English actress Sally Hawkins has many reasons to be cheerful after starring in the new Mike Leigh film Happy-Go-Lucky. She talks to Helen Barlow.
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When you first encounter Sally Hawkins' character Poppy in Happy-Go Lucky, you might wonder not only what is she wearing, but what's she on?
Just high on life as it turns out. But in the happy-as stakes she makes Larry and pigs in muck look glum by comparison. Her unflappable high spirits run a fine line between irritating and uplifting,
But Hawkins' portrayal of the effusive London primary school teacher won her the best actress prize at the Berlin Film Festival, and now her acting career is on a roll.
Watching Happy-Go-Lucky you might also wonder if this is really a movie by veteran social realist director Mike Leigh, maker of many a film of a particularly English miserabilism.
Though his movies have often featured strong female characters like Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies and Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake.
Leigh's lengthy working method famously draws on the real personalities of his actors and he apparently wrote the character especially for Hawkins.
Today the 31 year-old Londoner and RADA graduate is dressed in beige, off-white and brown and gives the impression of being far more reserved than Poppy.
If she can keep Poppy's infectious sniggering giggle at bay, she could come off as a different person altogether. Of course she can't.
"I naturally have an optimistic approach to life and I'm told I'm a smiley person," she admits, indeed giggling and peering at me with her wide sparkling eyes. "I suppose I've always been like that and I love humour and comedy. And yes I'm a giggler like Poppy. Mike is too, although he sometimes might give the impression that he's not. He loves the comic side of life."
Hawkins, who appeared in Leigh's Vera Drake and All or Nothing (she's also been in television in comedies like Little Britain as well as starring in last year's Persuasion series) was always going to be creative in her choice of career.
Her parents Jacqui and Colin Hawkins are authors and illustrators of children's books, and their upbeat view of life rubbed off on their daughter. Sally chortles as she rattles off the names of her parent's books.
"There's Mr Wolf, Mr Wolf's Week, Mr Wolf Tells the Time, ha ha. They've done Cosmic Cat, Mig the Pig, Jen the Hen, Tog the Dog, Zug the Bug.
"My dad's the one with the crazy sense of humour while my mum's work is softer, rounder more feminine. They've worked together for over 20 years now and they never stop. I don't know how they do it 24/7 but they seem to be getting on fine."
Over the years Hawkins has admired actors such as Julie Walters, who have retained a similar authenticity.
They've never met but she has always been inspired by Walter's "comic ability, her intelligence and her phenomenal acting ability". Brenda Blethyn has been an influence too.
"Mike's worked with some lovely genuine people who have other things in life other than acting. I think to be a proper actor you have to draw on life."
Leigh says he was inspired to make Happy-Go-Lucky because he has a 30 year-old son who is single and happy that way. In the story, Hawkins' Poppy lives with her best friend and is contented being single. Her sister has married and is miserable.
When Poppy takes driving lessons she meets a miserable instructor (Leigh regular Eddie Marsan) who treats her horribly. She sticks with him because that is the kind of person she is, but when she becomes romantically involved with another man he is not impressed.
After Vera Drake, where the similarly upbeat Staunton played an abortionist who went to prison in dowdy 50s England, Leigh had been keen to create a positive character who would motivate the action in more colourful surrounds.
"By making a character who is young and attractive and sexy and funny and full of energy, means the colours in the film are harmoniously interlinked," Leigh says.
"I suppose my bubbly nature or my love of comedy were allowed to be expressed", admits Hawkins.
"Poppy loves humour though sometimes her humour may fall flat on its face as not everyone appreciates her jokes. But she finds herself hilarious," she adds, emitting a shrill Poppy giggle.
"The work itself though is extremely hard. Mike demands that and I wouldn't want it any other way. It's a truly collaborative creative process working in such an intense way for six months building this character and building her relationships.
"I can't really express how lucky that is to be using every part of yourself and your brain. On a lot of films you're given a script and you're almost a puppet and you have to find ways to use your brain and make sure that you do."
When creating Poppy she said she couldn't think of anything else.
"I was always collecting things from all aspects of life : art, clothes and makeup. You're using everything. Poppy has a love of colour. It's her way of being creative and you can see that when she's working with the children at school.
"Perhaps it's not expressed in a painterly way; I think it's expressed through her clothes and putting things together. She's not led by fashion; she has an eclectic sense of style. She doesn't care if colours don't match, or if they clash. I loved her style and I liked the fact she'd see something on someone and go,'Oh yeah, I'll have that and I'll have that', and 'Oh, that doesn't go but I don't care - I like the way it makes me feel'."
Poppy's dress sense is so bright that Leigh used a new film stock called Vivid to shoot the film. What was it like for Hawkins to wear such bright clothes? Were they to her taste?
"It was good fun to do, but no, I don't wear bright orange coats. Or leopard skin boots. But it was really good fun to play somebody who does, to have an excuse."
At one point Hawkins' body is up for close scrutiny as the camera scans her while she lies down in her underwear for a physio appointment.
"That was quite intimidating," she admits, "but if you're going to be in your underwear for any director, it's best if it's Mike Leigh because you know it's never going to be exploitative."
Has she kept the underwear? "Oh yeah," she laughs, "the bright pink bra."
What about the orange knickers? "Weirdly I have the orange knickers. Should I admit this? But yeah, they're mine. Oh dear!"
Hawkins' movie career is now looking bright as well as she is filming An Education, based on a memoir by writer Lynn Barber and also starring Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina and Peter Sarsgaard.
So how does she feel about being referred to as the next hot thing?
"Really? Who said that? That all sounds nice but I'd rather do good work and solid work and keep working. Just as quickly as you become the next big thing, you can quickly be not."
LOWDOWN
Who: Sally Hawkins
What: Happy-Go-Lucky
When: Opens Thursday at Rialto, Lido, Bridgeway cinemas
Also: Hawkins and Mike Leigh will be attending the New Zealand premiere of the film on Wednesday. Peter Calder's interview with Leigh will appear in next Saturday's TimeOut.
