Smile for the camera

Happy-Go-Lucky star Sally Hawkins turns in an Oscar-worthy role, playing the most unusual character: a content one.

By Melissa Anderson

Photograph: Nick Briggs/Clerkenwell Films for Masterpiece Theater

Take a look at the splashy, award-winning roles for women in the past five years and you’ll notice a sorority of ladies with big problems: Marion Cotillard’s Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose and Charlize Theron’s Aileen Wuornos in Monster are just two of the more high-profile turns in the sisterhood of the traveling rants. Yet the revelatory performance of Sally Hawkins as Poppy, a preternaturally sunny London primary-school teacher in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky, prompts the question: What’s so bad about feeling good? Awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, Hawkins shows that lauded, breakthrough performances need not always involve addiction, no-good men and abject misery. In fact, in an era when “prestige” roles for women often entail stunt weight gains and/or prolonged scenes of screaming, Hawkins proves that playing it easy-breezy may be the more daring move.

Leigh, who had worked with Hawkins twice before in All or Nothing (2002, the actor’s screen debut) and Vera Drake (2004), made Happy-Go-Lucky with the sole purpose of having her at the center. “She is an extraordinary actress,” the director, reached at his office in London, gushes. “She’s incredibly versatile, she has a great passion, she’s highly intelligent, she has a massive sense of humor, she has a bounding energy and vitality and is a consummate artist in her own right.”

Although American audiences may have witnessed Hawkins’s talents before—earlier this year, she played Colin Farrell’s girlfriend in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, and starred as Anne Elliot in PBS’s Persuasion—her role as Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky is unlike any in recent memory. Buoyant and compassionate without ever being simple or sappy, Poppy is also capable of great anger—particularly during a harrowing scene with her rage-filled driving instructor, played by Eddie Marsan—and concern, displayed when one of her pupils begins to hit other students. “Poppy was on the brink of being a bit of a laugh all the time, like a bubble,” Hawkins, 32, says by phone from Dublin, where she’s currently on set for the romantic comedy Happy Ever Afters. “When I was playing her, I didn’t really know that she’d come across as particularly happy or nice; she’s more than that. She’s very bright and she thinks very deeply about things. I think people tend to dismiss those who have a happier outlook on life as slightly ditzy or not thinking very hard, and I think the opposite is true of Poppy.”

For some critics (this one included), a thoroughly sanguine character onscreen takes some getting used to; in Happy-Go-Lucky’s first scene, I wondered whether Poppy was mentally ill. Whether this says more about the disposition of reviewers or the shock of seeing such a joyful lead is open for debate. Soon, however, I began to realize just how complex Poppy is. “The job is to create people in a three-dimensional way,” Leigh says, referring to his practice of intense improvisation with his actors. “We created Poppy over six months, interacting with all the other characters and exploring their situations long before we came to shoot anything. It’s organic; we explore and make somebody real.”

Sometimes that exploration takes its toll. “When you’re working with Mike, you’re working so closely and intensely with your character,” Hawkins says. “What was hard was that Poppy feels so deeply, and when you’re in a character like that for so long, you’re feeling every pulse and you’re locked in with their soul and their spirit. [After the wrenching scene with Marsan], I remember coming home and being quite upset about it. But what’s great about Mike is his ability to step away; he’s still disciplined about the character, that you are not your character, however close you may be.”

Of course, one must always separate the dancer from the dance. But does Hawkins have exceptionally exuberant qualities that made the role of Poppy so perfect for her? “One has to be very clear that Sally is Sally and Poppy is Poppy,” Leigh notes. “But certainly that kind of positive, open generosity is there in Sally. I mean, you couldn’t do a Poppy with a mean-spirited or misanthropic actress.”

Happy-Go-Lucky opens Oct 10.

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