Marianne Jean-Baptistesays that shes playing the ultimate Karen inMike Leighsnew filmHard Truths.
The characters name is, actually, Pansy.
Thats not a description Jean-Baptiste would recognize in the Pansy she plays in the movie.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy in Mike Leigh’s ‘Hard Truths’Simon Mein/ Copyright Thin Man Films Ltd
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Shes particularly fixated on polishing her leather couch.
Doctors, dentists, sofa-store salespeople anyone she encounters really feel the lash of her tongue.
Its possible to relate Pansys problems to her childhood where Pansy always felt that her mother favored Chantel.
SECRETS & LIES, Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, 1996
Lets call her the Hon.
Lady Too Bloody Hard To kindly-Take Your Shoes Off Before You Come Into This Clean House-Smythe-Bottom.
Pansy is recognizable to me.
Pansy has no sense of humor, but we OK, I mean me find her beyond amusing.
The fact that Pansy is Black has little to do with it.
That woman has been everywhere in my life.
Its like we dont have any sort of other experiences that arent related to race.
Of those other films, Leigh says, They call them urban dramas.
Leigh was nominated for Best Director and the movie was propelled to the Best Film list.
Austin had a role inSecrets & Liestoo.
Leigh says: So this is the third time theyve done a thing together.
Also, Jean-Baptiste jokes, Leigh went off on a period journey.
(She was referring to Leighs period costume dramas:Topsy-Turvy, Mr.TurnerandPeterloo.)
Its clear that Leigh admires Jean-Baptiste enormously.
First of all, shes an extremely bright woman.
Shes got a great sense of humor.
She has enormous generosity.
Theres no bullshit with her at all, he declares.
And when she comes out of character, shes not Pansy at all.
She was very supportive to the younger actors and all of that.
And shes a very, very funny woman, he says.
And out of that comes the film.
Beyond that, anything that I share with you is indeed whats in the film.
I cant say any more than that.
I discover the films by the processes, as I say, of making them, Leigh explains.
The nature of a Mike Leigh film is that the characters are developed individually between filmmaker and thespian.
Leigh explains: I invite them to take part.
They know that we dont know what it is.
We know that theres no character.
We will explore, well create a character, well put them together.
Well bring a world into existence.
I mean, its a blind journey.
The actors take it on trust, he insists, and I take it on trust.
Obviously, I have thoroughly auditioned the new actors Ive worked with.
You get a person whose issues are not addressed.
As opposed to going to the doctor and going, Do you know what?
This is ridiculous whats going on.
So it was all that work or that background stuff.
Theres a conversation that the sisters have in a cemetery where they go to tend their mothers grave.
Pansys long-buried resentments, simmer and rise to the surface.
We very often remember criticism or harsh words, rather than positive feedback and encouragement.
For some reason it sticks with us and stays with us.
So its really an example of that as well.
Her not registering praise and appreciation and just focusing on when her mother upbraided her.
Pansys a deliciously-shaped character who breathes disappointment and bitterness.
Just working with Mike and trusting him, if its too much hell pull it back.
Its been interesting the amount of people who have said they know Pansy or theyve been Pansied.
Grandparents, mother-in-laws, you know.
Under her heavy psychological armor, there is a Pansy who could, under the right circumstances, bloom.
And, listen, Pansys hapless husband Curtley is no help at all.
He only thinks of himself.
Curtleys unable, or unwilling, to whip together a salad, or whatever, himself.
Hes encouraged Pansy to wait on him hand and foot.
As an aside, I ask Leigh if he can cook.
He responds, that if you ask around people will tell you that Im a very good cook.
(And, by the way, my son is no gossip.
I hear of people he knows, almost accidentally, years after the fact.)
I mean, you are very familiar with a lot of my work, he beings to respond.
Of course, having said that, I know there are characters like that in my life as well.
Actually, Im even related to some women in my life like that.
Not all of whom are still alive, but at least one is indeed.
Shes locked into it, shes kind of anal in many ways.
Dick Pope, the cinematographer onHard Truths, is a longtime collaborator of Leighs.
He shot Jean-Baptiste inSecrets & Liesand I asked Jean-Baptiste what they talked about during filming.
She began by me telling us that her eldest daughter is a DoP.
So we talked a lot about that and about her and the life, if you like.
We talked a bit about the process.
Its all happening at the same time.
And then they go off for a bit while we continue rehearsing and come back and shoot it.
The story is, she says, kind of slowly revealed.
I mean, Dick probably knows a lot more.
Wed only just done it but the crew knew it was coming.
They can simply intuit whats going to happen.
Maybe they can just, yeah, she agrees, although with some reluctance.
They moved into the house that would be the family home two weeks ahead of the actual shoot.
You pick your sheets and pillowcases, Jean-Baptiste explains.
She laughs, and adds, Shes a serious cleaner, that one.
I dont mind a bit of cleaning myself as it happens.
Im suddenly intrigued in truth, desperate to know whether or not she slept there.
Actually I did during the filming and rehearsals and stuff, yes.
I had a nice little snooze, quite easy to fall asleep.
I was exhausted me, Marianne, but she, Pansy, had great difficulty sleeping.
And anytime she would fall asleep, shed be woken up.
So a couple of times Id actually nodded off and was woken in reality.
Working with Austin again after nearly three decades was like a big reunion and I just loved the woman.
We just supported each other through the process, cried together, laughed a lot together.
And sometimes you want to be able to show that through the work within the characters.
And I know that the scenes that she had with her daughters were very loving and warm and stuff.
Were larks had though, I ask her?
Oh yes, she giggles.
When Mike said cut very often, Id be laughing a lot.
I was like, That is the character.'
There are probably about 10 films by Mike Leigh on my all-time top 100 list of movies.
I feel its appropriate, therefore, to ask him how he views the state of cinema now.
Well, where are we?
Its a hard one, isnt it?
He pronounces the selection an amazing crop.
The diversity, he exclaims.
This is all non-Hollywood cinema incredibly rich, diverse.
So in that sense, its going on there.
Cant tell you about casting.
Cant tell you what its about.
Give us the money now.
Thats what Ive always done.
Its a film about JMW Turner, the painter.
Its about the Peterloo massacre.
And those enable us to get bigger budgets than we otherwise have got.
But for all the other films, its been, cant tell anything about it.
Give us the dosh.
And its got harder.
It was much easier earlier.
And it was a battle to get together, a quite meager budget forHard Truths.
And were still trying to do something else, another film.
There are supporters, but its very, very difficult.
He notes that Amazon were great onPeterloo.
They came in right from the beginning and they said, Great.
And they were fantastic.
And they put in a large proportion of the budget.
They never interfered with it.
And they were very supportive, but they were new.
They were new on the block.
And they dont want to know.
They interfere with the casting.
They want do something with the editing.
They want to change the ending and all that stuff.
All the old-fashioned stuff.
Make the film as you want.
And then thats it.
They dont want to know.
A Mike Leigh film is not an algorithm, I say.
You are not a number, there, he says.
There are great films, and theres this product, he says contemptuously.
Does he ever go and see films from the industrial complex sphere, I ask him?
He says that he often goes to summer blockbusters and the like.
Then he gently changes the subject and asks if Ive seen a film calledSweet Sue.
Since that conversation, I have in fact seenSweet Sue.
Its an oddball comedy directed by one Leo Leigh.
Its a really nice film, Leigh says.
Hes his own man, its really interesting stuff, he says simply.
Then I realize, that every frame of every Mike Leigh film is flooding my brain.
And my voice drops too.
