Fiona Shaw: ‘It's much easier to play the selfish person'

Irish Examiner

a day ago

'I had the easier job – it's much easier to play the selfish person,' reflects Irish actress Fiona Shaw.
The 66-year-old TV Bafta winner stars as Rose, a mother with a mysterious illness, in Hot Milk, an adaptation of Deborah Levy's 2016 novel.
Set against the scorching backdrop of a Spanish summer, the film follows Rose and her daughter Sofia, played by Sex Education's Emma Mackey, as they travel to the coastal town of Almeria in search of a cure from a local healer.
Using a wheelchair and suffering from chronic pain, Rose is entirely dependent on Sofia – whether it's to leave the house or simply fetch a glass of water.
An increasingly frustrated Sofia hopes the clinic will restore her mother's mobility and, in turn, grant her the freedom and independence she desperately craves.
Shaw, who won a TV Bafta for her role as Carolyn Martens in Killing Eve, praised her 29-year-old co-star for helping shape the emotionally charged dynamic between the two women.
Emma Mackey as Sofia and Fiona Shaw as Rose in Hot Milk. Picture: MUBI
'Emma had to decide, in each scene, how she would cope with her mother's behaviour – but the mother just continues on. She isn't thinking about the effects, and that's the problem,' Shaw explained.
'They're not two people at loggerheads. I don't think the mother is at odds at all. She adores her daughter, wishes she wouldn't visit her father, and wants her to focus on her studies.
'She can't see that she's the reason none of those things can happen properly. And that blindness is a nightmare for the other person – but Emma had to carry that.
'We would laugh about it, but she had to play the scenes. I just had to play Rose – she had to play the reception.'
As the tension between mother and daughter intensifies, Sofia becomes enamoured with free-spirited traveller Ingrid, played by Phantom Thread's Vicky Krieps, who helps her shed her inhibitions and loosen the grip her mother has on her life.
But as Sofia embraces her newfound independence, it becomes increasingly intolerable for her controlling mother – raising uncomfortable questions about the true nature of Rose's illness.
Vicky Krieps as Ingrid and Emma Mackey as Sofia. Picture: MUBI
To prepare for the role, Shaw researched psychosomatic disorder, a condition in which psychological distress manifests as physical symptoms, and spoke with people living with similar experiences.
'We spoke to people with the syndrome – this tendency to not have any physiological reason why you can't walk, but you can't walk,' she said.
'This syndrome comes with pain and with a twitch. I really concentrated on trying to get the stuckness of the person – and I was helped a lot by using a wheelchair.'
Hot Milk marks the directorial debut of Rebecca Lenkiewicz, 57, who described Shaw and Mackey as 'an inseparable couple' on set.
'Fiona stayed in the wheelchair the whole time on set, and Emma would wheel her everywhere,' said Plymouth-born Lenkiewicz.
'They were like a couple – Emma would have to get over stones and sometimes was crying for help. It was very beautiful and touching watching them together.'
Lenkiewicz, who previously wrote acclaimed films such as Ida and Disobedience, called making her directorial debut with such a female-centred story 'one of the most incredible experiences' of her life.
'I had yearned for years, really, to be with a film from start to finish, rather than just write it and deliver it. It was wonderful,' she said.
Director Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Picture: MUBI
While Levy's novel is set in Almería, southern Spain, the cast and crew filmed in Greece for cost reasons – a decision Lenkiewicz said ultimately enhanced the film's tone.
'Greece has gifts. It's so rugged and raw. We didn't want something picture-postcard,' she explained.
'We wanted something quite primal, and we had fantastic location scouts who went above and beyond to find different environments.
'The book gives you wonderful references – like a cement factory next to a café next to the sea – so you're hunting out these contrasting textures and landscapes.
'The sea was incredible, and the wind was amazing. There were lots of gifts for free.'
She also credited her creative team, including cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt and production designer Andrey Ponkratov, for shaping the film's distinctive aesthetic.
'Christopher just read the light and the tone so intuitively, and Andrey created these beautiful shadows – both within the apartment and in the world outside it,' she added.
Shaw described the filming experience as 'a very, very lovely time' – though not without its challenges.
'There was a permanent sense of improvisation, because we were living in that place,' she said.
'It wasn't full of laughs, because the pressure of getting so much of the film made meant that people's days were long.'
Emma Mackey as Sofia. Picture: MUBI
She also praised Lenkiewicz for her careful handling of Rose's ambiguous disability on screen.
'I couldn't have done this without Rebecca,' she said.
'You really need to be in dialogue with a director for something like that, because Rose – who appears to be unable to walk – does, at times, stand. And that's ultimately the choice of the director or the editor.
'In the book, it happens earlier, but in the film, it's quite late that we actually see her do the thing she says she can't do.'
The film ends on a cliffhanger, leaving audiences to interpret Rose and Sofia's fate for themselves – a choice Shaw embraces.
'I've seen the film a few times, and I've had contrary thoughts each time – and I think that's really good,' she said.
'It's an ambiguous thing. And really, I think art is ambiguous. That's the point of it.'
Hot Milk opens in cinemas in Ireland on Friday, July 4.
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