When Vanessa Kirby learned her Pieces Of A Woman director Kornel Mundruczo was planning to shoot the film\u2019s pivotal scene in one unbroken take, lasting just over 20 minutes, her first reaction was, \u201c\u2018Oh my God.\u2019 Then I thought, \u2018Actually, thank God.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The scene in question follows her pregnant character, Martha, from the early stages of labour, through a gruelling home delivery, to the devastating loss of her newborn baby. Compressing something like eight hours of labour into a restless, fretful single shot, which takes in multiple rooms in the apartment that Martha shares with her partner Sean (Shia LaBeouf), and the street outside, presented a technical challenge. But for Kirby, it proved to be a gift. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have to have a break, go to lunch, have make-up checks or whatever, and then go back into the throes of an eight-hour labour.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of her preparation for the role, Kirby was able to watch a woman giving birth \u2014 \u201cGod, what a remarkable thing to do for someone. To allow a stranger to be there watching her very sacred moment\u201d \u2014 and witnessed the way the woman\u2019s body took over during labour. \u201cI saw the primal animal of her,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew that I had to trust that, even though I hadn\u2019t given birth before, my body would kind of know, as a woman. That primal thing that I had to access, that wouldn\u2019t have been there if we had cut it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pieces Of A Woman, which is Mundruczo\u2019s English-language debut, premiered at Venice Film Festival, where Kirby took home the Volpi Cup for best actress. She also had another film in the festival\u2019s Competition section: Mona Fastvold\u2019s Queer Lion-winning lesbian period drama<\/strong>, The World To Come, for which she earned plaudits for her magnetic supporting performance opposite Katherine Waterston. By any standards, it is a career moment, albeit one that has been slightly muted by the ongoing pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cVenice, that week feels like a bit of a miracle now,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI remember at the very beginning, I was sitting with Tilda Swinton having a drink, and she said, \u2018Oh darling, this is not what Venice is usually like.\u2019 But I\u2019d never been to Venice, so I don\u2019t know any different. I just feel intensely grateful that I\u2019m part of both [films] and that they might get seen.\u201d<\/p>\n Rolling release<\/em><\/p>\n The World To Come and Pieces Of A Woman are currently scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2021. Sony holds international rights to The World To Come and is eyeing a March release in the UK. Bleecker Street has US rights and is looking at a February 12 release, following the film\u2019s US premiere at Sundance 2020.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Netflix snapped up worldwide rights to Pieces Of A Woman; a limited release was followed by a launch on the streaming platform on January 7.<\/p>\n Of the two performances, it is the journey of the bereaved and traumatised Martha in Pieces Of A Woman that currently has the most awards traction. But it was a role Kirby initially approached with a degree of uncertainty. \u201cI had doubts,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is incredibly different to me. The thing I struggle with is that she is so internal. I think the shame and the fear of failure is so great that she turns in on herself. She doesn\u2019t want anyone near her. She is guarded and is therefore brittle and armoured. And I am way too expressive and often overshare.\u201d But ultimately, Kirby described the experience of playing Martha as \u201clife-changing\u201d.<\/p>\n In order to better understand the aftermath of neonatal death, Kirby prepared extensively, talking to many mothers who had been through similar tragedies. The research brought with it, she says, a sense of responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cBut weirdly, I felt really grateful for it. All the way through I thought, \u2018How can I service them?\u2019 Because the more women I spoke to that had been affected by something like this, the more I realised there is not an open conversation about it. So many women feel they have to be silent on it, not able to talk about it because society just finds it too difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n She argues, too, that the film has a broader relevance to the current climate. \u201cI know the film is quite difficult to watch, quite unrelenting. But it\u2019s that feeling we all have when we have any kind of loss in our lives. Our world falls apart and suddenly reality is completely changed, forever.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been lots of loss this year,\u201d she continues, \u201cin so many ways, collectively. How do we piece ourselves back together after that kind of thing? I feel that the movie is an exploration of that.\u201d<\/p>\n The past year has seen Kirby film scenes for Mission: Impossible 7, on the rigorously Covid-compliant set in the UK. But she is still looking for the next project: \u201cI have read a lot of things, but nothing has felt right yet.\u201d<\/p>\n She cites her Pieces Of A Woman co-star Ellen Burstyn as an inspiration. \u201cShe, like Gena Rowlands, has this thing that lights me up as an actor and which I aspire to \u2014 this intense vulnerability, combined with absolute fierceness and fire.<\/p>\n \u201cOn stage I found roles like that, with Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya,\u201d she adds, \u201cthose kinds of women who were an intense life force, as well as dealing with things restricting that life force. I love the actresses that really lean into that.\u201d<\/p>\n