Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Talk ‘Hard Truths,’ ‘Nickel Boys’ and Bold Creative Swings | Visionaries

Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor have never worked together before, but the two bonded like old friends in the latest installment of TheWrap’s longform series Visionaries, in which they spoke about their awards-contending films “Hard Truths” and “Nickel Boys,” why they find it hard to watch their own work and got candid about what it was really like making two films that pushed the boundaries of narrative filmmaking.

Jean-Baptiste reunited with filmmaker Mike Leigh on “Hard Truths” after starring in his 1996 Oscar-nominated film “Secrets & Lies.” In “Hard Truths,” Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a depressed woman struggling through her various interpersonal relationships. But the origin of the project, and Jean-Baptiste’s involvement, was anything but traditional – as it the case with most Mike Leigh films.

“He’s not interested in anything that’s performative or anything that isn’t real. He really is trying to create characters that people recognize from life,” Jean-Baptiste said of Leigh, whose process begins with months of rehearsals and improvisation to find the characters and story. After that process, Jean-Baptiste said she felt ownership over the character of Pansy – to the point that she had some very strong feelings about a costume choice.

“You sit down after you’ve created the character for about an hour, an hour and a half with costume, and you say, ‘OK, she wears these colors. These are the type of shapes she won’t wear.’ We had a really funny exchange in that the costume designer, we fitted this jacket that Pansy wears, and she goes, ‘Oh, it’s a bit tight. I’m gonna get the next size up.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, she would not. She’d squeeze herself into it thinking she’s the same size.’”

Ellis-Taylor had a different yet similarly inventive process working with director RaMell Ross on “Nickel Boys,” as the filmmaker shot the Colson Whitehead adaptation from first-person POV that allows viewers to see events unfold through the eyes of the two main characters. This provided a challenge for the actors, who had to act directly to the camera instead of opposite another actor – a challenge that surprised Ellis-Taylor on her first day on set.

“I didn’t know, and this is a point of contention between me and my illustrious director, and it’s not his fault that I didn’t know,” Ellis-Taylor said of the bold filming technique. “It’s just when I read it, I didn’t get that part. So I didn’t realize that we were going to do that until I came to work the first day, and I’m so glad I didn’t know, because I don’t think you would have had that reaction to what you saw in it if I had known.”

The actress said she had “so much trust” in Ross because of seeing his previous film, the documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” that the surprise didn’t bother her. Although she said there were unique challenges given the degree of naturalism involved in shooting – “if there’s a lawn mower that’s loud, the lawn mower’s loud,” she explained.

But Ellis-Taylor still hasn’t seen the film. She confessed she doesn’t watch anything she’s in if she doesn’t have to.

“I still feel a little isolated. It is not my practice to watch things that I’m in. And it really is not about just me personally, it’s because I have such high hopes for the film, for what was attempted, especially if I care,” she said. “I’ve done the work already. It’s nothing I can do.”

Jean-Baptiste said she understands how Ellis-Taylor feels and will only watch a film she’s in if she has to – which is the case with “Hard Truths” given the number of premieres and screenings she’s had to attend. “Oddly with ‘Hard Truths,’ I do feel like I’m watching somebody else. I don’t feel like I’m watching myself at all, because I look at her and I go, ‘I don’t even look like that.’ It’s a really interesting process, because I did feel like that with ‘Secrets and Lies’ as well.”

But for other work, Jean-Baptiste steers clear because she said she just ends up “thinking about the choices I could have made, the things that could have been done.”

Watch the full conversation in the player above.

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