‘Gangs of London’ star Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù has joined the cast of drama ‘Mothering Sunday’ alongside Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Josh O’Connor and Odessa Young.
The film centres on March 30, 1924 in Beechwood, England. Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young), a maid in the Niven household, has the day off to celebrate Mothering Sunday while Mr. and Mrs. Niven (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman) attend a lunch to celebrate the engagement of their neighbour’s only remaining son, Paul (Josh O’Connor).
Although Jane rejoices at her freedom on an unseasonably hot, beautiful spring day, she has no mother to go to—and for almost seven years she has, joyfully and without shame, been Paul’s lover. Like the Nivens, Paul belongs to England’s old-monied social class, whereas Jane was orphaned at birth. With the house conveniently empty, they can finally meet in Paul’s bedroom for the first time. Today will be their last as lovers.
The film centres on March 30, 1924 in Beechwood, England. Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young), a maid in the Niven household, has the day off to celebrate Mothering Sunday while Mr. and Mrs. Niven (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman) attend a lunch to celebrate the engagement of their neighbour’s only remaining son, Paul (Josh O’Connor).
Although Jane rejoices at her freedom on an unseasonably hot, beautiful spring day, she has no mother to go to—and for almost seven years she has, joyfully and without shame, been Paul’s lover. Like the Nivens, Paul belongs to England’s old-monied social class, whereas Jane was orphaned at birth. With the house conveniently empty, they can finally meet in Paul’s bedroom for the first time. Today will be their last as lovers.
- 9/22/2020
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Exclusive: Lionsgate UK and Gangs Of London star Sope Dirisu have joined Number 9 Films’ (Carol) feature drama Mothering Sunday, which is now underway in UK .
As we revealed earlier this year, the film will also star Odessa Young, BAFTA-nominee Josh O’Connor and Oscar winners Colin Firth and Olivia Colman.
Director Eva Husson’s (Girls Of The Sun) movie is written by Emmy-nominee Alice Birch, and is based on the novel of the same name by Graham Swift.
The story focuses on the day of March 30, 1924 in Beechwood, England. Jane Fairchild (Young), a maid in the Niven household, has the day off to celebrate Mothering Sunday while Mr. and Mrs. Niven (Firth and Colman) attend a lunch to celebrate the engagement of their neighbor’s only remaining son, Paul (O’Connor). Although Jane rejoices at her freedom on an unseasonably hot, beautiful spring day, she has no mother...
As we revealed earlier this year, the film will also star Odessa Young, BAFTA-nominee Josh O’Connor and Oscar winners Colin Firth and Olivia Colman.
Director Eva Husson’s (Girls Of The Sun) movie is written by Emmy-nominee Alice Birch, and is based on the novel of the same name by Graham Swift.
The story focuses on the day of March 30, 1924 in Beechwood, England. Jane Fairchild (Young), a maid in the Niven household, has the day off to celebrate Mothering Sunday while Mr. and Mrs. Niven (Firth and Colman) attend a lunch to celebrate the engagement of their neighbor’s only remaining son, Paul (O’Connor). Although Jane rejoices at her freedom on an unseasonably hot, beautiful spring day, she has no mother...
- 9/22/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Irish actress Denise Gough won her first Olivier Award in 2016 for the starring role as a recovering addict in Duncan Macmillan’s play People, Places and Things, and her second earlier this year for her turn as Harper Pitt in Marianne Elliot’s London revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Last week, Gough – along with co-stars Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane and Susan Brown – earned the Broadway transfer of Angels a record-setting 11 Tony Award nominations with her spot in one of the season’s most competitive categories: She’ll vie for Best Featured Actress in a Play, alongside her Angels co-star Brown, Noma Dumezweni (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Deborah Findlay (The Children) and Laurie Metcalf (Three Tall Women).
Though better known in the U.K., Gough has hit New York and hit it hard, reprising both her Angels performance and, prior to that, People, Places & Things at Off Broadway’s St. Ann’s Warehouse (she’s up for a Drama Desk Award for that one).
She’ll soon get an even wider audience with her role as Mathilde de Morny in Colette, the 2018 Sundance Fest biopic starring Keira Knightley as the French novelist, set for a September release by Bleecker Street.
Deadline spoke with Gough just days before her Tony nomination. Reflecting on her breakthrough London successes and Broadway audiences, Roy Cohn and Donald Trump, and Tony Kushner’s famous note-giving, Gough also took a deep dive into Angels’ Harper Pitt, the hallucinating “jack Mormon,” Valium-taking wife of the closeted gay Republican lawyer Joe Pitt. Harper is one of the great roles of the contemporary stage, a magnificent character in a magnificent play, and Denise Gough brings her to life on stage and, here, in this conversation.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Deadline: I’m wondering if you had to recalibrate your performance in any way for a New York audience, after London?
Gough: Not really. I mean, I had to change everything because I have a new partner [Lee Pace plays Joe Pitt on Broadway; Russell Tovey played the character in London], so you’re reacting to an entirely different human being. I kind of feel like I’ve got to play two quite different Harpers, which is great.
But I feel like New York just owns this play, so there’s a real sense of it being at home, which I thought would be kind of intimidating but actually it’s really lovely. Like, people know Harper here. The very first night it just felt like everybody knew who she was. There was a tiny bit of that in London, as well that this was the first play I was doing after People, Places, & Things, and I had become something of a…I was everywhere. So it felt a bit like, “This is what Denise Gough does next in London,” and here I just don’t have any of that at all. I’m just playing Harper, with no baggage at all.
Deadline: Are you aware of what other actresses have done with this role?
Gough: I’ve never seen or watched [Angels in America]. I’ve never. And also I just don’t believe in an actor owning a part, you know? I believe that every actress who played Harper, played it for the time they were supposed to play it and they were exactly the right person that was needed to play it at that time. I’m exactly the right person at this time, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.
Deadline: And in the earlier productions, there were many different Harpers, whereas the Angel was so associated with Ellen McLaughlin, and Stephen Spinella was always Prior Walter.
Gough: And I’ve been playing Harper for a long time now. And this time around [on Broadway] I realized just how abusive her relationship with Joe is, you know? He gaslights her, tells her she’s crazy, acts like the problem is her taking drugs.
And then you have to ask the question, where is she getting the drugs? Like, she hasn’t left the apartment in four years and he keeps talking to her about taking pills, but if he really didn’t want her to take the pills he could take them away from her. He could stop her from taking them but he doesn’t. Joe has this line in the bar scene with Roy Cohn (Lane) where he says, What I’m afraid of is that what I love about her is the part that’s farthest from the light, farthest from God’s love, and that I’m keeping that alive for something. And I always hear that line and I think, That motherf*cker knows what he’s doing. He’s keeping her doped up in the apartment because it’s easier for him. I’m not saying that he does it consciously, but an abusive relationship doesn’t necessarily have to be somebody battering somebody.
Harper is an incredibly emotionally intelligent woman who was born into a fundamentalist religion that told her that her only role is to be a wife and mother, and she never fit that role. Tony talked to me about how Harper in Utah was like the punk, you know? She was the girl who never washed her hair and wore black eyeliner and punk t-shirts. She wasn’t a sweet little Mormon. She was always fighting. Then she was in love with this man and she knew, she always knew [that he was closeted]. Some of the first things she says in the play are, “Things are collapsing. Lies are surfacing.”
Deadline: There’s a thinking that of all the characters – and I think you touched on it in your description of Joe – Joe is the only one that the play doesn’t ever really forgive.
Gough: He never takes responsibility. If you don’t take responsibility for your actions you can’t move on. At the end of the play he goes back to Harper, and he would go back to lying again. That’s his choice. Joe is a brilliantly written part because of that. It can be difficult for actors to…you know, we all want to be the hero, don’t we? But there’s something incredible about being the person who doesn’t get redemption, and showing that to an audience.
Deadline: Someone once said about Harper that, despite her hallucinations, we meet her not when she’s in the fog of her pills – we meet her on the day the pills don’t work. She’s coming through, the denial is already fading by the time we first see her.
Gough: Yes. Yes. The greatest grief for an addict – and Harper has a mild Valium addiction, that’s how Tony describes her, and he has also said to me that the pills are sort of a side thing, something she uses to stop the truth from coming through – but the greatest devastation for an addict is that the drugs stop working. So you meet Harper at a point when lies are surfacing whether she likes it or f*cking not, you know? Even in her hallucinations, Joe keeps coming to her.
Deadline: In some ways Harper is the truth of the play…
Gough: When she gets described as drug addled and pill popping, I think, God, that’s just so reductive. That’s not her place in this play at all. And politically, especially now with #MeToo, she’s a female making her way in a world that has told her that her only role is to have babies and to be married, to the detriment of her own soul. And she walks away from that. By the end she’s so empowered.
In one of the books I read, Marcia Gay Harden [Harper in the original Broadway production] said something like, Oh, she never learns, she leaves her gay husband but goes off to San Francisco. And I was like, Hang on, her closest confidant and soulmate in this play is Prior [a gay character played by Andrew Garfield]. At every point that she thought she was falling apart, Prior comes along and they kind of steel each other up for the next part of their journey, so why wouldn’t she go to San Francisco? She’s not going to look for a man, she’s going to look for herself. And in my life the gay men are the ones who have always pushed me towards myself more than anyone else.
Deadline: Do you have a favorite of Harper’s speeches? You have one of the great monologues [the “Night Flight To San Francisco” scene near the end of the play]…
Gough: I know, but even Tony Kushner knows that it’s one of the great f*cking monologues. It makes me want to pick something else. [Laughs]. No, of course “Night Flight” is everything, and it’s so healing for me as an actress, too. At the end of it all, I get to walk away with hope. With both Harper and Prior, our journey through the play is devastation. When Andrew and I see each other backstage, we kind of feel like we’re willing the other person on. You’re like, Oh, God, you’re right in the center of your devastation and so am I, and they’re both seeking freedom, and we both get freedom. He gets his epilogue and I get my epilogue. So yeah, I do love doing that speech.
But there’s so much else. There’s loads. Her first speech is wonderful, though it’s really hard to do. It was harder in London. The character is talking to the audience about people who are lonely, and the rhythm of it is kind of…you don’t know whether it’s meant to be funny. And then her imaginary friend appears. London audiences were trying to work her out, whereas in New York as soon as I start speaking I felt the entire audience almost collectively say, Oh, there’s Harper!
Deadline: Much has been said about this era being a perfect time for Angels, with the connection between Donald Trump and the play’s Roy Cohn. Are you guys playing that at all? Does that even enter your minds?
Gough: No, I don’t think so. With this play I have discovered that no matter what you try to do, the play will do whatever it wants. Like, the play undoes you. So if I’m going to try to do anything that is not the play, it won’t work, you know? The beauty of this play is you just do it and it will have its effect.
I remember in London I was really nervous about playing [Roy’s friend] Martin because I’m onstage with Nathan Lane, who I love, and I’m playing a man, and I didn’t want to f*ck it up. So I was really nervous about it, thinking, Oh God, it’s going to look silly, and then the first night I went out and I spoke those words and I thought, Oh, just say the words. It doesn’t f*cking matter – you could be standing here dressed as a chicken.
Deadline: I seem to remember that in the original Broadway production [1993, the first year of Bill Clinton’s presidency], when Martin talks about Republicans taking over the Supreme Court, the Senate and the Oval Office, that speech got a laugh. It does not get a laugh anymore.
Gough: It really doesn’t. What it gets is this really uncomfortable…People can’t laugh about it now because it’s so dark. You kind of think, when this was written audiences must have thought, Aren’t we lucky that’s not how it is anymore? And now you think, Oh, God, how did we let this happen again?
And it’s the confidence of these people. I wanted Martin this time around to be real sharp. These guys know that they’re winning. It’s terrifying. I enjoy playing that scene much more than I did in London, I must say.
Deadline: Tony Kushner has been known to give notes. Has he given you any?
Gough: He gave me one note and that’s all he’s ever given me.
Deadline: You may have set a record.
Gough: Yeah. I was finding a scene really difficult, the scene in the rain. He loves Harper very much, Tony, so I feel like he also knows that it’s a very strangely written scene, that little piece when Harper says, “Water won’t ever accomplish the end, no matter how much you cry. Flood is not the answer, people just float.” I was like, f*ck. How? What? So I asked him and he said, Oh, I dreamt that in its entirety and I’ve never touched it. The thing about Harper is that she is open to emotional interpretation, and Tony let me do that. Now, if it had been bad he would have stopped me.
And we talked about the pills. Joe talks about how Harper’s pill addiction is the problem, and if she just didn’t take pills everything would be fine. I was like, Hang on, where does she f*cking get these pills? I spoke to Tony and he was like, Yeah, from him. And you think, Oh, that’s a whole other…that’s like being kept drugged up by your partner, you know? That added a whole different element for me this time around that I couldn’t quite catch in London, but here I really catch it. So when he shames her – “how many pills today, Buddy?” – and she’s so ashamed of herself, he’s giving them to her.
Deadline: It just struck me, but I think in this production Harper doesn’t give Joe her bottle of pills at the end, right?
Gough: Oh, I think you might have seen the night where I didn’t give them to him because I forgot them! Which was mortifying. Mortifying. F*cking…
Deadline: Then I’m glad I mentioned it. I was going to build some big theory around it.
Gough: No. No. No. But there is something different. In the old production she would pour some pills out and give him some and then she would take the bottle, but in this one she gives him the whole bottle of pills and she walks away with no pills. She leaves them to him. Well that’s what’s meant to happen.
Also in this [production], she kisses Joe at the end, which is an idea of mine. It’s a difficult scene [for the audience] with Joe to be left like that, so I wanted, through Harper, for the audience to find a way to be kind to Joe, too, you know?
Deadline: You’ve won a lot of awards. Are you allowing yourself to think about the Tonys?
Gough: I just can’t get involved in it. I had no idea that I would win an Olivier for it, I really didn’t. I was sure that The Ferryman was going to win everything, so I was really shocked that I won. I was delighted though, because it’s not an easy gig, this. And I can wear them as earrings now because I have two.
But listen, I’m nearly 40 and things took as long as they took just for me to start getting regular work. So the fact that I’m on Broadway with Angels in America, and having done People, Places, & Things in one of the coolest theaters in New York at St. Ann’s Warehouse, I’m living my best life right now. So you know, it’s all cherries and icing at the moment. It’s just so nice. I feel so f*cking lucky.
Deadline: Tell me about Mathilde, the character you play in Colette.
Gough: She’s basically at the forefront of the trans movement, before anybody knew what that word meant. She dressed as a man and she was referred to as a man. At a time when it was illegal for women to wear trousers, she wore trousers, and she and Colette had a seven year love affair, and then she tried to kill herself by committing hara-kiri, and when she was caught doing that she was arrested. She eventually killed herself by sticking her head in an oven. Whether I would play it or not, somebody should play her story fully. Colette is fantastic, and Kiera Knightley is really great in the film, but there are so many female stories that you think, God, if this was a man Tom Hanks would have played it and won Oscars for it 200 times over. It’s just really exciting that we’re at a time when these women’s stories are starting to be considered as leading, proper Hollywood movies. It’s fantastic, isn’t it?...
Though better known in the U.K., Gough has hit New York and hit it hard, reprising both her Angels performance and, prior to that, People, Places & Things at Off Broadway’s St. Ann’s Warehouse (she’s up for a Drama Desk Award for that one).
She’ll soon get an even wider audience with her role as Mathilde de Morny in Colette, the 2018 Sundance Fest biopic starring Keira Knightley as the French novelist, set for a September release by Bleecker Street.
Deadline spoke with Gough just days before her Tony nomination. Reflecting on her breakthrough London successes and Broadway audiences, Roy Cohn and Donald Trump, and Tony Kushner’s famous note-giving, Gough also took a deep dive into Angels’ Harper Pitt, the hallucinating “jack Mormon,” Valium-taking wife of the closeted gay Republican lawyer Joe Pitt. Harper is one of the great roles of the contemporary stage, a magnificent character in a magnificent play, and Denise Gough brings her to life on stage and, here, in this conversation.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Deadline: I’m wondering if you had to recalibrate your performance in any way for a New York audience, after London?
Gough: Not really. I mean, I had to change everything because I have a new partner [Lee Pace plays Joe Pitt on Broadway; Russell Tovey played the character in London], so you’re reacting to an entirely different human being. I kind of feel like I’ve got to play two quite different Harpers, which is great.
But I feel like New York just owns this play, so there’s a real sense of it being at home, which I thought would be kind of intimidating but actually it’s really lovely. Like, people know Harper here. The very first night it just felt like everybody knew who she was. There was a tiny bit of that in London, as well that this was the first play I was doing after People, Places, & Things, and I had become something of a…I was everywhere. So it felt a bit like, “This is what Denise Gough does next in London,” and here I just don’t have any of that at all. I’m just playing Harper, with no baggage at all.
Deadline: Are you aware of what other actresses have done with this role?
Gough: I’ve never seen or watched [Angels in America]. I’ve never. And also I just don’t believe in an actor owning a part, you know? I believe that every actress who played Harper, played it for the time they were supposed to play it and they were exactly the right person that was needed to play it at that time. I’m exactly the right person at this time, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.
Deadline: And in the earlier productions, there were many different Harpers, whereas the Angel was so associated with Ellen McLaughlin, and Stephen Spinella was always Prior Walter.
Gough: And I’ve been playing Harper for a long time now. And this time around [on Broadway] I realized just how abusive her relationship with Joe is, you know? He gaslights her, tells her she’s crazy, acts like the problem is her taking drugs.
And then you have to ask the question, where is she getting the drugs? Like, she hasn’t left the apartment in four years and he keeps talking to her about taking pills, but if he really didn’t want her to take the pills he could take them away from her. He could stop her from taking them but he doesn’t. Joe has this line in the bar scene with Roy Cohn (Lane) where he says, What I’m afraid of is that what I love about her is the part that’s farthest from the light, farthest from God’s love, and that I’m keeping that alive for something. And I always hear that line and I think, That motherf*cker knows what he’s doing. He’s keeping her doped up in the apartment because it’s easier for him. I’m not saying that he does it consciously, but an abusive relationship doesn’t necessarily have to be somebody battering somebody.
Harper is an incredibly emotionally intelligent woman who was born into a fundamentalist religion that told her that her only role is to be a wife and mother, and she never fit that role. Tony talked to me about how Harper in Utah was like the punk, you know? She was the girl who never washed her hair and wore black eyeliner and punk t-shirts. She wasn’t a sweet little Mormon. She was always fighting. Then she was in love with this man and she knew, she always knew [that he was closeted]. Some of the first things she says in the play are, “Things are collapsing. Lies are surfacing.”
Deadline: There’s a thinking that of all the characters – and I think you touched on it in your description of Joe – Joe is the only one that the play doesn’t ever really forgive.
Gough: He never takes responsibility. If you don’t take responsibility for your actions you can’t move on. At the end of the play he goes back to Harper, and he would go back to lying again. That’s his choice. Joe is a brilliantly written part because of that. It can be difficult for actors to…you know, we all want to be the hero, don’t we? But there’s something incredible about being the person who doesn’t get redemption, and showing that to an audience.
Deadline: Someone once said about Harper that, despite her hallucinations, we meet her not when she’s in the fog of her pills – we meet her on the day the pills don’t work. She’s coming through, the denial is already fading by the time we first see her.
Gough: Yes. Yes. The greatest grief for an addict – and Harper has a mild Valium addiction, that’s how Tony describes her, and he has also said to me that the pills are sort of a side thing, something she uses to stop the truth from coming through – but the greatest devastation for an addict is that the drugs stop working. So you meet Harper at a point when lies are surfacing whether she likes it or f*cking not, you know? Even in her hallucinations, Joe keeps coming to her.
Deadline: In some ways Harper is the truth of the play…
Gough: When she gets described as drug addled and pill popping, I think, God, that’s just so reductive. That’s not her place in this play at all. And politically, especially now with #MeToo, she’s a female making her way in a world that has told her that her only role is to have babies and to be married, to the detriment of her own soul. And she walks away from that. By the end she’s so empowered.
In one of the books I read, Marcia Gay Harden [Harper in the original Broadway production] said something like, Oh, she never learns, she leaves her gay husband but goes off to San Francisco. And I was like, Hang on, her closest confidant and soulmate in this play is Prior [a gay character played by Andrew Garfield]. At every point that she thought she was falling apart, Prior comes along and they kind of steel each other up for the next part of their journey, so why wouldn’t she go to San Francisco? She’s not going to look for a man, she’s going to look for herself. And in my life the gay men are the ones who have always pushed me towards myself more than anyone else.
Deadline: Do you have a favorite of Harper’s speeches? You have one of the great monologues [the “Night Flight To San Francisco” scene near the end of the play]…
Gough: I know, but even Tony Kushner knows that it’s one of the great f*cking monologues. It makes me want to pick something else. [Laughs]. No, of course “Night Flight” is everything, and it’s so healing for me as an actress, too. At the end of it all, I get to walk away with hope. With both Harper and Prior, our journey through the play is devastation. When Andrew and I see each other backstage, we kind of feel like we’re willing the other person on. You’re like, Oh, God, you’re right in the center of your devastation and so am I, and they’re both seeking freedom, and we both get freedom. He gets his epilogue and I get my epilogue. So yeah, I do love doing that speech.
But there’s so much else. There’s loads. Her first speech is wonderful, though it’s really hard to do. It was harder in London. The character is talking to the audience about people who are lonely, and the rhythm of it is kind of…you don’t know whether it’s meant to be funny. And then her imaginary friend appears. London audiences were trying to work her out, whereas in New York as soon as I start speaking I felt the entire audience almost collectively say, Oh, there’s Harper!
Deadline: Much has been said about this era being a perfect time for Angels, with the connection between Donald Trump and the play’s Roy Cohn. Are you guys playing that at all? Does that even enter your minds?
Gough: No, I don’t think so. With this play I have discovered that no matter what you try to do, the play will do whatever it wants. Like, the play undoes you. So if I’m going to try to do anything that is not the play, it won’t work, you know? The beauty of this play is you just do it and it will have its effect.
I remember in London I was really nervous about playing [Roy’s friend] Martin because I’m onstage with Nathan Lane, who I love, and I’m playing a man, and I didn’t want to f*ck it up. So I was really nervous about it, thinking, Oh God, it’s going to look silly, and then the first night I went out and I spoke those words and I thought, Oh, just say the words. It doesn’t f*cking matter – you could be standing here dressed as a chicken.
Deadline: I seem to remember that in the original Broadway production [1993, the first year of Bill Clinton’s presidency], when Martin talks about Republicans taking over the Supreme Court, the Senate and the Oval Office, that speech got a laugh. It does not get a laugh anymore.
Gough: It really doesn’t. What it gets is this really uncomfortable…People can’t laugh about it now because it’s so dark. You kind of think, when this was written audiences must have thought, Aren’t we lucky that’s not how it is anymore? And now you think, Oh, God, how did we let this happen again?
And it’s the confidence of these people. I wanted Martin this time around to be real sharp. These guys know that they’re winning. It’s terrifying. I enjoy playing that scene much more than I did in London, I must say.
Deadline: Tony Kushner has been known to give notes. Has he given you any?
Gough: He gave me one note and that’s all he’s ever given me.
Deadline: You may have set a record.
Gough: Yeah. I was finding a scene really difficult, the scene in the rain. He loves Harper very much, Tony, so I feel like he also knows that it’s a very strangely written scene, that little piece when Harper says, “Water won’t ever accomplish the end, no matter how much you cry. Flood is not the answer, people just float.” I was like, f*ck. How? What? So I asked him and he said, Oh, I dreamt that in its entirety and I’ve never touched it. The thing about Harper is that she is open to emotional interpretation, and Tony let me do that. Now, if it had been bad he would have stopped me.
And we talked about the pills. Joe talks about how Harper’s pill addiction is the problem, and if she just didn’t take pills everything would be fine. I was like, Hang on, where does she f*cking get these pills? I spoke to Tony and he was like, Yeah, from him. And you think, Oh, that’s a whole other…that’s like being kept drugged up by your partner, you know? That added a whole different element for me this time around that I couldn’t quite catch in London, but here I really catch it. So when he shames her – “how many pills today, Buddy?” – and she’s so ashamed of herself, he’s giving them to her.
Deadline: It just struck me, but I think in this production Harper doesn’t give Joe her bottle of pills at the end, right?
Gough: Oh, I think you might have seen the night where I didn’t give them to him because I forgot them! Which was mortifying. Mortifying. F*cking…
Deadline: Then I’m glad I mentioned it. I was going to build some big theory around it.
Gough: No. No. No. But there is something different. In the old production she would pour some pills out and give him some and then she would take the bottle, but in this one she gives him the whole bottle of pills and she walks away with no pills. She leaves them to him. Well that’s what’s meant to happen.
Also in this [production], she kisses Joe at the end, which is an idea of mine. It’s a difficult scene [for the audience] with Joe to be left like that, so I wanted, through Harper, for the audience to find a way to be kind to Joe, too, you know?
Deadline: You’ve won a lot of awards. Are you allowing yourself to think about the Tonys?
Gough: I just can’t get involved in it. I had no idea that I would win an Olivier for it, I really didn’t. I was sure that The Ferryman was going to win everything, so I was really shocked that I won. I was delighted though, because it’s not an easy gig, this. And I can wear them as earrings now because I have two.
But listen, I’m nearly 40 and things took as long as they took just for me to start getting regular work. So the fact that I’m on Broadway with Angels in America, and having done People, Places, & Things in one of the coolest theaters in New York at St. Ann’s Warehouse, I’m living my best life right now. So you know, it’s all cherries and icing at the moment. It’s just so nice. I feel so f*cking lucky.
Deadline: Tell me about Mathilde, the character you play in Colette.
Gough: She’s basically at the forefront of the trans movement, before anybody knew what that word meant. She dressed as a man and she was referred to as a man. At a time when it was illegal for women to wear trousers, she wore trousers, and she and Colette had a seven year love affair, and then she tried to kill herself by committing hara-kiri, and when she was caught doing that she was arrested. She eventually killed herself by sticking her head in an oven. Whether I would play it or not, somebody should play her story fully. Colette is fantastic, and Kiera Knightley is really great in the film, but there are so many female stories that you think, God, if this was a man Tom Hanks would have played it and won Oscars for it 200 times over. It’s just really exciting that we’re at a time when these women’s stories are starting to be considered as leading, proper Hollywood movies. It’s fantastic, isn’t it?...
- 5/9/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
By popular demand, Fathom Events, By Experience and National Theatre Live announce the addition of two celebrated titles to the 2018 event cinema line-up. This includes director Marianne Elliot's production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time originally recorded in 2012 in U.S. cinemas on Tuesday, June 12 and director Danny Boyle's 2011 staging of Frankenstein presented in cinemas in two versions on Monday, October 22 with Benedict Cumberbatch as Creature and on Monday, October 29 with Jonny Lee Miller as Creature. The events were captured live from the National Theatre in London during their original runs.
- 5/1/2018
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Back in November, BroadwayWorld reported that Stephen Sondheim agreed to director Marianne Elliot's request to change the gender of the beloved character Bobby in her upcoming production of Company in the West End.Now, Sondheim is speaking out about the changes for the first time.
- 7/20/2017
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Not too bad, if I say so myself..." If I may take a quote from this year's Best Musical winner as I went 20/24 with my predictions for this year's 2015 Tony Awards. Undoubtedly, the two big winners of the night were the musical Fun Home and the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, both of which took home five awards including honors for their leading men, directors, and, of course, Best Musical/Play. Right behind those two was the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, which picked up four awards, including Best Revival and for their long overdue leading lady Kelli O'Hara, who easily gave the best speech of the night (including dancing off the stage). I may predicted Tony co-host Kristin Chenoweth over her, but I am so happy to be wrong. yt id="MneMh2c-y0M" width="640" And what about Chenoweth...
- 6/8/2015
- by Mike Shutt
- Rope of Silicon
CAA has signed Alexander Sharp, the recent Juilliard School graduate who has been set to star in the upcoming Broadway play The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime. The adaptation of the Mark Haddon novel is transferring to Broadway from London after it won seven Olivier Awards this past season. Marianne Elliot is directing. In his Broadway debut, Sharp will play a 15 year old who’s exceptionally intelligent but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbor’s dog, he sets out to identify the true culprit, which leads to an earth-shattering discovery and life-changing journey. Sharp is managed by Elin Flack of Elin Flack Management.
- 6/5/2014
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline TV
CAA has signed Alexander Sharp, the recent Juilliard School graduate who has been set to star in the upcoming Broadway play The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime. The adaptation of the Mark Haddon novel is transferring to Broadway from London after it won seven Olivier Awards this past season. Marianne Elliot is directing. In his Broadway debut, Sharp will play a 15 year old who’s exceptionally intelligent but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbor’s dog, he sets out to identify the true culprit, which leads to an earth-shattering discovery and life-changing journey. Sharp is managed by Elin Flack of Elin Flack Management.
- 6/5/2014
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
Songwriter Tori Amos and playwright Samuel Adamson teamed up with director Marianne Elliot to bring a new musical to the stage. After five years, The Light Princess has come to the National Theatre. The musical opened last night, Oct 9, starring Rosalie Craig as Princess Athea. The Light Princess also stars Amy Booth-Steel as Piper, Nick Hendrix as Prince Digby, David Langham as Flowers, Hal Fowler as King Ignacio, Ben Thompson as Zephyrus, and Kane Oliver Parry as Llewelyn. The Light Princess was designed by Rae Smith, who also desgined War Horse.
- 10/10/2013
- by Courtnie Mele
- BroadwayWorld.com
DreamWorks Pictures announced today that the premiere of its latest film .War Horse,. directed by Steven Spielberg, on Sunday, January 8, 2012, at the Odeon Leicester Square, London, will benefit the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be in attendance.
The Duke and Duchess will greet members of the cast and Director Steven Spielberg before watching the film. Six hundred serving and ex-serving military personnel and their families have been invited to the Premiere, alongside beneficiaries of military charities, which the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry helps to support. The servicemen and women have been invited from The Duke of Cambridge.s regiments, including Raf Search and Rescue, Household Cavalry, Irish Guards, Royal Air Force Coningsby, Scotland Royal Naval Command and Submarines Royal Naval Command.
.War Horse,. which opens in theatres in the U.S. on December 25th, is the epic tale of loyalty,...
The Duke and Duchess will greet members of the cast and Director Steven Spielberg before watching the film. Six hundred serving and ex-serving military personnel and their families have been invited to the Premiere, alongside beneficiaries of military charities, which the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry helps to support. The servicemen and women have been invited from The Duke of Cambridge.s regiments, including Raf Search and Rescue, Household Cavalry, Irish Guards, Royal Air Force Coningsby, Scotland Royal Naval Command and Submarines Royal Naval Command.
.War Horse,. which opens in theatres in the U.S. on December 25th, is the epic tale of loyalty,...
- 12/22/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
In theaters on Christmas Day, DreamWorks Pictures. War Horse, director Steven Spielberg.s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War.
Wamg is giving away passes to the advance screening of War Horse in St. Louis, on Thursday, 12/15, 7pm at Ronnies 20 Cine.
Official Rules: 1. You Must Be In The St. Louis Area The Day Of The Screening. 2. Fill Out Your Name And E-mail Address Below. Real First Name Required. 3. Answer The Following Question: Based on the book by Michael Morpurgo and the recent stage play by Nick Stafford, produced by the National Theatre of Great Britain and directed by Tom Morris and Marianne Elliot, how many Tonys did War Horse win this year?
Winners Will Be Chosen Through A Random Drawing Of Qualifying Contestants. No Purchase Necessary. Passes Will Not Be Substituted Or Exchanged.
Wamg is giving away passes to the advance screening of War Horse in St. Louis, on Thursday, 12/15, 7pm at Ronnies 20 Cine.
Official Rules: 1. You Must Be In The St. Louis Area The Day Of The Screening. 2. Fill Out Your Name And E-mail Address Below. Real First Name Required. 3. Answer The Following Question: Based on the book by Michael Morpurgo and the recent stage play by Nick Stafford, produced by the National Theatre of Great Britain and directed by Tom Morris and Marianne Elliot, how many Tonys did War Horse win this year?
Winners Will Be Chosen Through A Random Drawing Of Qualifying Contestants. No Purchase Necessary. Passes Will Not Be Substituted Or Exchanged.
- 12/7/2011
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
In what’s an immensely emotional journey and one of the best films of 2011, watch this new two minute spot for the Steven Spielberg’s epic War Horse.
Synopsis:
War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets . British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter . before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man.s Land.
The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse . an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war - a successful book, it was turned...
Synopsis:
War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets . British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter . before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man.s Land.
The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse . an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war - a successful book, it was turned...
- 12/1/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Tori Amos's planned musical The Light Princess has reportedly been shelved. The singer-songwriter's adaptation of George MacDonald's story was due to open at the Lyttleton Theatre in April, but has had its world premiere postponed indefinitely, The Guardian reports. The National Theatre has reportedly denied that the project has been cancelled entirely and a spokeswoman told the newspaper: "Development is continuing on The Light Princess and we'll announce a new date for the production in due course." Amos's long in-production project had already been announced by the National Theatre for its spring 2012 season and would have been helmed by War Horse co-director Marianne Elliot. It is claimed that the musical has been delayed over fears that it will not be ready in (more)...
- 10/20/2011
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Watch the 2nd trailer for DreamWorks Pictures. War Horse. Director Steven Spielberg.s epic adventure is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War.
If there was a trailer that pranced around with the Oscar front-runner laurel hanging around his neck, this’d be the pony. Academy Award for Best Picture written all over it
Synopsis:
War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets . British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter . before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man.s Land.
The First World War...
If there was a trailer that pranced around with the Oscar front-runner laurel hanging around his neck, this’d be the pony. Academy Award for Best Picture written all over it
Synopsis:
War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets . British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter . before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man.s Land.
The First World War...
- 10/5/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Check out the new poster for DreamWorks Pictures’ War Horse, director Steven Spielberg’s epic adventure tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. (courtesy of EW) In case you missed it, watch the trailer from earlier this summer. It goes without saying that War Horse will be one of the big players in the upcoming awards season.
Synopsis:
War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets – British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter – before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.
Synopsis:
War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets – British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter – before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.
- 9/27/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
From director Steven Spielberg comes War Horse, an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man's Land.
The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into...
The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into...
- 6/29/2011
- by noreply@blogger.com (ScreenTerrier)
- ScreenTerrier
Here’s a first look at the teaser trailer for DreamWorks Pictures’ War Horse, a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. No one does a massive historic film like Oscar-winning director, Steven Spielberg.
Synopsis:
DreamWorks Pictures. .War Horse,. director Steven Spielberg.s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. .War Horse. begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets.British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter.before the story reaches...
Synopsis:
DreamWorks Pictures. .War Horse,. director Steven Spielberg.s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. .War Horse. begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets.British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter.before the story reaches...
- 6/29/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
[1] The official movie trailer for Steven Spielberg's big screen adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's World War I novel War Horse has been released online. Watch it now embedded after the jump. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Official Information: War Horse Dreamworks Pictures Cast: Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Kebbell Director: Steven Spielberg Producers: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy Executive Producers: Frank Marshall, Revel Guest Screenplay by: Lee Hall and Richard Curtis Based on the book by: Michael Morpurgo (and the recent stage play by Nick Stafford, produced by the National Theatre of Great Britain and directed by Tom Morris and Marianne Elliot) Drama December 28, 2011 From director Steven Spielberg comes “War Horse,” an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, “War Horse” begins...
- 6/29/2011
- by Peter Sciretta
- Slash Film
Broadway got religious Sunday night - make that sacrilegious - with the wildly irreverent The Book of Mormon dominating the 65th annual Tony Awards, as expected. "This is such a waste of time," said Chris Rock as he was about to open the envelope, "like taking a hooker to dinner." Lampooning young Latter Day Saints on a mission to Uganda, the musical, with a book and score by South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q's Robert Lopez, went into the evening with 14 nominations and walked away with nine Antoinette Perry Awards, including best musical, score, book,...
- 6/13/2011
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Getty Hugh Jackman, left, and Neil Patrick Harris on stage during the 65th Annual Tony Awards.
The Tony Awards 2011 are being held tonight at Beacon Theatre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Will “The Book of Mormon”–the new musical from the “South Park” guys–sweep its categories? Can “Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark” finally turn on some critics with a performance from cast members?
Speakeasy is live-blogging the ceremony, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, right now.
You can leave...
The Tony Awards 2011 are being held tonight at Beacon Theatre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Will “The Book of Mormon”–the new musical from the “South Park” guys–sweep its categories? Can “Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark” finally turn on some critics with a performance from cast members?
Speakeasy is live-blogging the ceremony, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, right now.
You can leave...
- 6/12/2011
- by WSJ Staff
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
In tragic news, on the heels of María Isbert, Marie-France Pisier, Phoebe Snow, and Diana Wynne-Jones, punk-rock icon Poly Styrene has passed away.
Poly Styrene was born Marianne Elliot Smith in 1957, and she passed away yesterday evening after a long battle with cancer. She was a punk rocker and a feminist, as the lead singer of X-Ray Spex.
She will be missed.
Poly Styrene was born Marianne Elliot Smith in 1957, and she passed away yesterday evening after a long battle with cancer. She was a punk rocker and a feminist, as the lead singer of X-Ray Spex.
She will be missed.
- 4/28/2011
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
"Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard ... but I think ... Oh, Bondage Up Yours!" Those are the opening lines of one of the greatest punk songs of all times, X Ray Spex's 1977 firebomb, "Oh, Bondage, Up Yours!"
They're spoken in a girlish English accent by Poly Styrene, the band's singer and one of the most iconic figures in punk history, who died on Monday at the age of 53 after a long battle with cancer.
Styrene (born Marianne Elliot-Said on June 3, 1957) came to embody everything that punk meant to this budding teenage anarchist when I first discovered the sound of youth in revolt. More than former flatmate Johnny Rotten's sneering snarl, Joey Ramone's snub-nosed hiccup or Joe Strummer's agitated yawp, Styrene sounded like punk felt: messy, untrained, unrestrained, unafraid and uninhibited.
Her strangulated vocals, atonal, piercing, and yes, at times annoying, embodied the Diy aspect of the first wave,...
They're spoken in a girlish English accent by Poly Styrene, the band's singer and one of the most iconic figures in punk history, who died on Monday at the age of 53 after a long battle with cancer.
Styrene (born Marianne Elliot-Said on June 3, 1957) came to embody everything that punk meant to this budding teenage anarchist when I first discovered the sound of youth in revolt. More than former flatmate Johnny Rotten's sneering snarl, Joey Ramone's snub-nosed hiccup or Joe Strummer's agitated yawp, Styrene sounded like punk felt: messy, untrained, unrestrained, unafraid and uninhibited.
Her strangulated vocals, atonal, piercing, and yes, at times annoying, embodied the Diy aspect of the first wave,...
- 4/26/2011
- by Gil Kaufman
- MTV Newsroom
She lived the punk ethos every day of her life and in doing so changed the face of music. Poly Styrene, aka Marianne Elliot Said, the British punk rock icon whose dissonant rebellious yelp as the lead singer of '70s outfit X-Ray Spex cut through an era of conformity and influenced countless musicians, has died. She was 53. According to a statement on the Spex website, Styrene passed away peacefully in her sleep after a battle with breast cancer on Monday evening. Born on July 3, 1957, in the London borough of Bromley to a British legal secretary and a Somali-born aristocrat, this biracial girl ran away from home at age 15 and hitchhiked around various music festivals. After stumbling upon...
- 4/26/2011
- E! Online
Poly Styrene has died at the age of 53. The singer-songwriter, whose real name was Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, revealed earlier this year that she had undergone treatment for breast cancer. A post on her official Twitter feed read: "We can confirm that the beautiful Poly Styrene, who has been a true fighter, won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places." An official statement continued: "We are sad to report that Marianne Elliot (aka Poly Styrene) lost her battle with cancer last night, 25th April 2011. "Poly Styrene was a punk amongst punks. A groundbreaking presence that left an unrepeatable mark on the musical landscape, she made history the moment she uttered,'Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard but I think oh bondage up yours!' "Poly Styrene never stopped exciting us with her (more)...
- 4/26/2011
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Poly Styrene has died at the age of 53. The singer-songwriter, whose real name was Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, revealed earlier this year that she had undergone treatment for breast cancer. A post on her official Twitter feed read: "We can confirm that the beautiful Poly Styrene, who has been a true fighter, won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places." An official statement continued: "We are sad to report that Marianne Elliot (aka Poly Styrene) lost her battle with cancer last night, 25th April 2011. "Poly Styrene was a punk amongst punks. A groundbreaking presence that left an unrepeatable mark on the musical landscape, she made history the moment she uttered,'Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard but I think oh bondage up yours!' "Poly Styrene never stopped exciting us with her (more)...
- 4/26/2011
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
The Olivier-winning production of "War Horse" hopes to rein in some Tony Awards this season. Adapted from the 1982 best-seller by Michael Morpurgo, this epic stage version tells the tale of a young English farmhand who enlists during Ww I in hopes of finding his beloved colt who has been sold to the cavalry. Four of the creative forces responsible for the transfer from the National Theater will take part in the Platform Series at the non-profit Lincoln Center Theater. The discussions will be held in the Vivian Beaumont lobby prior to two evening performances. On April 6, Handspring Puppet Company founders and puppet creators Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler will discuss creating the life-sized equestrian representations used in the play; the pair shared in the 2007 Olivier for Best Set Design with Rae Smith. And on April 13, Morpurgo joins co-directors Marianne Elliot and Tom Morris to discuss their adaptation of his novel.
- 3/18/2011
- Gold Derby
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