Forging a bond
NAOMIE HARRIS DELIVERS EXTRA VENOM WITH HER BRAND OF GIRL POWER
It wasn’t until Naomie Harris stepped on to the red carpet for the premiere of No Time to Die in London in September that it finally struck her: Daniel Craig’s days as 007 were over.
“It made me really emotional,” recalls Harris, who has met Bond’s match as Moneypenny since 2012’s Skyfall.
“After all this time spent in lockdown it was a real celebration that it felt like the whole country – if not the whole world – was invested in. We were part of the reopening of cinema. It’s like this massive high, but also this massive low, because you know it is the end of an era.”
It’s fair to say that
Londoner Harris, 45, has “reopened” with a bullet. She has spent the past month at the top of the Australian box office, first with No Time to Die, then the Marvel movie Venom: Let There be Carnage. Now she’s reuniting with Moonlight co-star Mahershala Ali in the Oscar-buzzed drama Swan Song, premiering on Apple TV+ this week.
“I did Swan Song during lockdown, which was a really different experience. I had to spend Christmas on my own because I was in Vancouver and we weren’t allowed to fly home,” she explains. “But we still managed to make a beautiful film.”
Swan Song is set in the near future where a terminally ill husband and father Cameron (Ali) is given the option to secretly clone himself in order to shield his wife Poppy (Harris) from grief. As he struggles with the decision, Poppy must be left in the dark.
“I fell in love with the script, but I felt Poppy was kind of weak, because she was so vulnerable. I was like, ‘Where’s her strength?’,” says Harris – who has vowed to play only “strong, independent, powerful” women.
“I had to go on a real journey to connect with
Poppy, and to have her teach me that there is so much strength in vulnerability and being centred in your heart. I learnt a hell of a lot.”
After debating the ethical conundrum at the heart of story, Harris says, “both Mahershala and I landed in the same place, which is that we wouldn’t do it. Death is part of life, and I don’t think anyone should go messing around with the natural processes of life. There is a gift in grief. Through experiencing loss, you come to understand the beauty of life even more.”
Through every “intense and emotional” scene in Swan Song, Harris couldn’t have had a better partner than Oscarwinner
Ali. Though the pair spent just two days working together on Moonlight in 2015, they got to know each other over months spent on the awards campaign trail.
“Oh my gosh, that man is literally everything,” Harris gushes. “When you’re acting you want no ego, complete vulnerability, and he gives all of that and so much more.”
Harris may not have taken home the Academy Award for Moonlight, but her career has been “night and day” since.
“I get offers all the time now. It’s interesting, because at the very start of my career when I did 28 Days Later with Danny Boyle, and that became a cult classic, everyone was like, ‘You’ll be working non stop!’ Then it was released and I was literally unemployed for eight months. When I did Pirates of the Caribbean, people said, ‘Oh you’re set for life,’ and it really wasn’t the case.
“The movie that paid me the least of anything, that I worked on for three days, has had the biggest impact on my career.”
In Venom: Let There be Carnage – the sequel to the surprise hit starring Tom Hardy – Harris plays Shriek, a villain whose voice is her superpower.
“Venom was a chance for me to go wild, and I embraced it,” she says. “In my contract I’m always like, ‘No stunts!’ and then I always end up being roped into doing them. So I was on suspension wires I don’t know how many feet in the air, being dropped down … I did actually really enjoy it.” Venom provided another reunion, this time with Woody Harrelson who worked with Harris in the early 2000s on her first Hollywood movie, After the Sunset.
“I had a car accident and ended up spending a month convalescing at Woody’s house. I was like, ‘What’s he going to be like over a decade later?’ He was just as amazing.”
While Harris reckons Hardy would make a great Bond, she believes producers are likely to opt for an unknown. As for her own future with 007? “I have no idea, no idea whatsoever.”