PLAYING HER PART: ‘I WAS SO EMOTIONALLY AFFECTED – I STOOD AND SOBBED'

ACTRESS VANESSA KIRBY ON THE CHALLENGES OF PLAYING A BEREAVED MOTHER AND WHY HER ROLE IN THE CROWN GAVE HER A NEWFOUND APPRECIATION OF THE ROYAL FAMILY

- ALAN TANNER

Fresh from her BAFTA-winning turn as Princess Margaret in The Crown, Vanessa Kirby has taken on a very different role in the harrowing film Pieces Of A Woman – playing a mother mourning the death of her child in labour.

The film has been a huge success on Netflix this month, thanks in no small part to Vanessa’s incredibly raw performance as Martha, whose sudden and tragic loss changes her life forever. And for the actress, filming was no walk in the park.

Vanessa doesn’t have children of her own, so she spoke to a lot of mothers and even shadowed an obstetrician for a month to do justice to the part. But the process left her emotionally drained – to the point where she sobbed in the director’s arms after filming the labour scene.

Here, the 32-year-old, who also made waves opposite Tom Cruise in 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, tells of her challenges on Pieces Of A Woman, her long road to “overnight” success and why she looks at the royal family differently now.

Vanessa, how would you describe your experience of working on a complex, emotional film like Pieces Of A Woman?

Looking back, I knew my responsibility was to honour the women who had told me their stories about losing a child at any stage of pregnancy – or just after they’re born. The whole time I was filming, I felt connected to them and like it was for them, because their story hasn’t been told before.

Why hasn’t this story been told before?