Antonia Desplat was born in Paris and raised between France and the UK. Desplat has recently wrapped the French television series “Made in France”. This adds to her many television credits which include the forthcoming season 2 of “Sandman” for Netflix, the upcoming season of BBC’s “The Gold,” Canal+’s “Pleine Orientale,” Netflix’s “The Letter for the King,” ITV’s “Victoria” and “The Durrells.” Desplat also starred as the female lead in the Apple TV+ series “Shantaram,” opposite Charlie Hunnam. On the big screen, Desplat will also soon be seen starring in “The Killer’s Game” alongside Sir Ben Kingsley and Sofia Boutella and Chuck Russel’s “Witchboard” with Jamie Campbell Bower. Her other recent film credits include Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” and MGM’s “Operation Finale” and “La Naissance d’une étoile,” alongside Catherine Deneuve. In addition to her acting work, Desplat is a writer and producer, her short film “Held for a Moment,” receiving multiple accolades at festivals around the world.
At this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival, Tara Karajica sat down with Antonia Desplat to discuss the role of Beatrice Hastings she plays in Johnny Depp’s “Modi: Three Days on the Wings of Madness,” that screened in Competition at the festival, as well as the female gaze, the situation of women in film today and what she’s up to next.
How did you get on board Modi: Three Days on the Wings of Madness? What attracted you to the character of Beatrice Hastings?
Antonia Desplat: I was sent the script with an opportunity to maybe get considered for the role, and it was one of the first times that I read a script that was so uncensored and it felt very exciting and free – Beatrice being a real woman. Also, she’s British, and it was the first time I was given the opportunity to play a real British person. And, it’s always exciting to bring to life someone that’s real. So, there’s a lot of pressure, in a way, but it’s a nice challenge to take on. And then, obviously, the fact that Johnny Depp was directing was incredibly exciting.
Beatrice Hastings was, apart from being a real person, so versatile, a feminist, very progressive, and had a lot of aliases. How do you see her?
A.D.: I see her as a chameleon. She had, I think, about 50+ different aliases, and she was a revolutionary. She was like Virginia Woolf in a way, at that time. And she even wrote a book called Woman’s Worst Enemy: Woman, which is pretty interesting, and where she denounced the idea that women shouldn’t be sort of labored to be breeders. I thought that was incredibly revolutionary for the time. She was also a very free spirit. They said she sat on the floor, smoked in public, swore in public… So, for me, she’s like a 360 wild horse that transforms into different colors in different situations, which is also very real, an open book, and a bit tragic in the sense that she was as misunderstood as Modigliani was – each in their own field. She really longed for recognition, I’d say, that she got later on. I think she called it the “Curse of Eve,” which is that she wished she wasn’t born in a female body because she knew that as a woman in that time she wouldn’t get the recognition that men would be able to get, and some of her aliases were actually men’s names because she thought: “The only way my writing will be seen is if it’s under the alias of a man.” But she killed herself, and I think she never got the recognition that she was striving to get.
How did you prepare for the role?
A.D.: There’s a book written by Stephen Gray [Beatrice Hastings – A Literary Life], which is 1600 pages, and I just absorbed that as much as I could to try and get all the different colors of the character. But I also work with a physical coach that helps me find the physicality of a character. And the whole point was that she was leading with her hand, but she was a constant flow, in 360, so I wanted to find a physical freedom, and I just didn’t want her to be contrived in any way. She needed to be extremely free and extremely impulsive.
Do you think that your portrayal of Beatrice would have been different had it been directed by a woman? Would you have played her differently?
A.D.: I don’t think so because Johnny [Depp] gave us an incredible freedom. It was a very collaborative experience, and he just created a very safe playground for us to just explore, fail, try… So, I don’t think that being directed by a man or a woman makes any difference, but I think it’s the personality of who’s directing [that does]. If we were contrived, and if we were told where to stand and how the scene needs to be played out, and be very, very stuck on the script, whether it was a man or woman directing, it would have been a very different portrayal. And I think Johnny was the perfect person to actually do that, because he just allowed us to be fully free.
I’m asking because if there had been a female gaze coming from the director’s chair, the Beatrice on the screen might’ve been completely different.
A.D.: Well, I brought that female gaze because I’ve done my research. And, I think when there were ideas that weren’t in the script that I sort of came up with, I was heard and encouraged to bring my gaze into it. So, I think having the mix of the two still means that I brought a female gaze to it.
Are you a feminist? Do you recognize yourself in Beatrice?
A.D.: I think I’m quite impulsive too. I’m a lot more in control than she is. But I think I have no filters. I’m very French in that sense. I say what I think. I’m not going to pretend if I don’t agree with an opinion. I’m very politically engaged, and I love women. I support women and the feminism movement a lot.
How much of you is there in a role? Do you manage to dissociate yourself from your own persona in order to become someone entirely else?
A.D.: Yes, but you have to bring a part of yourself, because it’s what makes a character very real. I think I do the entire prep so that it sits somewhere in my body, but then I let it go because you have to sort of let yourself react to a situation, to the other character that’s in the scene with you. You need to be able to respond and be free. So, there’s, of course, a part of me in the characters [that I play].
Is there a role that has completely altered you as a human being, your life or your worldview?
A.D.: I think it awakens a part of yourself that you either don’t really know or that you don’t allow yourself to show. My friends also say that I walk away from each job that I do with a tiny bit of the character, but it’s more that it has awakened something in me through the character.
The discussion about women in film today is ongoing. What is your opinion on the situation? Where do you see yourself in this discussion?
A.D.: I think we’re still in a place where we’re adapting men’s roles to women’s when I think it’s time for us to have our own storytelling. There have been so many incredible women throughout the years, and I don’t think we need to make a female James Bond. I think we still need to make a bit more progress on that. But I think there are more and more women that are directing, that are behind the camera. I just did a TV show in France, and the producers are female, the camera operator, the director, two female leads… And, it was wonderful to be a part of a project completely led by women. It felt incredibly different because everyone was so caring and everyone elevated each other to try and be better. So, the energy is completely different on a set if it’s a woman that is directing. In that particular case, it felt incredibly caring. Because in the film industry there are a lot of male crews, some women go the other way where they have to be really assertive and firm with their opinions. But on that show, it really didn’t feel that way. It felt very organic. And, the fact that Justine Triet was at the Oscars last year, we’re making progress, but there’s still a lot to do.
What are you working on next?
A.D.: I have a show that I just finished which is a mix between Emily in Paris and Call My Agent. And it’s in a fashion house in Paris, and I play the Head of Communications of this consortium and it was very fun. It’s called Made in France.
Photo credits: ©Jorge Fuembuena.
This interview was conducted in person at the 2024 San Sebastian International Film Festival.
