Haley Bennett: 'Widow Cicquot' is 'about the birth of an artist

LOS ANGELES, July 18 (UPI) -- Actor and executive producer Haley Bennett said her film, Widow Clicquot, in theaters Friday, showcases the art of entrepreneurship.

Bennett, 36, plays Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, the real-life champagne magnate who took over husband Francois' (Tom Sturridge) vineyard after he died in 1805. The Veuve Clicquot brand still produces champagne today.

"It's about the birth of an artist," Bennett told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "The themes of the film are resiliency and independence -- what that means as an artist."

Barbe-Nicole was pressured by her father-in-law to sell the vineyard. Under the Napoleonic Code of 1804, women were not permitted to own businesses.

The exception that allowed Barbe-Nicole to continue stated that a widow could take over her late husband's enterprise. She learned how to harvest grapes and navigate trade routes around Napoleon's war campaign.

Bennett said she saw parallels between Barbe-Nicole's commitment to champagne and Bennett's commitment to acting. She alluded to the difficulties actors face landing roles and maintaining their careers.

"As in wine making, you wouldn't do it if you didn't love it," Bennett said. "There are a lot of obstacles and challenges both in wine-making and in the film industry."

Director Thomas Napper also recognized the historic struggles of women in business.

Napper's partner, Gosia Piatek, is the founder of Wellington, New Zealand, company Kowtow Clothing, which uses organic fair trade cotton in its products and eliminated plastic use this year.

Napper said it is "eye opening" to observe the challenges a female business owner faces today. In a follow-up email, he elaborated on how Piatek's challenges were similar to Barb-Nicole's.

Napper wrote that Piatek is "a female entrepreneur who does not give up, even when everyone says no or that's impossible. For me, the attention to detail and focusing on the vision, the mission statement felt like something that I could translate into Widow Clicquot."

As Barbe-Nicole maintained Francois' vineyard in his honor, Bennett observed that it also became her calling. Likewise, Bennett related Barbe-Nicole's wine making to her passion for acting.

Bennett debuted at 19 in 2007's romantic comedy, Music & Lyrics. She has appeared in films such as The Equalizer, The Girl on the Train, The Devil All the Time and Swallow, which she also executive produced.

"Acting for me is something that brings me closer to a higher power within myself," Bennett said. "It's not just a job. It's a spiritual act, and I believe that is what wine making was for Barb."

Though Barbe-Nicole lived 200 years ago, Bennett and director Thomas Napper took further inspiration from modern-day winemaker Susa Gelpke.

Gelpke hosted Napper and Bennett at her Paterno e Corzano vineyard in Italy. Napper said the film portrays Barb-Nicole working in the fields.

"It really informed us on the work, the actual nitty gritty, the mud-soaked farming side to the story," Napper said.

He elaborated in his email that a scene in which Clicquot's staff lights fires to combat a frost was inspired by hands-on experience he had with Gelpke.

"In the middle of the night. everyone was summoned to the fields to light fires and save the harvest," Napper wrote. "We all smelled of smoke for days and disaster was averted."

Bennett said she saw "active spirituality" in Barbe-Nicole's hands-on work, too.

"It's something that empowered her," Bennett said. "It's something that freed her. It's something that healed her and gave her life a purpose. That absolutely tracks for me as a creator, as an artist myself."

Widow Clicquot also is a love story. Barbe-Nicole never remarried after Francois, though she did have a relationship with her wine distributor, Louis Bohne (Sam Riley).

In one love scene, Barbe-Nicole is shown in the reflection of a window stripping off a red robe. The dark night sky covers Bennett below the shoulders, but Bennett said the scene conveyed the passion she saw in Barbe-Nicole.

"The film starts with her as a kind of inexperienced girl," Bennett said. "At this moment, I think Barb is kind of coming into her full power."

Bennett said that even having a relationship after Francois was dangerous for Barbe-Nicole. Were she seen to be in another relationship, she would be deemed no longer a widow in the eyes of the law and stripped of her right to run the business.

"She's a widow, but she's also a hot-blooded woman with needs," Bennett said. "Though you don't see a lot, visually it's like seeing a nun all of a sudden wearing a low cut red dress."

Napper concurred and was pleased to see audiences in the U.K. screening receiving the moment the way he and Bennett intended it.

"She's been so constrained by her corsets and her life as this mourning woman," Napper said. "It's the moment where she literally escapes that identity."