Why Lesley Manville Is Hollywood's New Favorite Bad Girl
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Lesley Manville knows her way around a Machiavellian grande dame with a taste for cigarettes and high drama. No, we’re not talking about Princess Margaret—whom Manville will portray in season five of The Crown—or at least not yet.
In the new film Let Him Go, Manville (who you know from star turns in Phantom Thread and Misbehaviour among others) plays Blanche Weboy, a North Dakota matriarch whose lawless family might have finally met its match. In the Thomas Bezucha–directed movie, Weboy’s son has married a widow and taken custody of her child—which would be fine if he wasn’t a monster, and his paternal grandparents (played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) weren’t desperate to save him themselves.
It’s a tense, tightly wound story about family, revenge, and how we treat the people we think of as outsider—and Manville has some of the movie’s juiciest parts firmly in her grasp. Whether Blanche is playing a game of psychological cat and mouse during what might be the year’s most inhospitable dinner party or holding her own among her hell-raiser sons in a shootout, she’s the very definition of one bad mother. Here, Manville tells T&C about learning to shoot for the role, and how it compares to her royal next project.
Playing this tough, troublesome American matriarch is something new for you. What made her exciting?
You dangle a part like Blanche in front of somebody like me and they’re going to want to do it. I was bowled over to be asked to play her, and it’s all credit to Tom Bezucha. I wouldn’t be classic casting for it; I’ve done lots of American roles in England, but not on film for an American production. There must have been quite a few nervous executives around when he was adamant he wanted me to do it. But I was skipping onto that plane to Calgary. She’s awful and grubby, nasty and evil. She’s absolutely hellbent on getting her own way. What a delightful character to play!
She felt to me like part of a long line of lioness-type mothers who will protect their families at all costs, even when their families are in the wrong.
This is a woman who has grown up and lived in a remote part of North Dakota. She’s all about family and keeping what’s hers. Her family is on the wrong side of the law—they’re quite a scary clan—and a gun is her best friend.
There’s a theme in the film of being wary of outsiders. In making it, did you recognize how it could be taken as a metaphor for the world at large these days?
Of course. It’s very evident in this film. You can look at it in terms of how we deal with refugees or people seeking sanctuary and how that should be embraced, and it isn’t. It’s about outsiders who need to be let in. In Let Him Go, it’s really tribal and basic—not letting people into your family. It’s much more direct, but there’s a global metaphor you can link it up with.
Anyone who’s familiar with your work will be surprised to see you toting guns and doing stunts. How did that come about?
I had never even picked up a gun before in my life, and I needed to look like I knew what I was doing. Kevin Costner is no novice in an action movie and he really showed me what to do, so I was in good hands. It’s safe to say, Kevin was impressed with my skills; he was very convinced. And I did do all of my own stunts! I wasn’t leaping off of buildings or anything, but I did have explosions and blood going everywhere and falling through a door with fire on the other side. There were beefy Canadian firemen waiting to whisk me up and protect me if anything went wrong, but I did all of that. Listen, I’ve done films with Mike Leigh and done plays all about what goes in a character’s mind—I don’t often have the opportunity to wear padding and throw myself around. I really enjoyed all of that.
Before there’s actual violence, there is some psychological warfare. Blanche is very smart in the way she deals with people…
There are a lot of mind games going on. She has these two people coming to her house, and she knows they want to take their grandchild away and she’s having none of it. The director shot that scene of her initial revelation really well. There’s a light on her at the dinner table, and she leans out from beneath it with her cigarette glowing… it’s unsettling. Before anything bad happens, it’s just unnerving.
Chain smoking and being a terror at a dinner table, that feels like shades of Princess Margaret.
Princess Margaret is no Blanche Weboy, that’s for sure. She was another complex woman who had a challenging life. She was mischievous and played games as well, albeit in a different way; she liked to tease people and string them along. I’m just getting to grips with her—I’m not there yet. But I am loving rewatching The Crown, seeing Vanessa Kirby and Helena Bonham Carter and the incredible work they’ve done. The job at the end of the day is to pick up then baton from where those actresses have left off and to carry on with it. I’m longing to play that part, but we don’t shoot until next year, so I’ve got a ways to go yet.
You’re shooting Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, about a London cleaner whose life goal is to buy a Dior dress, right now. What connects someone like Blanche to Mrs. Harris and Princess Margaret?
What I don’t want to do is repeat the same types of characters. That doesn’t excite me. A lot of brilliant actors like to keep things close to home and feel more comfortable, but I happen to enjoy playing people who are further away from me and from the last character I played. Thankfully, people are still asking me to do that.
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