I fear that if I Iived in L.A. I might well lose perspective
NAOMIE HARRIS IS MAKING WAVES AS A DRUG ADDICT MOTHER IN CINEMATIC SAGA MOONLIGHT. BUT IT’S A PORTRAYAL THAT HAS SEEN HER PRIVATE MASK SLIP, AS GEMMA DUNN DISCOVERS
LONDON-BORN actress Naomie Harris breaks the mould for an A-lister. While her movie star looks, boundless talent and impressive CV conform to type, her conduct – refreshingly – does not, reading more girl-next-door than silver-screen prima donna. On the day of our interview, Naomie turns up early, and after pouring us both a drink and paying a few compliments, she’s keen to talk – as long as it doesn’t encroach on her personal life. “I have a very separate life,” she notes coyly, when the subject of her private persona is broached. Just the night before, she proudly took 38 family members and friends to the premiere of David Frankel’s grief-filled drama Collateral Beauty, in which Harris stars alongside Will Smith and Helen Mirren.“I’ve known my friends since secondary school,” the 40-year-old quips. “[There was] a friend I’ve known since I was a baby, then all my aunts and uncles.” It’s a circle that keeps her sane: “I’ll go, ‘Oh this movie I did didn’t do well and I am really upset about it’, and my friends go, ‘Oh, didn’t it? Oh well’. They don’t care at all, and I think that’s great – it’s grounding and really important to me.” That’s a conversation she’s unlikely to revisit with regards to her latest project, however. Directed by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight is based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, by Tarell Alvin McCraney. It follows the groundbreaking tale of one young man, Chiron’s, tumultuous coming of age in South Florida over two decades. Naomie’s tour de force role – for which she’s garnered her first Oscar nod as Best Supporting Actress – takes the form of Chiron’s emotionally abusive mother, Paula, who’s frenzied life is ravaged by drug addiction. It’s a part Naomie – best known as the iconic Miss Moneypenny in James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre – was, at first, hesitant to accept.
“My mum is a very intelligent, capable, strong, independent, amazing woman. Those are the kind of women I grew up around, but I didn’t see them reflected on screen.
“Instead, I saw quite negative portrayals of women, as the seducer or the prostitute or the drug addict or the victim. I want my career to reflect the women that I know, the community of women I am from,” she explains. So what changed her mind? “I watched Medicine For Melancholy [Barry Jenkins’ critically-acclaimed 2008 romance]. It was made with $15,000, which is nothing, and it’s one of the most beautiful films that I’ve ever seen,” she recalls, smiling.
“So I thought, ‘Wow, if this director can make a film as good as this for $15,000, what’s he going to do with a proper budget?’”
Barry’s exploration of race, sexuality, masculinity, identity, family and love has so far earned a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and is up