Interview: Sally Hawkins on the pink glasses
So far, she has been seen mainly in supporting roles. This year, the actress kicked off a real kick-start: in the new Woody Allen movie "Cassandra's Dream", she worships Colin Farrell with Fish and Chips, and as a lively Poppy in Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" she enchanted the Berlinale Audience and won the Silver Bear. Both films can now be seen in the cinema. Hawkins, who was born in London as the daughter of two children's book illustrators, knew as early as ten that later she would like to make people laugh. She writes lyrics for British comedy series and sometimes identifies with her characters so that even her friends barely recognize her in her roles. Thanks to Poppy, she has become a lucky expert.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You were allowed to take a Silver Bear home from the Berlinale - are you floating with it on cloud nine?
Sally Hawkins: Such a bear does not fundamentally change your life. He just makes people a little more attentive. At the moment, so many people want to talk to me. I think that's up to him.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: It really does not sound like a high jubilant sound.
Sally Hawkins: Yes! I am very happy. But not because I got the acting bear for Happy-Go-Lucky, but because I'm so proud of my role in this movie.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: But now you are flirting.
Sally Hawkins: No. Success is a very ambiguous thing: I want to be able to walk the streets for a long time without being shot down by paparazzi. And why must successes in the course of a life actually become more and more powerful? When I came fresh from the drama school, I was already looking forward to a snow queen, if anyone has ever responded to a letter of application. Why are we no longer satisfied with the little triumphs?
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Good question? What do you mean?
Sally Hawkins: I think we should be much more independent of success or achievement. That does not depend on our luck. I am very happy to progress in my profession.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: So did British filmmaker Mike Leigh choose you for the Poppy character in Happy-Go-Lucky?
Sally Hawkins: Possible. Poppy has consciously decided to live her life like this and not otherwise. "Everyone is responsible for their own happiness," she says in the film.
Read on the next page why the pink glasses can also make aggressive.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You like this Poppy, that London sunshine that hops around the world as if it were an amusement park?
Sally Hawkins: When I started to deal with her character, I realized that I can learn a lot from her: her ability to take life as it is and make things happen is almost frightening. Once her bicycle is stolen and she just says, "Oh, I could not say goodbye to him." I would have been so excited for a while. Of course that would have nothing
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: What's so special about Poppy?
Sally Hawkins: There is something magical between us. And somehow she is still around me. , , You just have to love them. She is such a warm-hearted, compassionate, witty, optimistic person who is incredibly open to people. "Carefree" (German for "happy-go-lucky") is a stupid word, but that really sums it up the best. For Poppy, the glass is always half full. She just never sets off the pink glasses.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You put on these glasses then too. What do you see through their tinted glasses?
Sally Hawkins: More of others and less of yourself. You suddenly do not take your own person so seriously. And if you have the glasses only long enough, the pink color also discolored. I was asked after the movie if it was not exhausting to constantly have a permanent grin on my face. But it was not for a second. I just felt great.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You did not use drugs, did you?
Sally Hawkins: Negative thoughts are much more effective drugs. At them one can really intoxicate oneself, from them one can be totally stunned. So much so that someday you will not be able to live without it. Since unwavering optimism should be dangerous?
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Does this strong pink color eventually color out to others?
Sally Hawkins: Not at all. Many are very irritated. Poppy's misanthropic driving instructor Scott, for example: the happier she gets, the more aggressive he becomes. He can not handle her sunny style because he can not embrace life like she does. The pink glasses also make something visible in other people, which otherwise remains hidden.It shows them what it looks like inside, where they really stand. And many do not like seeing that.
On the next page: Sally Hawkins on the Irony Trap.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Poppy still believes she can make everyone happy.
Sally Hawkins: She's not stupid. She knows that you can not force people to happiness. She just wants to give them what they need. But not everyone wants to accept that. , ,
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde:. , , and rather runs his eyes open to his misfortune.
Sally Hawkins: For many it's just too painful to drop the mask and maybe lose face. But we are all just little boys or girls who need a lot of love.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You actually say that completely unironically, right?
Sally Hawkins: Our time is ironic enough. It's so trendy and cool today to face anything with irony or biting cynicism. So you do not have to show what you really think and feel, but always has the upper water, can circumnavigate the shoals and slide along the safe edge. Actually pretty cowardly.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Are you never ironic?
Sally Hawkins: Constantly. Unfortunately it's also a lot of fun. It's so easy to fall into the trap of irony. And actually so stupid.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And how do you get out of the irony trap?
Sally Hawkins: Quickly put the Poppy glasses back on! This means coming out of oneself, being curious about the world and its inhabitants. I already know how life plays. Today you think: What am I a great woman - and tomorrow: What went wrong at my birth? It's not about simply fading out bad things. But if I feel bad, I have to get myself out of it. I have to find my glasses just when I've misplaced them.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Where is she usually?
Sally Hawkins: Sometimes I forget about my friends. Laughing with them, or, even better, making them laugh, always dispels dark thoughts very quickly. Love stories come and go. Friends are the foundation you can rely on.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And if no one is there?
Sally Hawkins: I love driving. As quickly as possible. I inherited this racer gene from my mother. If you then get out, the world looks quite different. But honestly, I do not have a car. I would like one of these funny electric cars. But you would have to pull the charging cable from my apartment over several balconies down to the street. That would be quite expensive.
