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Did you talk to any mid-wives?
I spoke to a gynecologist, a very elderly lady who’d spent all those weekends clearing them up, all the botched abortions – having to fix them. Then I read a lot of statements.
The surprising piece of information that I learned was that 85% of the abortionists who were in prison in the 40s and 50s were mothers and grandmothers. They were not what I imagined. You know, single women, no kids, evil, living in a basement. The baddie. Discovering that these women, like Vera, did do it for no money. Not everyone, but there were women who did it for no money because this is the working class and that’s why women went to people like Vera, because they didn’t have any money. Although there was a go-between in this case. But I know we researched it and I know that those women existed.
Do people recognize you on the street and want to talk about the film?
Well hopefully they don’t recognize me on the street because I’m so tall and glamorous, obviously (laughing). Yep... I haven’t really because the film has only opened in January in London, so it’s only just opened. But I was walking on the street one day and there’s this big motorbike guy. I was trying to cross the road and I thought he was being really rude [screaming] like that. I said, “Sorry?” Then he lifted his helmet and said, “Vera Drake, yeah!” I thought a biker going to see “Vera Drake,” that’s pretty good (laughing). That was rather nice.
What’s wonderful is talking about a film that people are very positive about and that it gets off the 'Arts' page and there are more things to discuss. I’m doing lots of Q&As and it’s been very interesting doing all that sort of work.
Entering into this project with Mike Leigh, did you have a sense there was something about this that would bring recognition, even awards?
No, not at all. With Mike, he makes films that are sometimes successful, sometimes they’re not. So you just do the work on the day. Nothing further from my mind than this. Then once we’d finished the film, a couple of months after we’d finished, Mike said, “Now listen. You know you’re going to have to make yourself available for the Cannes Film Festival.” I said, “Oh, okay.” It was turned down at Cannes. So I thought, “Okay, no one is ever going to see this film. So that was another year but that’s what it was. I had a great experience doing the work so you just have to walk away." That’s really how I thought, the film’s never going to get seen anyway.
Then it all turned around. We got the Venice Film Festival and then it opened here, and it all sort of snowballed from there. So, in some respects, you just have to do the job on the day. You cannot be, “I want to do this film because that’s going to happen for me.” You can only do the job on the day because anything can happen. Even though it’s happened to me at a time in my life where if nothing had happened I could still go home and get a job. So it’s a healthy time for it to happen to me.
Why did Cannes turn it down?
I don’t know why. I think it was a new regime going into Cannes and I don’t know the real reason why it was turned down. I think Ken Loach’s film was turned down. We weren’t the only one. But [Mike Leigh's] so well known in Cannes, it was very unusual. I think it was turned down and then about an hour later the Venice Film Festival went, “We want it.” And it was gone. Gone to Rome. Then Cannes heard that and, “Maybe, maybe we’ll have it.” “You’re too late.” So that was it. And Venice is so beautiful.
What’s the state of filmmaking in England now?
Well, with this film the [last] week of filming we had to lay the crew off, send them home. The actors went back onto rehearsal money because we couldn’t afford to finish the film. That’s Mike Leigh who’s been making films for 30 years. It’s a scandal that he can’t 20 quid or whatever it was to finish the film. We’re not talking millions, we’re talking just money to finish the last week.
In some states, it’s healthy. But then that’s the price he pays for making the films that he wants to make. He doesn’t have to answer to anyone. He doesn’t have to have anyone in the film he doesn’t want to have in the film. And he doesn’t have to tell them what it is. So maybe that’s the price he has to pay but it’s still rather shocking, isn’t it? The British Film Council or someone doesn’t say, “Yeah, whatever you need to finish it.” It’s not a lot of money we’re talking about. In some respects it’s healthy, in others you have that situation.
