Video Q&A Session with Sally Hawkins at Berlinale 08

You might not have known that Sally Hawkins won the prestigious Silver Bear Award for Best Actress for her role as Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky earlier this year during the Berlin International Film Festival or Berlinale. As part of the ‘official’ media coverage, she gave a short Q&A video interview where she talked alot about Poppy‘s character and how Popopy interacts with the people around her.

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)