Oscar-winning Melissa Leo on playing complex mothers, mentoring Filipino actors
Oscar-winning Melissa Leo is in the Philippines to help train Filipino artists become globally competitive.
Through the efforts of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), in partnership with the internationally acclaimed FEST Film Lab, the Hollywood actress has been conducting the intensive workshop “Acting for the Screen and Set” from May 6 until today.
The tailor-made sessions have brought together promising acting talents from GMA’s Sparkle, ABS-CBN’s Star Magic, TV5’s Star Worx and the Aktor PH Guild.
FDCP chair Jose Javier “Direk Joey” Reyes described to The STAR Leo’s training style as “compassionate and nurturing,” with a strong focus on each participant’s individual needs.
It’s Leo’s first time in the country, and how fortunate it is for these young Filipino participants to have someone her caliber and stature as a mentor.
After all, Melissa is widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s most formidable screen veterans. And looking back on her filmography, some of her most impactful performances have been her portrayals of mothers or maternal figures who are complex, fierce and far from stereotypes.
Undoubtedly, one of, if not the most iconic of her roles is Alice Ward, the fierce and unyielding matriarch of nine children in the 2010 film “The Fighter,” which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She has also delivered powerful performances as a grief-scarred antagonist in “Prisoners” (2013), a struggling yet devoted provider in “Frozen River” (2008) and a stern Mother Superior in “Novitiate” (2017).
Call it perfect timing, but Leo is here as the country celebrates Mother’s Day, so this writer had to ask what she finds most challenging about translating motherhood on screen.
According to Leo, motherhood is one of those life experiences that can deepen an actor’s understanding of a role, but she also believes imagination remains just as essential.
“As I’ve told the actors that we’re working with here, if you’ve not yet been a mother, it’s quite difficult to do. It doesn’t mean that you can’t,” she began, in response to the question from this paper during an interview with select press.
“I mean, you’re going to play a murderer, and hopefully you haven’t murdered someone. So, you know, there are things to do.
“But I do know that I am a mother myself. One year ago, I became a grandmother, and this is expanding my ability to play various roles. My life experiences expand my range.
“That I am a mother makes it that much more simple. Now, when I play a mother, I’m not playing the mother that I am to my own child. I’m playing the mother as written. That will help the story be told.”
She stressed that playing a mother on screen is never about presenting a general idea of motherhood, but about serving the specific character and story.
“It depends on who I’m playing opposite. In ‘The Fighter,’ I have, you know, the seven girls, and then also the two boys. The two boys are not only so different in their characters, the two boys are very different actors — Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. One is a movie star and one is an actor. You can guess.
“So, Alice, their mother, has different responses to each of them. And in that movie, at one point, there’s an argument about who she loves the most and what her truth is.
“Because I met the woman I was playing, (I knew) she loved all of her children equally. Some of them needed her more than others.”
Thus, the process still begins with the material and what the filmmaker is trying to say, she continued explaining.
“So, you do like you do in any role: you look at the script, you find the information that you need there. If you have a question or you’re wondering, you maybe can talk to the director or the writer.
“And in the instance of that particular mother, I did have the actual person to meet and talk to. It’s more about helping the filmmaker tell the story they’re attempting to tell.
“You know, is the mother nice or she’s not nice, or she’s all of those judgments about her. From inside of the character, there’s no judgment about it in that way.”
Leo said she does draw a bit from personal experience, especially when the role reflects something she has lived through herself.
“I can remember long ago, I played in a film we shot in Pakistan, a woman who becomes pregnant. And as I put the fat suit on and had my pregnant belly there, somebody made a comment to the costume designer of what a good job they did to make me look pregnant.
“And the very nice costume designer said, ‘Well, I only did this much. Melissa did the rest.’
“I had been pregnant. I know what that feels like in your body, you know.”
Still, she emphasized that an actor does not need to have gone through everything personally to make a role truthful.
“And if you don’t have the life experience, then you can use your imagination. You can use your life experience or you can use your imagination.
“Never murdered somebody. But if I’m going to be asked to play a murderer, I’m going to imagine what would make me… have a vengeance to kill someone, you know?
“Does that fit in the story? You look for it on the page.”
Aside from discussing her work onscreen, Leo also shared what she hopes to leave with the Filipino actors she has been mentoring. And, by extension, what she hopes the local film and television industry will better understand about performers.
“A marvelous life I’ve had on the back of acting,” she said. “But it’s also a hard life. And you’re using yourself and you’re baring yourself.”
Because actors often receive the most public attention, Leo said there’s an assumption that “actors get all the glory and that “they already have enough.”
But for her, actors still deserve support and space.
“I hope that these actors will come away knowing that they have every right in the world to speak up for themselves,” she said.
“That when they know they’re right about something, they probably are right about it because they’re inside the character playing it.
“And I’ve given them some suggestions of how to handle those more difficult circumstances.”
Her message to filmmakers and television producers was to give actors what they need to do the work well.
“I hope that the respect for actors and that you might need a little time, you might need to see the whole script,” she said.
“Trust me, you filmmakers, you television makers, if you would give these actors the entire script, you would get a better product from them than just give them the scene.
“The more you know about what you’re doing, the better you’re gonna do it.”
Leo also stressed that Filipino actors do not need international validation to prove their worth.
“I’m hoping I don’t need to put actors on a big pedestal. I don’t need actors to work all around the world. You can work in your own backyard,” she noted.
“You don’t ever have to win a prize, but you have to be good. And that good actor should have the respect of the others they’re working with. They should have the respect of one another.
“That’s what I’m hoping to leave behind. I hope that I’m leaving behind a new generation of Filipino actors and that they can have something to pass on to.”
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