Imelda Staunton
Finding Your Feet
IMELDA Staunton gets her groove back in the charming British comedy Finding Your Feet.
It sees the Bafta winner playing Sandra, a stuffy surburbanite who moves in with her free-spirited sister Bif (Celia Imrie) after discovering her husband is having an affair.
When Bif persuades her to join her community dance class, she is swept off her feet by down-to-earth Charlie (Timothy Spall). Imelda talks us through the role… What attracted you to the script?
I think it was that my character Sandra has to go on such a journey. I love a character that is complicated and difficult, and here she is that. As I was reading the script it was as if the pages were turning themselves. It surprised me.
One of the central relationships of this film is between Bif and Sandra as sisters…
It isn’t an ordinary sister relationship, it is a difficult relationship and I think that makes it more interesting. I also think that a lot of people will relate to the tension between Bif and Sandra. I loved that they didn’t immediately get on – it felt more realistic.
I have an anathema to sentimentality, and I think that this film manages to avoid it. I think the emotions and the laughter is earned. Celia and Timothy are so funny, and we know how to make people laugh, and if you can make people laugh, more often than not they will listen. You might not be able to make them cry, but you can make people listen if you make them laugh.
Why do you think there are more films about older people?
I think filmmakers are realising there are stories to be told about people who aren’t 21. There are films like Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, but they are still few and far between compared to action movies with men running around with guns. You also have to remember that it needs to be quality over quantity, you want something a bit nutritious.
Now, Finding Your Feet is an entertaining film, but for what it is saying and how it is saying it, it does well. It isn’t a Best Exotic Marigold, nor is it a Richard Curtis film with those sharp Notting Hill people.
We are playing London people who have a life, who have a will, and strength, and humour, and heartache. It’s another end of
London. It shows off London, both Maida Vale and the estates. It shows the city for what it is. How did you find the dancing? It was great fun. We had time to rehearse and get it right. We would practise it then I would go home and practise it over and over again in the kitchen – you don’t want to get in front of the camera and let others down. The Piccadilly flash mob scene was a bit of guerrilla filmmaking…the music started and off we went, but we wanted to get it right.
Do you approach projects differently depending on the medium? It always starts with the story. That said, with theatre you have much longer to prepare, to rehearse, to investigate. On Finding Your Feet, we had rehearsal time for the dancing, and a read through of the script and we gave the right amount of time for the weight of this material. Do you prefer film or theatre? I’m theatred-out at the moment and would like to do some films where I can have a bit of a life. You don’t get a life when you do theatre. With filming you might have an intense six weeks. With theatre it’s an intense six months.
Finding Your Feet is out on digital tomorrow and on DVD and Blu-ray from June 25.