Yahoo News How the Women Talking cast formed a real-life community on set
Women Talking is a film about community — so perhaps it's no surprise that the cast found real-life fellowship on set.
Writer-director Sarah Polley adapted her film from Miriam Toews' 2018 novel, which was in turn based on a true story in Bolivia. The film centers on an isolated group of Mennonite women, all of whom have suffered violent attacks, drugging, and repeated sexual assaults. When the women learn that the perpetrators are men in their own community, they decide to meet secretly in a remote hayloft to decide their next steps. Their options: remain silent, fight back, or leave and try to forge a new future elsewhere.
It's heavy subject matter. But there's also a surprising lightness to Women Talking, and the film shines with a communal warmth and flickering humor that lights up even the darkest moments. Stars Claire Foy and Ben Whishaw recently joined EW's Awardist podcast, where they opened up about juggling the film's tone and leaning on their castmates for support.
"Overall, I think the vibe was very positive," Foy explains. "The main theme of the whole thing was very joyful. It was very collective, like we were a community. There would be up and down days because of the material that we were shooting and because of the endurance it took to film. We were in a barn in a studio. I'd never done anything really green-screeny like that before."
Michael Gibson/United Artists Releasing The cast of 'Women Talking,' including Jessie Buckley (left center), Claire Foy (top center), and Rooney Mara (right center)
Whishaw and Foy say the cast quickly bonded off screen, and they spent almost the entire shoot together, rehearsing or just hanging out in the same green room (which, they note, was actually gray). Foy was constantly asking her fellow actors for their interior decorating opinions, while their costar Rooney Mara brought a fart machine to set to lighten up some of the tougher days. "Sometimes you work with people with no sense of humor," Foy adds. "We were very lucky that people did. It would be a very different environment if you didn't."
Foy stars as a vengeful young mother named Salome, and Whishaw plays the male schoolteacher the women recruit to help take notes. As the title suggests, much of the film consists of lengthy, dialogue-heavy scenes, which required hours of rehearsal. "I think for you women, it was hard, in terms of having to repeat long stretches of text again and again and again to get coverage," Whishaw explains.
"But you had to sit there and listen to it!" Foy adds with a laugh. "You had to stay awake. I don't know how you did all that, actually, and didn't ever flag."
"It was just amazing because it was like being in the front row of an amazing play, really," Whishaw adds. "[I was] watching amazing actors who I have admired for a long time. It was so interesting, just watching people work their craft. But also just on a human level, it was a very loving room."
You can listen to the full interview with Foy and Whishaw in the podcast episode below. Plus, check out the full episode to hear EW's take on the current award season landscape, as well as hear from TÁR star Nina Hoss, who opens up about Cate Blanchett's "mind-blowing" performance and learning to play a professional violinist.
Check EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in movies.
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