Marianne Jean-Baptiste is a rather interesting actor who chooses roles that are just as fascinating. In her latest film, In Fabric, she plays a middle-aged recent divorcee who shares a home with her teenage son. In hopes of finding love again, her character, Shelia answers a Lonely Hearts ad, buys a new red dress, and tries to give romance a go again. If only the dress she purchased wasn’t cursed and bent on murder and mayhem.
Told by any other director, this yarn would have reduced to silly cinematic tricks and camp. But this one is played as straight as an arrow and Baptiste holds the film together as the everyday person that gets lured into this surreal world of cursed clothing.
We had the chance to speak with her about this new film, her role in it, and working with auteur Peter Strickland.
HorrorBuzz: How did you get involved with In Fabric?
Marianne Jean-Baptiste: My agent is actually a fan of Peter’s work. I hadn’t seen Peter’s work before that. She said, “Read it (the script) and I’m going to send you links to his films.” So I read it and I was like, “WOW this is different!” It’s kind of up my street actually because it’s different. Then I saw Berberian Sound Studio and thought, “Okay, this will either work or it won’t, but It will be a very interesting process. Then trying to find out if it would work. And that was it for me. Once you read it and then see his work you’re like, “Oh, ok! I’m in!”
HB: There’s a particular vibe to his work.
MJB: Yeah, and he’s not trying to fit into any particular thing which is interesting. That’s not to say he doesn’t have his influences but he definitely has a thumbprint, you know? His work is HIS work.
HB: Tell me about your character Sheila
MJB: When we meet sheila, she’s coming off the back of a divorce and her husband has left her rather than it being amicable and she is feeling lonely. She has a sense of longing. Her son has this girlfriend that he seems quite serious about and she’s just feeling that she has no purpose. She’s just yearning to have some life, some adventure and that’s when we meet her. We meet her when she is embarking on this whole Lonely Hearts thing where she tries to find love. She’s a good woman our Sheila.
HB: What we find interesting about your roles is that you bring a realisim and a simplicity to your performances. What tools do you utilize in creating a performance like that for the screen?
MJB: One of the most important things is to listen and to focus on the intention. I mean I do a lot of preparation, a lot of writing, and what their dreams and desires are. I usually have quite a bit going on in my head, about their world when I am acting. There’s always something going on up there.
HB: You bring grounded feel to the absurdity. How do you find the realism in this role that allows us to go on this journey?
MJB: It’s like doing a period piece. You get dressed up in your costumes and corsets and stuff like that, and I always find it bizarre on set when everyone is all dressed up and you’ve got someone on their coffee break in an Elizabethan costume smoking an American Spirit outside. That’s always a weed juxtaposition. So like in this film, I call it Sritckland Land. Peter creates these worlds with no real time period. It’s like the 80’s, but it seems a bit earlier in some places and a bit later after that. These odd things happen, Sheila goes into the department store… If I were there watching the scene play out in real life I would have been telling her “GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! IT IS WEIRD MAN! Look at the way they’re talking, look a the way they are dressed! These nuts are gonna kill you! She’s there, she’s in this world and you just have to commit that this is the reality of this world. So within it, this is how I act. Do you know what I mean? And I’ve still got to get home and make dinner for my son and deal with listening to him having sex with his girlfriend. (Laughs)
HB: That’s what makes it work so well. The marriage of your style of acting and Strickland’s style of directing, it really sells it.
What was it like working with him on set?
MJB: He’s a very interesting director to work with. He’s collaborative, but very very clear about what it is that he wants. For example, the scene in the dressing room when she tries the dress on. Peter’s standing there telling me, “You’ve got to stand at this angle and hold your hands there,” and you’re like “Oh for Christ’s sake Peter! Then you do it, then you watch it and you go, “I GET IT! I get it. This stuff is very important to the overall look and feel.
I remember we were shooting the scene where Sheila is driving in the car. As a performer you are thinking “Okay, this is how I drive and I am in England, and I have to use my blinkers and check traffic…” and Peter says, “No, no. Don’t do that. I just want you to wobble the wheel back and forth, left and right, left and right. And I want you to sort of look out the window with a raised gaze.” I said, “then it doesn’t look like she’s driving.” He said, “No, I don’t want it to look like she’s driving. You’re on a green screen and we are gonna run the same footage behind you like in those old films.” Meanwhile, someone is off to the side moving the car up and down. I mean, you have to have the patience for those moments, but they bloody work when you see them.
HB: Those moments get you to suspend your disbelief even further and really dive in.
MJB: Yes.
HB: What was the atmosphere on the set like?
MJB: It was good! We had a great atmosphere on the set. Of course, it was a bit fraught sometimes because you never have enough time to do what you want to do. But in general, I think that all of the actors were kind of “onboard” for being in his world because they are aware of what he can do. He’s a very genuine person. It’s very funny. It took me a couple of weeks to figure him out. then I thought “That’s it! You’re actually genuine!” It’s bizarre because it sounds like a very basic thing that most humans should be but he really is!
HB: So glad to hear that.
MJB: No he really is, he’s really genuine to the point of it being a bit bizarre. He’s lovely and very funny.
HB: Anybody that comes up with this stuff has to have a wicked sense of humor and take on life. You recorded an album of blues songs.
MJB: Well, it was jazz really, it says blues online somewhere. It wasn’t an album it was a few songs.
HB: So if this killer dress were a jazz singer who would it be?
MJB: Oh my god! I want to say Nina Simone. That’s the first thing that came to mind. Maybe because I am thinking “I put a spell on you.” That’s it!
HB: We want to see more of you and this is one of our favorite films of the year. Thank you so much for the time.
