THAT’S A RAP
Australian actress Danielle Macdonald had to overcome doubts for new role,
It’s a bit of a shock to meet Danielle Macdonald and hear an Aussie accent rather than the New Jersey one she does so well in Patti Cake$, Geremy Jasper’s rap-themed Sundance hit.
“Thank you, that’s always good to hear!” Macdonald says, taking my surprise as the compliment it is. “Because that’s what I was aiming for. The people that I have met from Jersey have all said they thought it was good.”
She certainly had her work cut out for her with this role, having to negotiate not only an unfamiliar accent but to do it while rapping, another form of expression new to her.
In Patti Cake$, now playing in Toronto, the 26-year-old actress with flowing copper-coloured tresses plays Patricia Dombrowski, a.k.a. Patti Cake$ and Killa P, a bartender in a Jersey dive who dreams of being a star rapper.
Few people believe Patti can do it, least of all her embittered and boozed-up mother Barb, played by Bridget Everett. Macdonald admits to having a few doubts herself, but not enough to deter her from auditioning for and landing the role.
And she knew something about struggling to realize an ambition: a primo role in the ABC show Huge fell through soon after she arrived in Hollywood in 2010 because her work visa didn’t arrive in time.
Since then, she’s had roles big and small in movies that have included The East, Trust Me, Every Secret Thing and Greta Gerwig’s TIFF-bound Lady Bird, fulfilling her childhood dream to act.
Up next are the choice assignments Dumplin’ and White Girl Problems, but Patti Cake$ is the movie of the moment for the Sydney-born Macdonald.
You’re not from New Jersey and you weren’t into rap until you made Patti
Cake$. How long did it take you to convince yourself you could play Patti?
I don’t know that I ever got to a point where I thought I could do it! You know when I’m coming down the pharmacy aisle and Jheri (Siddharth Dhananjay) and I are introducing each other? That was actually the last day of shooting and Geremy was like, “Cool, one take, that’s it.” And I said, “So, you’re saying I’ve finally got it?”
On that last day, I felt just calm and confident enough. The whole time making the film I always felt underprepared, because the lyrics were constantly changing the day before or you’re just experiencing rapping in front of people for the first time. That’s terrifying.
How did you prepare yourself for the role?
Man, I definitely went into the bathroom and cried a little bit sometimes before we would film — and I’m so not kidding! I also did it after we filmed, if I didn’t feel like I did very well. You’re stressed and it needs to come out in some way, and it can’t come out onscreen because you need calm confidence there. My trick is, if I’m terrified of it I just do it, even if I’ve embarrassed myself, even if it’s bad, I just have to get through it. Once I get through it once, I can keep going.
You’d never guess from watching the movie that rap wasn’t previously your thing.
Yes, exactly. I listened to songs on the radio; I liked them, but I had no knowledge about it, honestly. So that was a big learning curve for me. And I have so much more respect for it now. And when I was doing it, I was like, oh my gosh, to have the rhythm and the flow, and if you listen to a lot of the lyrics that some people have, there are some songs that are just incredible. It definitely opened up my world in a whole new way and it’s definitely made me way more of a rap fan.
There’s also a message of female empowerment in Patti Cake$, because so many people tell Patti that she shouldn’t be rapping, her mom among them. What have women who have seen the film told you?
I’ve spoken to people who told me it’s given them hope or just maybe inspired them to do something, which is so great. I would love the people to take that away from this film. I would love for people to think, “This really scares me, but it’s something I really want to do, so I’m going to do it rather than shying away from it.” Because even I went through that to do this movie. It terrified me, but that was part of the reason I really wanted to do it, and I’m so glad I did because it was honestly the most mentally challenging thing I’ve ever done. And at the same time it was also very enjoyable.
What’s the most interesting thing people have told you about Patti Cake$?
That they looked deeply into it, which is really cool, and it made them start doing something they haven’t done before. One person told me, “I’m now going to go home and call my mom.” That was really nice to hear, because that meant that rather than the following-of-the-dreams thing (the main story), they were thinking about the relationships in the movie.