She stars in Mahalia Belo's new maternal climate crisis drama, 'The End We Start From'. Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Congratulations, I must say. We're only eight days into 2024, but this is my favourite film of the year so far.
00:05 - Hey! I think... - I think... I feel like... Wait, wait!
00:09 I didn't take it. But you didn't take it, so I'm not gonna take it.
00:14 I think it would have been my favourite film from, like, a good few months of last year as well.
00:17 - I really enjoyed it. - You are so kind.
00:20 Really... No, I did. I sound... I just have a face that seems facetious, but I do mean it.
00:25 Jodie, I'll start with you. Your trajectory the last few years has been, you know, astronomical.
00:31 When you come back and you do a kind of smaller British indie like this, is it a bit like...
00:36 Is it a bit like going on a camping holiday after doing some all-inclusives?
00:40 - Yeah. - Like a different sort of buzz?
00:43 - Is it? - Erm...
00:45 - And I mean that in a good way as well. - Yeah, I mean...
00:49 - Is it... - Is it Centre Parcs?
00:52 - It's in Centre Parcs. - Well, the reality is the productions have a lot less money, right?
00:56 - So it's like... - I guess so.
00:59 But what I mean is, when you do something like... When you go on a camping holiday,
01:03 there's, like, an excitement, a kind of a grittiness.
01:06 You get a completely different experience from it.
01:07 - You're not sat by the pool. - Everyone's in it together.
01:09 And not just that, but I don't know. I think you can feel more fulfilled after something like that.
01:15 And looking at the cast in this yourself, you've got Cumberbatch is in there.
01:21 - You want second names hands for them? I like that. - Yes, Cumberbatch is in there.
01:26 I think I said Benedict's people would probably get it as well.
01:30 I think when you get a heavyweight cast in a film like this,
01:33 it gives you the feeling that there's lots of people who really wanted to make it.
01:36 - Yeah. - Yeah.
01:37 And for both of you, do you get a sense of that when you're on a personalised...
01:40 I think that's right. And that's true of independent film, you know.
01:44 And what I really experienced on this shoot is, like, a lot of the time,
01:47 the odds are stacked against you, whether that be finances or lack of time
01:52 or babies in every scene. - Yes.
01:54 - And just really seeing first-hand how much everyone cares about what they're making
02:00 and are striving to make it possible, you know.
02:04 That is definitely a quality that this film had given me and I appreciated
02:09 and I would love to be a part of more. Yeah.
02:13 Mahalia, when Jodie was breaking through in about 2018 with Killing Eve,
02:20 you brought to us some great stuff on TV with, like, Requiem and The Long Song.
02:23 After that, I've read somewhere, I think you became a mother in that period.
02:30 - I became a mum before, actually. - Oh, before?
02:32 Yeah, so I shot my first thing, Ellen, with a four-month-old, which was mad for me.
02:39 But yeah, no, but then after that, yeah, I had my second kid through the lockdown.
02:43 So I kind of wondered whether your experience adapting this story
02:49 has been almost like a cathartic exploration of things within you.
02:53 And has Jodie been kind of like a canvas for you in that regard?
02:56 I mean, whoa.
03:00 - I suddenly went highbrow. I started off centrefold. - Yeah, you are.
03:04 - Just before the end. - Woo-hoo-hoo!
03:06 Um, yeah, so I think there was a lot of things that I related to about this story
03:12 that, you know, that nothing else really could.
03:14 And I hadn't seen it before.
03:16 I'd never seen motherhood depicted in this way on screen.
03:19 And yeah, and there was the play.
03:21 Like, Jodie's brilliant at playing as well, aren't you?
03:24 You kind of, there's this kind of presence, this really present and alive to everything.
03:28 So there was, like, there were moments where, "Why don't we try this and that?"
03:32 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:33 Where I was just remembering things as we were going
03:35 about the experience of being a first-time mum.
03:38 And we could explore that, you know, yeah.
03:42 So yeah, I think, you know, to answer to your question, yes.
03:46 Yeah, that's, we could have just got there with yes and we wouldn't have, no, that was perfect.
03:49 Did it change your perspective at all on motherhood?
03:52 Because it is quite intense and we've seen it depicted in various different ways
03:56 over the years in film and TV.
03:58 But going through this journey with the kind of, I don't know,
04:03 the sort of the parallels of leaving one life behind into a new life,
04:08 I guess, when you become a mother for the first time.
04:11 Yeah, how was that experience for you exploring this together?
04:16 I think it was beautiful.
04:18 I mean, it is invaluable having May, you know,
04:20 and being able to just have really kind of honest conversations.
04:24 And, you know, I knew that May wanted to show all the complexities
04:31 and, you know, how like life-affirming it can be,
04:34 but also how kind of destructive it can be,
04:38 whether that be to the relationship to your own body
04:41 or the relationships within your life.
04:43 And I was so curious about uncovering all that,
04:48 especially as I'd spoke to like friends who had children.
04:51 Like, I feel like now I appreciate like how just mighty the undertaking is
04:55 of having a baby and how selfless that act is.
04:58 And how it transforms you, whether you're ready or not.
05:03 Yeah.
05:04 You know, it just kind of catapults you into a different version of yourself.
05:09 And oftentimes you're expected to have all the answers
05:13 or, you know, know straight away what to do.
05:15 And it's just not the case.
05:17 And yeah, and I feel like that's what we like explore within the film.
05:21 And finally, the story sort of sidesteps the usual science fiction
05:25 sort of disaster tropes of like high sci-fi.
05:28 And it gives you a much more kind of realistic,
05:31 subtle view of kind of end of days in a way.
05:34 And now it arrives on the back of like Storm Henk,
05:37 like breaking flood barriers and the Cotswolds.
05:40 And scientists saying how our seasons have changed,
05:43 which is causing irreparable damage to wildlife and everything else.
05:47 I just wondered, did you guys get through this whole process
05:50 without going down any rabbit holes?
05:53 Or do you now have like firm plans in place?
05:56 Like, I feel I should have a mate in the...
05:57 Into the hills.
05:57 Yeah, I should have a mate in the countryside waiting for me or something.
06:01 Some sandbags in the back.
06:02 Yeah.
06:03 You spoke to a flood expert on the...
06:04 Yeah, yeah, they live in a hill.
06:06 They live on a hill.
06:07 Just a hill.
06:08 They wouldn't tell you, would they?
06:10 It was like, what hill?
06:11 He was like, wouldn't you like to know?
06:13 They didn't tell me.
06:14 I'm not lying, but...
06:15 I know, I know, I remember.
06:17 But I've always thought like Wales, I think.
06:19 Wales, hills of Wales.
06:22 Very wet already though, over there.
06:24 Yeah.
06:24 But you know, it's still vibrating from the ice age, it can cope.
06:28 Nice.
06:30 I don't even know if that's nonsense or real things.
06:32 Is Wales vibrating from the ice age?
06:35 That'll be my Google afterwards.
06:36 Well, cheers guys.
06:37 I hope if this does happen, you do find yourself somewhere nice and dry.
06:40 And we all make it to the other side.
06:42 But I really enjoyed the film.
06:43 Thank you.
06:44 And I won't be surprised if it's my favourite film at the end of the year as well.
06:46 We'll see.
06:47 We'll see you next time.
06:48 Hold it back there, didn't I?