Director Mike Leigh vividly remembers the 1997 Academy Awards, where Marianne Jean-Baptiste was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in his Best Picture-nominated film Secrets and Lies.
“She should have won,” she told me during an interview at Variety’s studio, hosted by J. Crew and SharkNinja, during the Toronto International Film Festival.
Jean-Baptiste lost out to Juliette Binoche, who shockingly won for her performance in The English Patient, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture. However, neither Binoche nor Jean-Baptiste were likely to win. Instead, Lauren Bacall, in The Mirror Has Two Faces, won both the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild for her work.
“I remember the person who won that year walking backstage after the interviews, coming right up to Marianne and saying, ‘You should have won this award.’ ‘This should be for the record.’”
Nearly three decades later, Lee and Jean-Baptiste reunite for Lee’s 15th feature, “Hard Truths,” which will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. A stark contrast to Lee’s 2008 comedy “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “Hard Truths” tells the story of Pansy, a hypersensitive woman who explodes at the slightest provocation. She lives with her husband, Kirtley (David Webber), and adult son, Moses (Twyne Barrett), who have become indifferent to her outbursts. Her sister, Chantal (Michelle Austin), is her emotional opposite—cheerful and content with her daughters, but able to understand Pansy’s pain.
Jean-Baptiste gives a strong performance that could earn her a Best Actress nomination at this year's Academy Awards. If she is nominated, she will become only the fourth black woman to receive multiple Oscar nominations, joining Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Angela Bassett.
“Oh my God!” Jean-Baptiste said when she learned the statistics. Still, she wasn’t focused on the hype of the awards. “The beauty of working this way is that it’s not about the results; it’s about the process. So I find it hard to think about that because I’ve already won. And I have the courage to hand the award to someone, [that] You know, I'll take care of you.
Lee dismissed any notion of retirement, though he acknowledged his physical challenges. “It’s very difficult to raise money when you don’t have a script, you don’t discuss casting, and you just say, ‘Give us the money and don’t interfere,’” he said. “My problem is physical. I’m a bit paralyzed these days, but I hope to overcome that. I’m not retired yet.”
He has an idea in mind but refuses to talk about it.
“Hard Truths” will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, and will be released in the United States through Bleecker Street on December 6.
