It was an excellent read, and as Sandra said to us in the email: the interview really does offer some “interesting ‘insights’ about Sally herself”, who comes across as very human, approachable and at times really quite adorable during the interview.

She values her privacy, and admires the way Judi Dench approaches the business of acting:  “passionate about what she does but just disappears when she’s finished doing it.”  and while Sally concedes that interviews are something that comes with her profession, she is – by her own admission – not very comfortable with them; a fact somewhat reinforced by John Preston’s faithful portrayal of even her minute movements.

These little gestures make her more endearing – if you were to ask us – and the style of the interview was a refreshing change to the usual staccato Q&A, because John Preston manages to discover more about Sally, the person, rather than her professional or actress persona.

For instance, we find out that she loves nature and lives in Richmond;  has dyslexia – although she is very matter of fact about it; has conscious baby memories from as early as 8 months – “I can remember being in my cot and getting a stocking for Christmas. And I remember looking at this duck and thinking, “They’re only giving me this because I’m a baby.”; she still writes comedy sketches with her old school friend, and there is even a hint of a relationship.

There are plenty more tidbits in the article, which is certainly one of our most favourite interviews to date, and you can read it by clicking on the link above. Alternatively, we have also posted it in our Articles archive under the title ‘Sally Hawkins interview‘.

Many thanks to Sandra for recommending the article, and hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did. Do let us know!

p/s: A wonderful surprise was that Sally-Hawkins.com actually got a mention!

Link to ‘Sally Files’ by Tommo27 on Mediafire

A huge thank you must go out to tommo27, a Sally Hawkins fan who has worked tirelessly to compile this audio-visual extravaganza! The current list of files include:

• Film 24 ‘s Happy-Go-Lucky Bitesize (mp4, 19.74 MB)
• Guardian Film Weekly interview with Jason Soloman (mp3, 5.83 MB)
• Happy-Go-Lucky TV Trailer (avi, 7.08 MB)
• Q&A at Berlinale (mp3, 4.28 MB)
• Interview with Radio1 Movies (mp3, 19.64 MB)
• Radio6 interview with Nemone (mp3, 13.89 MB)
• Radio4 Woman’s Hour interview with Jenni Murray (mp3, 8.47 MB)
• Sally Hawkins on GMTV (mp4, 19.97 MB)
• Mike Leigh Q&A (mp3/wav, 31.7 MB)
• Layer Cake Featurette (avi, 7.71 MB)

No doubt more are to come, but if you wanted to see everything, this is the place to go! I personally really really enjoyed watching the TV interviews (particularly GMTV and Film 24′s Bitesize) as these clips are extra hard to come by, and pictures are of course worth a thousand words. I am 100% certain that you will enjoy them too if you haven’t already seen them, so do take a look!

p/s: An extra special thanks to tommo for letting us feature her hard work on S-H.com!

The interview took place just after Sally Hawkins had won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actress, and although it is quite short (about 6~7 minutes), they manage to cover a lot more than just Sally Hawkins‘ role as Poppy and the filming of Happy-Go-Lucky; including her ‘big break’ through Mike Leigh, as well as her other roles in Little Britain and the other TV adaptations, especially Fingersmith, where both NR and SH become quite indignant about the media uproar at the time.

The show is available as a podcast, so you can either listen to it online (on the website or clicking on the ‘play’ button below) or download it for your own mp3 player [23.4MB]. The interview takes place between 10:50~17:20 if you want to skip straight to the ‘important’ part!

p/s: If you would prefer to read the transcript, click on ‘Read more…’

Sally Hawkins on ‘The Kiosk’: Transcript

A few weeks back, I caught up with the British actress “Sally Hawkins” who was over in Dublin to promote her new film “Happy-Go-Lucky” directed by the inimitable Mike Leigh. Hawkins has worked with MIke Leigh before- she starred in his 2004 film “Vera Drake” – and she’s also pretty well known to audiences for her performances in BBC’s Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet, the adaptations of the Sarah Waters’ novels.

In “Happy-Go-Lucky” Sally Hawkins plays ‘Poppy’, a free-spirited London teacher who is adventuring her way through life. To be honest, there’s really not much to this film in terms of story line, it is very simply focused on Poppy. But the good news is, Hawkins is simply just amazing in the role. And when I caught up with her, she had just won the very prestigious Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and she was still trying to take in the success of the film.

Here’s how the interview went:

NR: “First off, congratulations on the film, and congratulations to you on winning the Silver Bear,
which is absolutely amazing. A hugely prestigious award to come away with, and it’s really very early in your career.”

SH: “Thank you. It’s really lovely. And as you say, it’s incredibly prestigious, and I haven’t really taken it in. For Mike as well, more than anything. I know that sounds cheesy, but really for the film, I’m so pleased.”

NR: “And can you tell me actually, “Happy-Go-Lucky” tells the story of ‘Poppy’, who is this primary school teacher who wears the most amazing, flamboyant clothes…”

SH: “Aww… I’m glad you said amazing.”

NR: ‘…and who runs around the place and really is quite eccentric, but also has a very interesting intelligence at play. Can you tell me what it was like both for you to take on the role, and what the process of filming her was like? She’s a very individual character.”

SH: “She is. She’s a great character. It was beautiful to play Poppy actually, the whole experience, because she’s full of energy. I couldn’t be down or tired, stepping into her shoes. I soon forgot how tired I might have been, because she’s full of bounce.”

NR: “With Mike Leigh, did you feel like you’d worked with him before. And to a certain extent, he’d actually helped break you as an actress, and I think in 2002, you were a nothing.”

SH: “Yes, that’s right. I was a nothing.”

NR: “Was it something that when you go back to work with him again, that in a sense…”

SH: “You have a sure hand.”

NR: “You have a sure hand and your experience serves sort-of deep, and your understanding of where he wants to go.

SH: Totally, I think that’s probably why Mike builds up such a great family of fantastic actors together. Because you spend so much time together, if you have such a very intensive rehearsal period; five nearly 6 months on this film. He wants to be able to get on with his actors and the people that he employs. His actors always have their priorities the right way round. They’re not interested in…”

NR: “Starry”

SH: “No, or being… because it’s about acting.”

NR: “I couldn’t see Tom Cruise in one of his films.”

SH: “No, no neither could I.”

NR: “Although it would be hilarious.”

SH: “I would actually, I would love… I mean I would always pay to see a Mike Leigh film,
but I’d pay over the odds I think.”

NR: “Just to talk a bit about some of your other roles: People know you from so many different things. There’s the Andrew Davies adaptation; Tipping the Velvet, and also Little Britain. I haven’t seen this one, but apparently you were repeatedly dowsed in projectiles.”

SH: “Oh just once, that happened once.”

NR: “Because that’s a big…”

SH: “Oh yes, no no. That just happened once.”

NR: “What was it like to work with David Walliams and Matt Lucas?”

SH: “Brilliant. Initially I was Kenny Craig’s girlfriend, who’s the hypnotist. I had admired their work before I’d got offered the job from Rock Profiles, and hearing about them, on the comedy scene. And they’re really quite special people. I mean they’re both incredibly bright, and they have that love of life as well.”

NR: “And they love projectile bombs.”

SH: “They love… especially David Walliams, yeah. *laughs* that wasn’t fun to do, but it only happened once, but I wouldn’t do it again.”

NR: “I suppose from your perspective as well, ‘Tipping the Velvet’, like that would have been something that came for you, I think it was just 4 years after you graduated from drama school, you actually landed the role.”

SH: “And there was Fingersmith.”

NR: “Fingersmith, yes. And for both those roles, we would always read in the papers about how some actors would say that it was always difficult to take on a gay role, because it might pigeon-hole you in a certain thing. And I was wondering that for you, pretty much fresh from drama school, and thinking about approaching this role, and Sarah Waters is such a wonderful author.”

SH: “She’s amazing.”

NR: “Wouldn’t you want to work with her, wouldn’t you want to do this adaptation. But did you have any thoughts ‘could this be the wrong route for me?’”

SH: “No, absolutely not. I think umm… I never view it like that. And it’s fantastic, Sarah Waters, as you say, you know, it’s a real honour.”

NR: “She’s a fantastic writer.”

SH: “She’s a fantastic writer.”

NR: “There was such a commotion about it though in the British Press.”

SH: “I know. And you just think: ‘it’s so silly… it’s so silly’.”

NR: “And so much hand-wringing going on.”

SH: “To turn down a role, because of that, would be so wrong. I could, I would never do that. I could never view a character, and put her in a box so… ‘she’s a lesbian’, and that’s the box she’s in. It’s almost something that she just happens to be, but you don’t really… It’s not a big focus.”

NR: “But actually, because we don’t have too much time left.”

SH: “No, uh… sorry.”

NR: “To come back to “Happy-Go-Lucky”. And I suppose I was wondering if you are actually much like your character, Poppy.”

SH: “I think there is a definite similarity. Her optimism and the way she views life. But she has this extraordinary ability to not give herself a hard time about thing, and not worry about things, and not carry that worry with you. She’s able to let things go.”

NR: “Sally Hawkins, thanks a million for joining us.”

SH: “Thank you. Lovely to meet you”

~ Transcribed by Milo (21/04/2008)

You can watch the video by visiting the 3sat website, but just in case it’s down, we’ve included a transcript of the interview below the cut (after ‘Read More…’) so feel free to read through the text as well! I would personally recommend watching the Q&A in full, only because Sally Hawkins‘ expression adds so much more to the dialogue!

And before I forget, this news has come courtesy of noreia_05 from Sally Hawkins Domain. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to catch the name of the interviewer yet, so if you do spot her name, please let us know!

Transcript of Q&A Session

What concept of happiness does Poppy have?
Oh… Poppy is all about happiness. She is umm… she is a beautiful spirit. That is what life is about for her.
She sees the best in everything, which was why it was such a delight to play her, because umm.. everything has beauty in it, and everything is a potential for happiness.

She sees opportunity in challenge in every moment. Even in the worst situations, she thinks that she’s able to turn it around. And uhh.. she’s a complete optimist and idealist, and sees the beauty of life, and that life is there for the taking.

Even in the darkest moments, she is able to see beauty and truth, and opportunity to turn it around for the best. So I think.. she loves life, and is so happy as herself. I mean of course she comes across difficult moments and difficult situations, and has doubts and uncertainty like everyone, but ultimately she… is in love with life.

And umm… yeah…I think that’s it! *laughs*

You think she’s naive?
Umm… No, I don’t think she’s naive. She has a child-like naivety and open-ness, but I think actually, ultimately, running through her, underneath all that
is a knowingness, and a maturity that only somebody who with that child-like open-ness has, and is able to achieve.

She takes people and life on face value and doesn’t judge.
So although she sometimes might go into a situation without thinking, and she can be unpredictable in her thinking. I don’t think it’s naive, I think it’s just wanting to take it all on, and wanting to take everything in,
and a curiosity about life.

But she’s not naive, I don’t think. I think she’s actually quite knowing.

What do you think when people like Scott, or her pregnant sister interfere with her perception of happiness?
Umm… I think Poppy just wants to help people and she wants to make people happy.
And it does really frustrate and challenge her views and her sunny outlook.
It distresses her when she sees people in pain and not happy.

And umm… she just wants to make it all better, and she’s desperate to make people, to sort of shake people up and to take their face, and show them that it’s actually not as bad, and if they just swivelled their head that way, they could see how wonderful life is.

She knows that umm… that it’s all relative. And she never judges that people may not have such a sunny outlook on life, or such a optimistic disposition. She’s aware that life can be hard, and is for some people. But the thing is, she’s found that, dealing with life, it’s best to deal with it with a smile.

~ Transcribed by Milo (20/04/2008)

As part of this week’s edition of Film Weekly, Jason Solomons interviews Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan about Mike Leigh‘s new film, Happy-Go-Lucky. This news update is courtesy of babsden from the Sally Hawkins Domain, and the interview starts off with a brief clip of a dialogue between Poppy (SH’s character) and Scott(EM’s role) during a driving lesson.

It then moves onto the actual interview, where they touch briefly on playing the characters, and talk about filming the driving scenes; and I have to say, although we do focus on Sally Hawkins on this site, Eddie Marsan was incredibly funny as well. They make such a good combination during the interview, and Sally Hawkins‘ laughter is really very infectious!

Not the funniest part of the interview, but just to give you a teaser:

JS: Did you have any accidents?
SH: Yes, just a few.

As a side note, after reading and listening to a couple of interviews, the common theme is that Mike Leigh really does keep his actors guessing during the filming!

You can listen to the full podcast by visiting the website, or by clicking on the ‘play’ button below. The interview starts at around 16:30, which is just over halfway through the programme, and (sadly) lasts a brief 6 minutes, ending at 22:40.

p/s: You can listen to a special in-depth interview with Mike Leigh by Jason Solomons from last week’s edition of Film Weekly.

You can listen to the show by visiting the show’s main info page, and looking down to the week’s listing for Thursday, 17th April 2008. We’ll post more information once we’ve finished listening to the interview ourselves! However, you can watch a preview trailer of Happy-Go-Lucky courtesy of lostmaverick by clicking on the Youtube video below.

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The latest updates are to the Writing section, where all the articles & interviews have been transferred over. We still have to move the reviews & synopses section, and that will come along later this week.

We have several news releases lined up for the rest of the week as well, and to give you a quick low down, Sally Hawkins won a very prestigious Silver Bear Award for her role in Mike Leigh’s film ‘Happy-Go-Lucky‘ only just last month; which was followed up by an award win from the Royal Television Society. There will be several media clips and interviews that you might find interesting, as well as 2 interview transcripts! I think it’s quite easy to say that this year is definitely one of Sally Hawkins’ best!