AWARDS SEASON PREVI EW
What was the most challenging part of
actor and was fortunate to support myself. TV is
the shoot?
your bread and butter. It used to be recurring roles
Learning my lines was challenging as I’m dys-
went to character actors, but now they’re offered
lexic, and I’m auditorily inclined. I learn my cues
to name actors. If I’m offered arcs like that I feel
by knowing other people’s lines. It was great
horrible for taking them. I seek stuff out on TV if I
working with Michael Shannon because I could
want to do a couple of episodes, but I don’t want
play off his cues to me. If I was going off more of
to take those roles that have been bread and but-
a monologue, it was difficult to learn.
ter roles for journeyman actors. The Help was a turning point after the
How did your career change after the
Oscars. Nobody knew what to expect before
Oscars?
the movie opened, so after filming there was a
People knew my name and started offering me
lull. I booked Snowpiercer before there was any
roles. Prior to that though, I made a living as an
awards conversation. Then I was getting offered every maid role. None of them were as significant or interesting or had integrity to the story.
Guillermo del Toro at work on set with Hawkins and Spencer.
Now along comes a cleaning lady role that is different from all others. This is the third time I played a woman from this era: Minny Jackson (The Help), Dorothy Vaughan (Hidden Figures),
DARREN ARONOFSKY
The one-of-a-kind director on why his latest, mother!, is just like kindergarten. By Pete Hammond
and Zelda. She feels contemporary of that time. She’s a second class citizen without civil rights,
DARREN ARONOFSKY’S mother!
but at the same time, it’s part of her personal
is that rare movie that comes along
narrative. What’s occurring on screen felt con-
every once in a while, a completely
temporary and organic and I wanted to play the
polarizing event that you have to
part for those reasons.
experience, even if you ultimately think it is a train wreck. Count me among the
In the wake of #OscarsSoWhite,
admirers of a movie that is 69% Fresh
what’s your take on the Academy’s
on Rotten Tomatoes but drew an ‘F’
strides toward diversity?
on CinemaScore. The director of such
Here’s the thing with diversity: It doesn’t just
films as The Wrestler, Black Swan, The
mean brown skin; it means African American,
Fountain, Requiem for a Dream, Noah and
Latino, Asian, overweight actors, actors with
others doesn’t care about either group,
disabilities. It means actors of different age
but wears the disparate opinions they
groups. We have to turn to other people who
tout as a badge of honor.
are underrepresented. People might say again
No less than Martin Scorsese
this year that it’s #OscarsSoWhite. While I
wrote a guest column praising mother!,
understand the outrage, I think it’s misplaced.
while condemning services like Rotten
As an actor, it’s hard to get an Oscar nomina-
Tomatoes and CinemaScore, which
tion. Awards are the end of the line. Just say,
help put movies in a neat box, noting
“Movies so white.” Just start with how mov-
that this kind of judgmentalism has
ies are being funded. If you’re lucky to be part
made opening weekend grosses into
of a group that’s award-worthy at the end of
a “bloodthirsty spectator sport” that
the year, you’re lucky. The reward is having
sets a tone hostile toward serious
the movie made, and if you get to the point of
filmmakers. “After I had a chance to see
awards, that’s great.
mother!, I was even more disturbed by this rush to judgement … People seemed
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to be out for blood, simply because the film couldn’t be easily defined or interpreted, or reduced to a two-word description … Only a true, passionate filmmaker could have made this picture, which I’m still experiencing weeks after I saw it,” he wrote. mother! is a movie you can’t get out of your head. It stars Jennifer Lawrence in the title role as a married woman who soon finds her home and personal space invaded in ways that might only be described as surreal.
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11/10/17 3:52 PM
DA N G I LROY: CH RI S C H A P M AN
“IN REAL LIFE WE DON’T DIVULGE OURSELVES. SO NOT KNOWING WHAT SALLY’S MOTIVATIONS ARE WITH ELISA, WHAT GUILLERMO IS INSTRUCTING HER TO DO, EVOKES A SINCERE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE FROM ME."