Breaking Baz: Michele Austin On How Her 30-Year Friendship With Marianne Jean-Baptiste & Mike Leigh Injected Truth Into ‘Hard Truths’
deadline.comIt’s amazing watching Mike Leigh’s film Hard Truths, starring the extraordinary Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin, in an American theater.
Another layer is added as audience members, mostly women at the regular afternoon screening I attended, engaged in the story of two sisters who are the complete antithesis of each other.
Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy is pernickety, house-proud, and after we’ve had our laugh at her, it’s evident that she’s in so much psychological pain, breaking down before our eyes.
Austin’s Chantelle, a hairdresser, is more outgoing, more Happy-Go-Lucky, to borrow the title of one of Leigh’s movies. I loved hearing folk in the cinema sucking their teeth at Pansy’s antics and cooing with approval when Chantelle braided hair.
Read more on deadline.com
