Of all the movie protagonists you might have seen this year, none is quite like Marianne Jean-Baptisteās Pansy in
Pansy, a middle-aged woman in contemporary London, is foul-tempered from beginning to end. She spends her days in evident pain that she unleashes upon all those around her, including her husband Curtley (David Webber), her 20-something son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) and most anyone else she encounters. Her venom might fall on a supermarket cashier or a furniture-shopping couple who dare to put their feet up on an ottoman. Heaven help the man who wants her parking spot.
For everyone, Pansy is a test. She tests the patience and empathy of her family, just as she does the viewer. Sheās not an antihero, sheās anti-everything.
āThe world is full of Pansys. People live with other peopleās conditions,ā Jean-Baptiste says. āOften Iāve met people who have just been enraged, because you didnāt see them in the car park pulling into the space. You go: It canāt just be about me. How did you get that angry about something so stupid? You donāt know what theyāre going through or how they got there.ā
āHard Truths,ā which will open nationwide in theaters Jan. 10, never supplies any answers. Instead, it unfolds as a cantankerous character study, led by Jean-Baptisteās compellingly prickly Pansy.
The performance has earned Jean-Baptiste her best reviews since her last film with Leigh: āSecrets & Lies,ā nearly 30 years ago. For that film, Jean-Baptiste became the first Black British actress nominated for an Academy Award. Her performance in āHard Truthsā has been just as celebrated, earning best actress from both the and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Three decades later, Jean-Baptiste could be heading back to the Oscars.
āYou sit down with Marianne a hundred years later from āSecrets and Lies,ā in which she played a very intelligent young woman, and Marianne has now moved on in life,ā Leigh says. āWe love each other because sheās very, very funny. So sitting down with her ability to be real and profound but also grotesque, that, alone, points me in the direction of possibility.ā
Making a film with Leigh, the 81-year-old humanist master of āNaked,ā āVera Drakeā and isnāt a typical process. Thereās no script to begin with, just an invitation.
āIt was the usual: Letās do a film,ā says Jean-Baptiste. āDonāt know anything, but letās do it.ā
Leigh pulls his characters and storyline out of months of rehearsal. In the case of āHard Truths,ā they rehearsed for three months ā somewhat short for Leigh (it was six months for āSecrets & Liesā), but extremely lengthy for todayās movie industry.
āNormally you get on set itās like, āUh, this is Ralph. Heāll be playing your husband. Youāll stand over there,āā says Jean-Baptiste.
In Leighās manner of rehearsal, they begin with a characterās first memory, and then flesh out their life all the way up until the time period of the film. But there are parallel histories for other characters that require constantly going back through and recontextualizing. Meanwhile, costume designers and production designers await clarity on what kind of clothes and homes they should craft.
āAll the decisions about the character that you can make, the actor makes them,ā says Jean-Baptiste. āAny of the decisions that God makes for somebodyās life, he makes them. So itās like: She wants this job, so she applies. A letter arrives in the mail: Unfortunately you did not get it.ā
Jean-Baptiste was a recent drama school graduate, classically trained and oriented toward theater, when she co-starred in 1996ās āSecrets & Lies.ā It was her breakthrough. A few years after that film, she moved to Los Angeles, where sheās been since, acting in a wide variety of projects including the TV series āWithout a Trace,ā āBlindspotā and āHomecoming.ā Asked if her collaboration with Leigh had changed from āSecrets & Lies,ā Jean-Baptiste said much was the same.
āObviously weāre a lot older,ā she says, smiling. āI think we just slipped right back into it. He was gentler.ā
Part of what makes Jean-Baptisteās performance as Pansy so uncanny is how unlike Pansy she is. Jean-Baptiste is charismatic, laughs frequently and enjoys throwing herself into uncertain circumstances (like āHard Truthsā). Asked if she has anything in common with Pansy, she replies, with a laugh, āI hope not.ā
āI have a sense of humor she doesnāt, although sheās really funny,ā Jean-Baptiste says. āI think I recognize that part of myself to the extent that Iām like: Thatās not how I want to live. Thatās not how I want to be.ā
But in Pansy, Jean-Baptiste recognized people she knows, and the kind of character that seldom makes it onto movie screens. āA difficult Black woman, you donāt see that,ā she says. āI donāt think I ever have.ā
In āHard Truths,ā the root of Pansy's depression is uncertain, but a sense of festering wounds from the past is palpable. When she speaks to a doctor, she sums it up: āThe heart of the matter is me head.ā Later, when asked why she canāt enjoy life, she replies, āI donāt know.ā Jean-Baptiste, in mapping out Pansyās history, has some theories about whatās made her this way.
āShe had a number of issues that went unaddressed and found coping mechanisms to get through life,ā says Jean-Baptiste. āI think a lot of people are undiagnosed with things and just make do. Maybe sheās one of those.ā
āThe fear,ā she adds. āIt was the fear that I focused on the most. She attacks before anyone can attack her, and she thinks everyone is attacking her.ā
But Pansyās specific diagnosis isnāt the point of āHard Truths.ā It's much more about how her family and the outside world react to her. She might be pushing everyone away, but it's clear she's in urgent need of something.
āI want so desperately for someone to help Pansy,ā Jean-Baptiste says. āI think it would be very convenient to go, āSheās got this mental illness or thatās whatās wrong with her.ā But whatās more interesting is that we donāt actually know and sheās just in pain.ā
āHard Truthsā ultimately ends in a kind of cliffhanger, with Pansy and her family locked in stasis. If Pansy tests the boundaries of empathy an audience might feel for a character, it's a moment of truth: Does Pansy go to her husband or refuse to budge? Jean-Baptiste wants to believe in her.
āIād like to think that she goes, I do, because I like her,ā Jean-Baptiste says. āI like Pansy. I gotta look out for her.ā
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
