The performance that inspired Vanessa Kirby’s career: “The kind of work I’m aiming for”
There is perhaps nothing more infuriating as an audience member than Oscar bait – a project in which the filmmaker clearly has no intention of making a good film with any meaning, but is instead designed to appear deep and bait hollow Academy members into thinking it is full of substance, something they achieve through great performances at the heart of the film.
It could be the recent disappointment of A Complete Unknown, a film with a particularly bland story yet it coasts by on Timothee Chalamet’s strong portrayal of Bob Dylan. The same could be argued for films like The Brutalist, The Girl with the Needle and Oppenheimer, with great casts that manipulate audiences into thinking there is more than meets the eye, often with little below the surface to justify the critical acclaim it receives.
However, it sadly proves to be a pretty reliable way for actors to show off their range and flex their wings a bit, with many successfully winning Oscars and BAFTA’s for performances that might be great, but aren’t backed up by a film that matches their talents, which arguably, should be taken into consideration. Often the Academy favours more mainstream films with higher marketing budgets, ignoring smaller projects that might be better for the pure and simple fact that they bring less clout.
This was certainly the case with Vanessa Kirby’s 2020 film Pieces of a Woman, that despite her stunning performance, feels as flat as a pancake in its emotional pancake and a clear contender for one of the most baitiest films ever made. However, Kirby’s performance still sticks out as one for the books, with the actor describing how she was influenced by one other great actor.
John Cassavetes is one of the most fiercely independent filmmakers of all time, creating brutally confrontational films that capture moments most people would shy away from, whether it be the dissolution of a marriage, the fragile egos of middle-aged men and mental illness. Each one feels emotionally volatile and dangerous, something that is encapsulated by the central performances of his regular collaborator and wife, Gena Rowlands.
Given the rawness of Kirby’s performance in Pieces of a Woman, it is unsurprising that Rowlands was an influence on her, saying, “I love her. Her messiness. Her total strength but total fragility. That’s the kind of woman I want to see on screen, so I can go, ‘Oh, God, that’s me!’ Not a boxed-in kind of woman, who’s palatable; not the film version of what a woman should be. I want to watch women on screen, and play women on screen, that my sister and my best mates and everyone else can go, ‘I know her!’”
As a result, her work inspired the kind of projects she was looking for, drawn to moments of extreme vulnerability, saying, “I was looking for something demanding. I was being sent all the standard sorts of scripts, but Pieces of a Woman was so absorbing, so touching, that I was absolutely sure that I had to do it. Gena Rowlands is my hero, and her film A Woman Under the Influence is the kind of work that I’m aiming for. Rowlands is idiosyncratic—fierce, but still vulnerable”.
