Sally Hawkins on BBC Radio 4 “Woman’s Hour” with Jenni Murray, April 16th 2008
Sorry about the slight delay in posting this news! As you can tell from my Twitter updates (see right sidebar) I had started working on this post 4 days ago, but RL became so busy, I never got round to actually finishing it, so apologies for the wait!
As tommo has so beautifully put it, we (the Sally Hawkins fans) are being terribly spoilt at the moment with the deluge of multimedia of interviews featuring Sally Hawkins! 
More news to come on that, but in the meantime, here’s yet another interview with a different flavour to those from before!
Sally Hawkins won the best actress award at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival for her performance as Poppy in Mike Leigh’s latest film ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’. She talks about her starring role as the chirpy upbeat London primary school teacher who refuses to put a negative spin on life, and why as an actor she is drawn to working with Mike Leigh.
The interview with Jenni Murray, chair of the weekday BBC Radio4 programme Woman’s Hour, had a more serious tone to it, where JM and SH analysed, in particular, Poppy’s character in the film. Having listened to the more light-hearted interviews where SH laughs quite a bit, this interview had a more ‘grounded’ feeling.
This is not to say there weren’t some humorous moments during the interview, because there were (and I laughed with them :D) but I found this interview particularly enjoyable, as they really dissect some of the scenes from the film in a lot more detail. This maybe because they have a longer time for the interview than before (9 minutes) but another plus point is that: one can never underestimate how great it is to listen to two very soothing voices on the radio!
You can catch it the entire interview on the BBC Realplayer by visiting the link below:
Alternatively, press ‘play’ below to listen to the mp3 version of the same interview. Let us know if you like it as well!
As usual we have included the transcript of the interview below the ‘cut’, so feel feel to click on ‘continue reading…’ to read the interview in full. There are a few words I didn’t quite catch, so if you happen to know what they were, please please let us know!
Sally Hawkins on “Woman’s Hour”: Transcript
JM: “Now, Mike Leigh’s latest film, Happy-Go-Lucky centres on a 30-year old primary school teacher called ‘Poppy’. When her bike is stolen, she shrugs it off with a ‘I never got to say goodbye’.
She’s kind to a bullied boy in her class, and to a down-and-out she meets on her way home.
She has a solid friendship with her flatmate, and even manages to tolerate the most miserable and inept
driving instructor imaginable.”
—Audio clip from the film—
JM: “Eddie Marsan as Scott, and Sally Hawkins as the irrepressibly cheerful Poppy.
Sally, how do you go about working with Mike Leigh. How does it all start?”
SH: “Rehearsal process, which is a luxury for any actor. You have, for this film, we had almost 6 months rehearsal period. And it’s uh, very complex. Experience where you’re building up these layers, and you’re taking inspiration from everything in the whole world, and people you meet, and or you spot in the street.”
JM: “So what do he tell you. Right at the start, what does he say : ‘Now, Sally, you’re going to play this character called ‘Polly’. What do you know about her?”
SH: “Well, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t now what she was called . You don’t have a script, you don’t have anything. The character’s name comes right at the end of the rehearsals in a way, once you know the essence of the character you’re dealing with.
All that I knew was that I was going to be involved. I didn’t know in what capacity, whether I’d end up in it.
You don’t with a Mike Leigh film. It’s based on trust really, and that’s what’s so exciting.”
JM: “But what does he tell you about the finished product. It’s a very unusual film, where nothing too horrible happens, and it is Happy-Go-Lucky. What did he say was behind his thinking on that?”
SH: “Well, umm… it’s strange thinking about it now. We didn’t really talk about the film as a concept, or what he wants to achieve as such. It was more put to me ‘do you want to do it, and would you be interested’, and of course, if Mike Leigh asks you to be in a film, you don’t turn it down.
So it was more, umm… the way he works is very organic. And you see what happens.
I know it sounds like an incredibly vague way of describing it, but it’s not structured as such - it’s not so black and white.
And Mike talking about this film: it came to him as a feeling. And similarly with Poppy, Poppy was a feeling. And that’s the only way I can describe it. I know Mike sort of approaches films in different ways,
and every film that he directs is different, of course.
But Poppy was a feeling, and I know he was interested in capturing that feeling. It was about capturing something very positive. I mean, for me, this film was about love. But it was only when I saw the end result, and in this position now, now I can be objective about it, I can see what it is about. But he never at any point said ‘this is the film I want to make’, ‘these are the ideas I want to put in it’, it’s just more following a lead. And he follows where he wants to go, and I’m sort of trottering along behind.”
JM: “Some of the funniest and also the most threatening scenes are the ones in the car, having the driving lessons. How did you, and Eddie who plays this dreadful driving instructor, *laughs* How did you develop that relationship?”
SH: “Oh. Oh god. Eddie Marsan is just amazing. I’ve wanted to work with him for ages, so I was very lucky in that way. He is a phenomenal actor. And when you’re working with an actor like that, it sort of raises your game. It’s like working with Mike; you just have to step up to the mark.
He’s incredibly intelligent, he’s very funny, and he’s a brilliant actor. So I was very excited to work with him, but you have hours of improvisation.”
JM: “So you sit in the car…”
SH: “Yeah, we sat…”
JM: “…and you drive around, where’s Mike Leigh then? Is he in the back of the car.”
SH: *laughs* “He’s in the back, he’s in the boot. No *laughs* He’s sitting in the back. At some points lying down so we wouldn’t spot him in the mirror, and that wouldn’t jarr as out of our character.It was days, weeks of improvisation with Mike with a very sore coccyx in the back, with either me or Eddie drivin around like lunatics.”
JM: “There are times when he is very very threatening and scary in the part he plays. He’s racist, he’s frightening, acually.”
SH: “Poppy isn’t.”
JM: “Absolutely. There’s also one scene where she’s very kind to a down-and-out, and the audience is sitting there thinking “You idiot!, you pot of careless, something horrible is going to happen to you.”
And it is as if a lot of anger is directed at you, playing Poppy. What’s that like for you as an actor in an on-going way, if Mike makes you do it over and over.”
SH: “Well I never… that’s an interesting point, well I never at any point felt it was directed at me. I’m playing a part, and in a way, you almost have that… you’re stepping into someone’s shoes, so you have that shell. I’m stepping in to Poppy’s skin as it were.
But then being in Poppy’s head, I never thought there was a lot of anger in a way. She has this extraordinary ability and view of life, and vision of the world. So I suppose objectively now, you can see that there was a lot of anger directed at her. But I never felt, and Poppy certainly never felt victim of that. She’s got an amazing ability to cope with life and people, whatever is thrown at her.”
JM: “She has a very close relationship with her flatmate. I did worry I have to say, about what was going to happen to Zoe the flatmate, when Poppy goes off with the nice social worker boyfriend.”
SH: *laughs* “Riiight..” *laughs*
JM: “She’s just left on her own.”
SH: “No no, absolutely not. No, I mean, to me, but to Poppy, there’s nothing more important than friends and friendship. And they have an incredibly close bond, that’s been around for years.
They met at college doing a teacher-training course together, and we went through the months of
rehearsal. You plot that, you plot all that relationship in an incredibly detailed way.
So umm.., oh no… god no. There’s nothing more important. Poppy, you know, she’s been in a relationship
as has Zoe in the past, and they have never threatened their relationship. And I think that’s very important.
For me as well, there’s nothing more important than female relationships.”
JM: “Do you think you would have found Poppy a little bit irritating if you’d known her?”
SH: “No no.” *laughs* “I love Poppy. If I found her irritating, I wouldn’t be able to play her. In any way, I think she’s extraordinary, and I think those kind of people I’m attracted to, those people who have that positive drive through life. I think in a way they’ve got life sussed. I think she’s highly intelligent. She’s umm… very grounded, practical, compassionate, sensitive…”
JM: “And happy!”
SH: “… and happy! And umm… that’s the best way to go about life. Why wallow in self-pity and negativity?
I don’t see that as an intelligent choice, and it is her choice. She’s chosen to be happy.”
~ Transcribed by Milo (27/04/2008)
With thanks to Tommo for corrections to the transcript.
