FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Kelsey Scott Speaks About Playing Anne Northup in 12 Years A Slave
Last Sunday was a big night for Kelsey Scott. 12 Years A Slave took home three Oscars – including Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Playing at the same time on HBO, you could find her acting opposite Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey on the critically acclaimed True Detective.
However, Scott is no newcomer to the limelight. She made her professional debut at six. By high school, she was starring opposite Robert Guillaume on ABC‘s The Robert Guillaume Show.
Taking a break from early success, Scott went on to college and then film school, where she discovered her love of writing for the camera. Since then, she has worked as a “hyphenate”; a writer-director-actress. In 2004, she penned Motives, an edgy thriller, starring Vivica A. Fox and Shemar Moore. In 2006, she penned the sequel, while teaching Screenwriting at her graduate school alma mater.
We at iheardin had the pleasure of sitting down with Ms. Scott. She shared with us her triumphs and trials, her start in the biz, what it’s like working with the likes of Steve McQueen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Quvenzhané Wallis, and how she became Anne Northup.
JD: You missed your debut on True Detective because you were at the Oscars?
KS: Oscar Night was Incredible, and I haven’t even had a chance to watch the new episode yet.
JD: Your performance was hardcore.
JD: Can you talk about your experience on The Robert Guillaume Show?
KS: The show was on ABC. Robert Guillaume starred as the title character. He played a marriage counselor, who happened to be divorced, living with his son and daughter and his father. It was one of the first shows to feature an interracial relationship.
It was an amazing opportunity, first of all. But it was also an amazing experience. Robert and I remain in contact ‘til this day. He was a role model, in terms of career guidance. I was a teenager when the show began. Robert handled his career and his fame with so much class and I noticed that. Children learn by watching, more than by what they hear. I took some good lessons from him.
JD: What happened to your career after you worked on that show?
KS: I never really stopped acting. When I did the Guillaume Show, I was in high school. Then I went to college. At that point, there was no plan for me to move to California.
While I was an undergraduate at Florida A & M, I was cast in a student film. I had never worked on a film before. I had worked in television and I had worked in theatre. But I found myself curious about what was going on behind the camera. Why weren’t the sound and picture running together? Why is that person writing everything down? I’d been bitten by the film bug.
I always knew one day I would go into film, but I had never, until then, thought about the other side of the camera. After graduation I moved to Atlanta and was working as an actress. But I couldn’t shake that bug. That’s when I started applying to film schools. I went back to school and got my MFA at Florida State.
JD: Then you moved out Los Angeles. What was your first breakthrough moment in your career?
KS: I was working as an assistant to a couple of studio executives. I had a partially completed screenplay that I wrote when I was out of school. I found that, for me, that whole idea of you-write-when-you-get-home wasn’t working. So my screenplay was just sitting.
One night, I was talking to some fellow writers and actors, and I had this profound sense that I needed to do something and that I needed to take a risk.
When I got to work the next day, I went into the office of one of my two bosses and said, “I have a screenplay at home that I really need to finish. I’m requesting a six-week leave of absence to work on it. If you’ll have me, I’d like to come back afterwards. But, either way, I do have to go.”
My boss was incredible. She said, “Okay. Find me somebody to work your desk for six weeks and you can go.”
And I did. I went. Finished the screenplay by the skin of my teeth. I also realized, the longer I was gone, that I was supposed to be gone. I needed to have a single-minded focus on the things I was out there to do.
So I had another difficult conversation with my boss – telling her that I was sorry. That it had not been my plan to leave – especially after she had been so gracious in allowing me to take that time away. That was the beginning of when I struck out. And I’m great friends with that former boss, to this day.
JD: And that led immediately to big things?
KS: It did actually. Not long after I made that decision, I got a phone call from the producer of that student film I worked on at Florida A & M. He was now producing films outside of school.
He said, “I heard you’re writing now.” laughs I had no idea where he’d heard that.
He said, “I have this idea for a film. Will you send me a writing sample? I’ll be out in LA next week. Let’s have breakfast.”
I sent him the script that I’d completed two weeks earlier, and that got me my first job as a screenwriter.
JD: And that was Motives with Vivica A. Fox?
KS: Yes, with Viv, Shemar Moore, Golden Brooks. It was a really good cast. We ended up doing a sequel a couple of years later.
JD: You have gotten to work on some major programs, True Detective of course, Grey’s Anatomy, Treme, House. Can you talk a little bit more about your highlights in your career as an actress?
KS: I’ve had some delicious experiences. Besides the shows themselves, I was able to work with some remarkable people. When I shot House, I worked opposite James Earl Jones. Grey’s Anatomy is one of my favorite shows. So to be on set was surreal for me. It was like “Oh wait. I’m in it. Oh, wow.” It was just an incredible experience.
When I was on Treme I acted opposite Melissa Leo. On True Detective I was acting opposite Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. It’s not just that I was on all of these amazing shows, I was on these shows working with iconic actors, whose careers I had followed and admired. Here I am, able to share a space with them.
JD: And 12 Years A Slave.
KS: And of course…12 Years A Slave. Who knew? I mean, I knew of Steve McQueen’s work and I was a big fan of his. But who knew it was going to be what it is?
Who knew it was going to be this big? This large? This impactful? In the beginning stages, you’re just given the scenes you are in. I didn’t get the full script until I booked the role.
First, I read the memoir, and then I read the script. All of sudden, I realized “this is history-making and I’m about to be a part of it.” You can only be humbled by something like that.
JD: Your journey to get on 12 Year’s A Slave was very unconventional and unexpected. You have said before you thought you had blown the audition.
KS: I definitely thought I’d blown it. The first thing I did was put myself on tape and submitted that to casting. Then they wanted to see me live. But that audition was in New Orleans, and I was in Los Angeles. It was not a financially feasible journey for me.
The role I ended up getting in 12 Years A Slave was not the role I originally auditioned for. I auditioned for a smaller role. One scene. It was still significant, in terms of the story. But when I got word of the callback, it was difficult for me to rationalize making that trip, in terms of expenses.
Up until the day before the callback, I hadn’t purchased my ticket. But then I just… did it. I made it out there. But I was also prepping another trip for another project.
This was the schedule… The callback was on a Saturday, in New Orleans. That Sunday, I had a rehearsal in Los Angeles for a reading I was supposed to perform that Monday. Then, that Wednesday, I was driving cross-country to begin rehearsals for a play I was doing in Atlanta.
So I got to New Orleans on Friday and auditioned on Saturday. I didn’t think that I’d done well and I wasn’t feeling that great about myself. I was on my way to the airport because I had to fly out that night. But I stopped to get some dinner. My food had just arrived when my agent called and said “Turn around. They want you to read for a larger role. By the way, you might have to stay in town.”
“Oh, wow. Okay.” I turned around, changed back into the period outfit I had chosen for the audition. And I went in. The casting director said, “You might want to stay overnight so you have time to go over the materials.”
I said, “I can’t, I have to be back in LA tomorrow. But I can change my flight.” And I changed it right there in the lobby.
She gave me the sides for two scenes. I went to a coffee shop for a few hours to go over them, came back, and she put me on tape for Steve – who had already gone back to work on the film.
And then I thought I blew that one. There was just so much going on. I didn’t feel like I’d given my best. It’s hot. I am wearing these bulky clothes…
So I headed to the airport again. Just saying to myself, “Well, life is an adventure.”
I went back to LA. I did the rehearsal. I did the performance. And I was halfway across the country when I got the phone call. I had booked the larger role.
JD: Did you stop the car to take a breath?
KS: I probably should have. laughs The timing worked out perfectly. The shoot dates were fairly quick. When I got to Atlanta, I literally dropped my bags, drove to New Orleans, shot the film, drove back to Atlanta, and started rehearsals for the play.
JD: What was it like meeting Steve McQueen?
KS: It was wonderful. I met him for the first time in the callback. He was… quiet. He listens very carefully. He’s very succinct. When I finished my audition, he said, “Simple. Great.”
I was thinking, “Is that good? I’m not sure.” But that’s kind of his style. He’s very economical with his words. Once he says what he means, he’s done talking. And you can always count on him to say what he means. He doesn’t play the game – which is nice.
JD: What was your shooting schedule like for the film?
KS: The entire film was shot in 35 days. I was in town for a couple of weeks – but I wasn’t shooting every day.
JD: How many days did you actually end up shooting?
KS: It was around three or four days.
JD: So your first scene… you were in bed with Chiwetel?
KS: The first scene we shot was a dinner scene that didn’t make the final film. But later that night, yes, I was in bed with Chiwetel.
JD: How long had you known Chiwetel?
KS: That day. {laughs] I met him when we did the dinner scene.
JD: What was it like working with him?
KS: He’s really a great partner. He’s very aware of the other actor, so you feel like there’s a give-and-take. It could have been very awkward to jump into bed with a stranger. Of course he’s professional, but he’s also very open. We could have a conversation as two actors, not just two characters. It felt very comfortable very quickly.
JD: How did Steve McQueen handle the bedroom scene?
KS: For the bedroom sequence, originally there was no dialogue. It was just the two of us kind of looking at each other. The script spoke about what was to be conveyed in those nonverbal moments. We were supposed to communicate, through our expressions, how much these people loved each other.
When we got on set, Steve asked us, “Do you need me for this, or can you figure it out on our own?”
When we said we could figure it out, Steve cleared the room. Then Chiwetel and I spoke about what we saw happening, physically and emotionally.
Steve came back in and asked us to show him what we had. We showed him. And he said, “Great. Let’s shoot it.”
JD: There is a tenderness and affection in that bedroom scene that you actually do not see in many films. As an actress what did you do to get in that space?
KS: I didn’t try to “play it.” I didn’t try to say, “I am so in love with you, can’t you see it in my eyes?”
We got into that space, that acting space, in the bedroom and in the marital bed. I feel like we just listened to each other. Beyond the obvious audible thing, we just let it be. We didn’t try to make it one thing or another.
As I said before, Chiwetel is very aware of the other actor. We could just lie there and look at each other, and it would be okay. We could get lost in the personas of these other people.
We had the backstories in our heads. So it was just a matter of letting it happen. It’s either a hammer or a feather, and we chose the feather.
JD: How did you get into the headspace of Anne?
KS: I read the text. Then I read the script. There’s not much to be found about her historically, in terms of research. So what I really did was see her through Solomon’s eyes, from the book. I saw how his longing for their life together drove him. I held on to that.
I already knew the nuts and bolts of her life. What I needed to find was this woman who so enraptured her husband. I needed to find a real version of that, and not a fantasy.
JD: You and Chiwetel have in my opinion the most powerful scene of the film together. He comes home after being in slavery. He trembles at the sight of you. He asks your forgiveness for being kidnapped and in slavery and you say, “There is nothing to forgive.”
You say it very understated, but it is full of emotion and grief. You have to be strong for this man who you can see has been worn down over the years. Can you talk a little bit more about that moment and how you got there.
KS: I had to allow emotion, and then check it. Kelsey-the-person tends to shut off when things get difficult, emotionally. I do the stoic face. It’s the rare person who has seen me cry. There are so many things going on for Anne in that moment when Solomon returns. It would have been easy to have played her as stoic.
The idea of the strong black woman goes back for centuries. The idea of holding up the world and holding up the family is age-old. That’s what Anne did when Solomon was away. She held the family together. She held herself for husband. She wasn’t with someone else when he came home 12 years later. I think it would have been simple to play that stoicism. But the deeper incarnation of that would be to play ‘trying-to-be-stoic’ and ‘trying-to-be-strong’, when there’s so much underneath the surface.
For me to get there, I had to allow myself that sadness and that grief – which is a personal challenge because I don’t allow that for Kelsey. So how could I allow that for Anne?
So that was the journey for me. Allowing myself to be raw, first. Then it was dealing with that open wound and allowing myself to hold it together in such a way that I could be strong for Solomon, for the children, for that moment.
JD: Do you mind talking about whether there is any personal experience or memory that you have borrowed from?
KS: I borrowed from my own grief. I had lost my mother the year before. I’d gone through those ‘stages’. But I didn’t really allow myself permission to bawl. I did the ‘strong black woman’ thing, and I would grieve in private. But here, I was going to have to publicly release.
It was a trying time, because I had to go through something personally in order to do justice to this woman and her real-life legacy.
My mother quilted this blanket that she gave to me before she passed away. I took it with me to set and I kept it in my trailer, so she could be with me. So that before I stepped onto that set, especially before that scene, I hoped she would give me the strength to cry. I think it takes a special kind of strength to acknowledge hurt and to acknowledge those things that debilitate us.
That’s what I had to draw from. I had to step away from how I had been dealing with that grief, so that Anne had permission to cry.
JD: You got to play the mother of the youngest nominee for an Academy Award for Best Actress, Quvenzhané Wallis. What was it like working with her?
KS: She’s a little spitfire. I think she’s great. She’s amazingly intelligent, and precocious. We had a blast on set. And she’s an old soul. She has definitely been here before. laughs
JD: You have stated before that meeting Quvenzhané’s mother was a delight. What impact do you think she has on Quvenzhané’s career?
When you’re in the business that young, it’s easy to get caught up and to not really be able to distinguish real life from what’s happening on the screen. Being young in the industry does mold your world differently than your typical childhood.
You have to have people around you to ground you and to remind you of what the real world is. You need people who will tell you to take out the trash no matter how big your check is. You need people to remind you of what’s important and also that things in the industry can be fleeting. Because this life can be everything that you dreamed of in one moment and then nothing the next. You have to be prepared for both of those. You need a support system that holds onto the real world, so you don’t fall into the trap of mistaking smoke and mirrors for brick and mortar.
JD: What do you think the lasting legacy of this film will be?
KS: I think it is a rare, if not totally unique, depiction of that time period. There is a tendency to soften the edges of telling that story, because it’s a difficult story to witness, whatever your ethnicity. It can be uncomfortable whenever it’s baldly told, rather than coated. But that’s what Steve does, he tells the truth. I would expect no less from him.
Then there’s what the film has ended up doing organically – and that is, start conversations. Initially, when I asked friends and family what they thought of the film, they assumed I meant, “What do you think of the characters, the cinematography, and the production design?”
On some level, I was asking that. But almost religiously, after they commented on those things, they started talking about their lives – on being black in America. Or not being black in America. They talked about our country, our history, the present, and echoes of what that means in history.
Some would say, “Oh I remember this time…”. And all of sudden these stories would begin. They would start talking about the ghosts that we’re still dealing with from that time period. It’s not a conversation that you bring up around the dinner table, without some catalyst. So I think that’s the greatest impact this film has had.
This is a true story. Solomon gets his story heard – which I think is a beautiful thing.
What we get is the discussion, which we don’t dive into nearly often enough. But I think that’s the only way to progress – learning how to identify and deal with those ghosts. If we acknowledge their presence and not sweep them under the rug, we can deal with them. We have to talk it out. It will not go away by itself. One of the most amazing gifts this film has given people, is permission to speak.
JD: Currently, you are working with a direct descendant of Solomon and Anne Northup. Can you talk about that more?
KS: I was in the process of producing a short film and I had the opportunity to meet some of the Northup descendants. We exchanged information to keep in touch. I was having lunch with Solomon’s great-great-great-great grandson in LA, and found out he’s in the commercial side of the industry. We were discussing our individual projects he seemed interested in helping with the post-production side of mine. I ran it by one of the other producers and now he’s aboard.
JD: Was it meta talking to one your pretend descendants?
KS: laughs I think it’s okay. Sitting at a cafe in Los Angeles, we pretty much made the distinction.
To find out more about Kelsey Scott you can visit her website at http://www.kelseyscott.com/hello.html or follow her on twitter @MsKelseyScott
http://iheardin.com/2014/03/07/filmmaker-spotlight-kelsey-scott-speaks-playing-anne-northup-12-years-slave/
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