Sally Hawkins swimming silently toward an Oscar
English actor charms critics as a voiceless custodian in Guillermo del Toro movie
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.— Without making a sound, Sally Hawkins has swum away with critics’ hearts.
The actor stars in The Shape of Water, the noir fairy tale from director Guillermo del Toro ( Pan’s Labyrinth). The amphibious 1960s-set love story charts the tale of a voiceless custodian who discovers a scaly “fish-man” trapped inside the dank, secret government laboratory in which she works.
Elisa, whose isolation is bolstered by companionship from her kind, closeted neighbour (Richard Jenkins) and protective work wife (Octavia Spencer), doesn’t merely befriend the chained and tortured creature, or try to communicate with it.
She falls head over heels in love with it.
“Elisa is otherworldly,” says Haw- kins, 41. “She doesn’t judge. She just recognizes something in there and feels the connection. And that’s all that she’s worried about.”
Del Toro wrote the role for Hawkins, who earned an Oscar nomination memorably playing Cate Blanchett’s stable sister in 2013’s Blue Jasmine.
The director reversed course after his last big-budget gothic romance, 2015’s Crimson Peak, which he felt suffered from box-office expectations tied to a heavy-handed horror marketing campaign.
He kept the rollout in line with his vision this time by cutting costs and making the visually rich Shape of Water for just $19 million (U.S.)
His fish-man was brought to life by actor Doug Jones, wearing a scaly costume. Only small effects, like the creature’s eyes, were added in postproduction.
This fairy tale goes full tilt. A human/merman love scene was “the most natural thing in the world,” Hawkins swears, laughing.
The director says he wanted to flip the story of Beauty and the Beast “to make the beauty of the tale not a perfect princess but a more real woman in every sense.”
“She doesn’t get kidnapped or conditioned to love the character that is keeping her prisoner. She is the engine of liberation.”
In person, Hawkins emits a quickto-smile fragility, and speaks in a hushed tone.
“She is very shy in real life, extremely shy. She keeps herself to herself. And then when she is in front of the camera, she is incredibly brave,” del Toro says.
The British star lives in London, but says she’s contemplating a move outside the city.
“I’m desperate to get a garden, which, unless you’re a multi, multimillionaire, you can’t afford,” she says.
The actor knows that as sexual harassment allegations arise in Hollywood, questions about Woody Allen will come up, having worked with him on Blue Jasmine and 2007’s Cassandra’s Dream.
“You take people as they are,” says Hawkins, choosing her words carefully. “As they are to you. I never — I don’t — I just saw someone who is in love with his writing, nothing but gentle. A gentle soul, so smart, funny, witty.”
But she’s also forceful about taking on predators.
“When rape is involved, things need to be fully accountable,” she says.
“And they need to be brought to justice and to be brought through the courts. And that’s when things will change.”
In the months ahead, experts predict Hawkins will go head-to-head against Meryl Streep ( The Post) and Frances McDormand ( Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) for best lead actress.
Hawkins, an indie-film superstar, “is way overdue for major awards recognition,” says Tom O’Neil, founder of Oscar prognostication site GoldDerby.com. And in The Shape of Water — a solid best picture contender — “her performance is The Shape of Water, brazenly sexual and dives boldly into fantasy.”
Regardless of Oscar gold, the actor says this is the fantasy we need right now.
“There’s so much cynicism in the world,” Hawkins says. “Fairy tales are so important for us as humans. They teach us so much.”