【S.H.→☆访谈】找到《莫蒂》里“天真”女画家背后的复杂一面

Finding the sophisticated woman behind the 'naïve' painter in Maudie
5 Question for Sally Hawkins, star of Maudie, a drama of the life of acclaimed Nova Scotia artist Maud Lewis.
By PETER HOWELL Movie Critic Fri. April 14, 2017
In the 1965 Star Weekly article that helped launch her to international fame, Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis is referred to as a "natural primitive" for her unschooled paintings of bucolic country scenes.
It's an art world term, along with its variant "naïve art", but neither sits well with Sally Hawkins, the Oscar-nominated British actress (for Blue Jasmine) who brings the late Lewis majestically to life in Irish director Aisling Walsh's new film Maudie, now playing at Toronto's Varsity Cinemas.
Hawkins stars opposite Ethan Hawke, who plays Lewis's fishmonger husband Everett, in the movie that was filmed in Canada, with Newfoundland standing in for Nova Scotia.
"People call it 'naïve art', but there's no such thing, I think," Hawkins says from London.
"Maud's art is far from naïve. It just has a childlike innocence which is actually highly sophisticated. Her composition is highly sophisticated, and so is the way she uses colour and landscapes and things from her imagination. Things she's seeing in the everyday world around her: children playing in the street, oxen in the field and also Everett, who's on the boat. It's just beautiful."
That Star Weekly article, by the way, described Lewis, then 62, as "Canada's Grandma Moses" under the banner headline "The Little Old Lady Who Paints Pretty Pictures."
They were different times, to say the least, but Hawkins is delighted to be able to help celebrate the life story and artistry of Lewis, who died in 1970. This interview has been edited and condensed.

Q1: You bring great passion to the role of Maud Lewis. You really wanted to play her, didn't you?
A: Incredibly so! I fell in love with her work. It was the reason why I wanted to do it, really, even before I read the script. I've known Aisling for years (they made the BBC crime series Fingersmith together), and we've kept in contact and remained good friends. She rang me saying that she had been sent the script and interested in doing it and thought of me, which was very flattering, and then sent me a few pictures of Maudie.
Q2: What was your reaction to the photos?
A: There's one of Maudie, later on in her life, when she is incredibly debilitated with her arthritis, holding this paintbrush and surrounded by her artwork and sitting by her window. She has this incredible smile. I also saw some of her paintings. And as soon as I saw those pictures and paintings, I knew I wanted to do the film. I can paint myself, but this made me want to start back at the beginning and try to paint like her.
Q3: How do you describe Maud Lewis's art?
A: I just find it stunning. The more you look at it, the more that comes through. And when I started to paint like her paintings, I just loved doing that and I got so much from it. There's this beautiful humour that comes out of her work and this lovely sense of joy. You can feel how much she loved working and how much she loved art.
Q4: Ethan Hawke is a great actor as well as a very nice guy, but his Everett comes across as a real brute.
A: I know, but it was not out of the norm for the day. And I think Maudie, in our film anyway, saw that he was just in pain, I think, rather than cruel or malicious. It was somebody who was in a similar amount of emotional pain to Maud and it was being expressed in that kind of vicious way. But there was certainly a softer side to Everett.
Q5: You bring across very well Maud's ability to overcome her serious physical ailments — arthritis and emphysema — as well as her extreme poverty and isolation.
A:Thank you! I love what I do and I feel honoured to do what I do, bringing people to life. It's a real gift for me. It is hard work, and you just want to sort of throw yourself into it each and every time. To do anything less than that feels like a disservice: to the people you're playing, to the audience and to yourself. Especially when you're representing somebody who existed in real life and is such an icon and is such a genius. I felt blessed.

找到《莫蒂》里“天真”女画家背后的复杂一面
《莫蒂》（反映了著名新斯科舍民间艺术家莫德·刘易斯的一生）之星莎莉·霍金斯的五个问答 作者：影评人彼得·豪威尔 2017年4月14日 星期五
1965年加拿大《明星周刊》的一篇文章帮助新斯科舍省民间艺术家莫德·刘易斯获得了国际名声，她因自己绘制的田园乡村风景被称为有“自然原始”的风格。
这是一个艺术世界，有着“天真的艺术”及其变体，这些都被英国奥斯卡提名女演员（因《蓝色茉莉》提名）莎莉·霍金斯处理的无比自如，她主演的爱尔兰导演艾斯琳·沃什的新电影《莫蒂》（较为权威的反映了早已谢世的刘易斯的一生）现在正在多伦多指定的电影院里上映。

问题1：你对扮演莫德·刘易斯倾注了极大的激情。你真的很想演她，不是吗？
答：必须的！我爱上了她的作品。这就是我想演她的原因，真的，这是早在我读剧本之前就认定了的。我与艾斯琳相识多年了（她们因一起合作过BBC迷你剧《指匠情挑》而相识），我们一直保持着联系，而且一直是好朋友。她给我打电话说她已经给我发了剧本、她对此颇感兴趣、当时一下就想到了我，这让我挺惊喜的，然后，她寄给我几张莫德的照片。

问题2：那你对照片的反应又是什么呢？
答：有一张是晚年的莫德，被关节炎折磨得疲惫不堪却依然拿着画笔坐在窗边，周围满是自己的画作。她有着不可思议的笑容。我也看了一些她的画作。一看到那些照片和绘画作品我就知道自己想做这个电影。我本身会绘画，但正是她让我想重新开始，在电影中试着用她的风格去画画。

问题3：你怎么看莫德·刘易斯的艺术？
答：我认为是惊人的。对她的作品看得越多，我就越吃惊。当我开始像她一样画画的时候，我一下爱上了这么做，也收获良多。她的作品传达出了美丽的幽默感还有可爱的愉悦感。我能感觉到她是多么地爱工作、爱艺术。

问题4：伊桑·霍克是个伟大的演员，也是个非常不错的人，但他扮演的埃弗雷特真是个粗野人。
答：我知道，但这并非常态。我觉得在电影《莫蒂》里的埃弗雷特只是深陷痛苦中罢了，他并不是一个残忍或恶意的人。他跟莫德一样痛苦，只不过表达方式更剧烈一些。埃弗雷特肯定也有温柔的一面。

问题5：你表演的效果很好，演出了莫德克服她严重的生理疾病——关节炎和肺气肿以及处于极端贫困和孤独境地的勇气和境况。
答：谢谢你！我热爱我所做的工作，我对自己能够把每个角色演得真实而深感荣幸。这对我来说是一份真正的礼物。表演是一份艰苦的工作，因为每接一个角色，我都一心想要全身心投入其中。而只要少努力跟少投入一分，我都会感觉这是种伤害：这是对我扮演的人、观众和我自己的一种折损。特别是当我扮演的人真实存在而且是个优秀的天才时，这份感觉更加的强烈。我为自己能扮演这样出色的人而感到无比幸运。