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a14 people & arts
Thursday 5 November 2020
Lesley Manville flexes new muscles in thriller 'Let Him Go'

going to be handling that
gun having never picked a
gun up in my life. But I did
have Kevin helping me.
And I did it. And he said I
did it really, really well and
that he was actually quite
scared."
They didn't even need to
use her stunt double, which
she is particularly proud of.
"I got to flex muscles that
I haven't really flexed be-
fore," she said. "It was just
thrilling."
Credit for her casting,
she said, goes to director
Thomas Bezucha, who also
wrote the adaptation of
Larry Watson's 2013 novel.
But he had to fight for her
and it's one she believes
he wouldn't have won
had she not gotten an
Oscar nomination for Paul
Thomas Anderson's "Phan-
tom Thread." The 2017 film
raised her profile in the U.S.
and changed her career.
"Getting an Oscar nomi-
In this image released by Focus Features, Lesley Manville appears in a scene from "Let Him Go."
Associated Press nation opens doors. It just
does," she said. "And I'm
By LINDSEY BAHR the new husband, has oth- "Nothing gets me out of bed the telltale dark roots com- enjoying the little door of
AP Film Writer er plans. more excitedly in the morn- ing through," Manville said. America that's opened to
Lesley Manville doesn't "It's like Bette Davis embod- ing than a character that's "But I knew that you should me, but the criteria of what
show up until about half- ied," Costner said of Man- a million miles from me and also be able to kind of smell I choose to do will always
way through the slow-burn, ville. "She is a world class not like the character that her. There's something a bit be the same."
'60s-set Western "Let Him actress and completely I have just played before grubby about her." Manville is currently on lo-
Go," but the arrival of the killed it in a very difficult, or I'm going to play after," Manville arrived for her cation in Budapest shoot-
platinum blonde Blanche very difficult scene to pull Manville said. scenes deep into produc- ing a new film, but she's also
Weboy is worth the wait. off. She just kind of ran over Plus, she'd get to share tion and she was a little already thinking about her
The matriarch of a North that scene in such a beau- scenes with Costner and nervous to work with Cost- next big role: Princess Mar-
Dakota gang saunters tiful way. We were lucky. Lane. ner and Lane whose ca- garet in the final seasons of
into the frame in a haze We needed that kind of dy- "It was a no-brainer," she reers she's watched for de- Netflix's "The Crown," a part
of cigarette smoke and namic. She had to control said. cades. which will raise her global
overcooked pork chops to the moment and she did." She got to work on the "They're great actors, but profile even more. That
greet her visitors, played Blanche is the sort of role accent and figuring out they're also movie stars shoot is still a ways off, but
by Kevin Costner and Di- that doesn't come around the look of Blanche, who and that can be intimidat- she has been re-watching
ane Lane. It is anything but very often. With over 45 she imagined would have ing," she said. "Although I the first few seasons on
welcoming and it's a true years of experience on modeled herself on the say very, very quickly on her Sundays off with a little
scene stealer. stage and in film and tele- blonde bombshells of the the heels of that statement more focus on her prede-
The film, which opens in vision, Manville is one of the 1930s and 40s who were that neither of them play cessors.
theaters nationwide Friday, most versatile performers on screen when she was a that role. They don't do the "I've got to pick up the ba-
is centered on a Montana around and has the luxury little younger. movie star thing. They are ton from Vanessa Kirby and
couple (Lane and Cost- to pick and choose roles in "Even though she's in the workers like me." Helena Bonham Carter,"
ner), whose ex-daughter- her home country. But even middle of nowhere, those The roll-your-sleeves-up she said. "And what a ba-
in-law skips town with their she was "quite surprised" to kinds of images would be mentality extended to the ton that is because they've
grandson after marrying get this script with an offer very important to her. She stunt work. When Man- both been amazing."q
a new man. They set off attached to play what she still thinks she's got it. She still ville saw that Costner was
to find them and get their described in a recent inter- thinks she's fabulous and "throwing himself around" Solution Sudoku
3-year-old grandson back. view as an unpleasant bad rocking this peroxide blond when things really start to
But Blanche, the mother of girl from North Dakota. hair, even though she's got escalate later in the film,
she wanted to do it, too.
"I thought, yeah, I'm go-
ing to get down and dirty
as well! If he can do it, I'm
going to do it, too, having
done none of it ever," Man-
ville laughed. "I suddenly
decided I was going to be
the stunt girl. I was going to
throw myself around. I was Puzzle on Page 13