles. [after Secrets and Lies] That’s how we parted, I guess it was just time. We tried to figure out how to do it and this time, when he asked, I said yes. I can’t really say why it worked this time, but it did.
Mike Leigh is known for developing his characters and stories through long hours of rehearsals and improvisation, which he used to write the shooting scripts. After working in the American television production machine for so long, how does it feel to return to this approach?
It’s great to be able to work this way again. Scary and exciting. I mean, I’ve been doing it the other way for a long time, so I was eager to collaborate on a level that wouldn’t be possible in a traditional way of making movies. It was great to be able to spend time rehearsing and discovering these characters. Yes, it’s just that as you get older, everything becomes different. my first time with [Leigh]I had not long left drama school, so I was already in the mindset of exploring and jumping into new things. [Hard Truths] I try to come back to that, in a process to come back to trusting someone wholeheartedly and knowing you’re going to be taken care of.
What is Mike Leigh’s suggestion for this project?
Mike Leigh’s pitch is always Mike Leigh, but for an actor who knows his work and is familiar with it, who’s read his method, you’re buying into the experience. You spend three months or six months in rehearsal developing a character from their first memory to their age in the production. You are buying into that process. You might go through the entire process and end up appearing in just one or two scenes, or your character might become the center of the story.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Mike Leigh attend the world premiere of the film cruel truth In Toronto.
Harold Fung/Getty Images
When did you know that your character Pansy would be the center of the story and that you would be in almost every scene of the film?
Well, I live in Los Angeles, so [Mike] Said to me: “Unless you have a really solid character, I’m not going to take you to London for a few months.” But when I saw the full movie for the first time, I really knew what the story was going to be and what my character would be. How big. Because with Mike’s method, you don’t know anything about any scene you’re not in. In the kitchen, Pansy goes to the grocery store and Pansy cleans the couch. But that’s all you get. You don’t know what the other characters are doing.
What was it like for you to see this movie for the first time?
It does feel a bit painful, to be honest. It’s very, very exciting. In a way, it brought me back to her painful journey. I looked at it and thought, “Oh my god, someone is going to hit her, they’re going to hit her.” I know they won’t, because I’ve been there, I’ve been in those scenes. But I still have this irrational fear of her.
What was your key to understanding or unlocking the character of Pansy?
The key to Mike Leigh’s process is that you create characters from their first memories to the age they will be playing. All these experiences are embedded in it. There’s all of these disappointments, there’s all of this heartbreak, there’s all of her feelings, things that happen, her fears, all of that ultimately leads to who she ends up becoming. She then starred alongside Michelle Austin as Chantel, her sister, and David Weber [who plays Pansy’s husband Curtley]even her son [played by Tuwaine Barrett]. All of these factors add up to a person being unhappy. You can see in the movie that what really starts to break her down is when she goes to visit her mother’s grave and that feeling of not being loved and not being pampered. A lot had happened before that moment.
Were there any scenes that were fun to play? The scenes where she loses her temper with people on the street and in the grocery store are also hilarious. Pansy had a sharp tongue and knew how to hurt someone with insults.
It’s a combination, isn’t it? Because I have a great sense of humor. Pansy is funny, but she’s not trying to make anyone laugh. Do you know what I mean? It does not come from joy. So, I do enjoy these scenes to a certain extent. What’s even more shocking is: ‘Oh my God, what’s coming out of this head? [of mine]? Some of them are downright hilarious. For example, in a parking lot scenario, this exchange is gold. But when you do these things, you’re so deep in character that you can’t necessarily enjoy them in the moment. Only when you get out of character do you say, wow.
I think being able to tap into your inner pansy could be very useful, like someone blocking your way in traffic…
I have to say, I try very hard in life not to be a pansy. Do you know what I mean? So no, I think it’s going to take a lot of time to get me there. I usually find this interaction somewhat humorous. I always say, “Well, you’re in such a hurry, go ahead,” you know?
How have people responded to the character since you’ve shown the film to audiences?
It’s amazing how many people have an aunt, cousin, sister, grandmother, mother, or mother-in-law who will say, “I’m related to that person. I know a pansy. The compassion for her has been so strong.” Yes. I think it’s great.
This is not just a portrait of Pansy, but a portrait of an entire community, which is rarely shown on screen, at least in this depth and complexity. How did Mike Leigh come into contact with this community, given that he was not depicting a background he was from?
Are you talking about the Caribbean community?
Yes, the Black Caribbean community in the UK.
Basically, it was a lot of research and a lot of listening to the actors. I think because [Mike Leigh’s method] Work may be one of the only ways you gain depth. Afro-Caribbean actors write from their own experiences. All these actors understand the culture and they sit down and say, “No, this is going to happen on Sunday. We’re going to go here. They’re going to do that. This is what this place is like. Mike is very good at telling stories and listening.” Collaboration. He likes to treat the characters as real people, so his attention to detail and wanting to get things right was very important to the way he told this story.
I’m wondering how common it is for you to be offered this type of role – to play a complex character your own age, at the heart of a big movie, exploring complex issues?
If this was common I would do it all the time. To answer your question, yes, I would love to make movies like this forever.
There’s been a lot of talk about awards for this film, especially for you. What do you think of the whole process?
That would be cute, wouldn’t it? That’s great. You know what’s important is trying to get the film seen. Because movies like this, these little movies, unless you have a machine behind you and billboards everywhere and a lot of money to promote it, it’s easy for a movie like this to slip away and disappear. So it would be great if the awards show brought attention to the film. Winning something would be a bonus. It’s nice to be rewarded for something.
The kind of movies you’re talking about are struggling in the market. what has changed since then secrets and lies?
The environment at that time was more of an independent film company. You have shooting galleries. You have new threads, thin threads. There are a lot of real independent film companies making movies. Now, I’m not so sure there are that many, they’re competing against giants with tons of money, movies getting swallowed up by the streaming world, etc. I think it has changed a lot.
your role is secrets and lies He has a very positive and optimistic outlook on life, which is completely different from Pansy. In this movie, the positive point of view comes from Pansy’s sister. What do you think of these two characters, their interactions, and their contrasting lifestyles?
I think it’s interesting that in all families, in all relationships and situations, you can have two people going through the same thing, but have two completely different perspectives on it. It all comes from the script they tell themselves, the narrative they form for themselves about what happened. I think this is the core of the relationship between Chantelle and Pansy. Pansy was just a little bit attached to the script, she wasn’t loved, she wasn’t given the same thing as Chantelle. Chantelle was kind of like, “Well, you’ve always been a little weird, you know?” There’s a little bit of truth to that, you know what I mean?
For Chantelle, just living life knowing she is absolutely loved allows her to be patient with people who are flawed. This shaped her. But her sister was shaped in the opposite way. She couldn’t have fun. She did not accept her father’s departure as her sister did. It’s a fun thing to witness and the movie touches on that but not in too much detail, which I thought was great. You only get a few details that bubble to the surface.
What I found very compelling is the idea that we’re investigating the lives of these people and we’re only given hints and glimpses, rather than coming away without really understanding the entire story.
Yeah, I think that’s important because you know that woman you meet in the grocery store is angry, you’re not going to look at her and say, “Oh, she might be depressed,” you know what I mean ? You simply receive what is given to you. I think the important thing about this movie is that it gives you a little pause. So when I meet the next Pansy, maybe I realize there’s probably a lot going on there and maybe I should give her a little grace.
Bleecker Street Coming Soon cruel truth The film will be reviewed on December 6th and will be released nationwide on January 10th.
