This New Movie is "Nashville" Meets "A Star is Born"
The story might sound familiar. A ne’er do well with a dream of stardom ignores the advice of friends and family, pushes away anything that gets in her way, and follows her heart to find success despite the odds. It’s a classic movie setup, except that’s not quite how Wild Rose, the exceptional new film out this week from director Tom Harper (War & Peace, Peaky Blinders), plays out.
Yes, the movie follows a young woman attempting to pull herself out of problematic circumstances-in this case the astonishing Jessie Buckley as Rose-Lynn, a young mother just out of jail-by trading on her dreams of country music stardom. But that kind of success is a long shot for Buckley’s Glaswegian jailbird and the marvelous thing about Wild Rose is that it isn’t just another movie about fantasies of fame. Rather it’s a gimlet-eyed look at growing up and learning hard truths about what we think it is that we want-albeit one that doesn’t lack for enjoyable musical numbers, a pilgrimage to Nashville, or any of the other delicious moments that would be right at home in the kind of story it subverts.
The film benefits from an impressive cast, including Julie Walters and Sophie Okonedo, but it’s the Irish-born Buckley-she’s also starring this year in HBO’s Chernobyl and the upcoming Judy Garland biopic Judy-whose big, vulnerable, and captivating performance makes the movie feel like a must-see. Don’t believe us? An early review called her “a tremendous actress, and maybe a born star.”
In Wild Rose, you’re playing a woman who’s totally consumed by her passion for country music. How did you feel about it before you took the part?
I had no relationship to country music before reading this script, but the music didn’t feel separate from the story or who this woman was. So, when you get something this good, the fear is about not living up to the potential, but I was so excited to try. I hadn’t sung in a long time, and I didn’t know how important it was to me until I got involved in the film.
Rose-Lynn isn’t just a singer with a dream on the road to stardom. She’s got a lot of burned bridges and can’t even get out of her own way. Is that more interesting for you as an actress?
I loved her humanity and the rebellion inside of her. She’s this dreamer who’s staging a prison break out of her own life; she’s passionate about something but has had to struggle. There’s something so electric and alive about her and I love her heart and her foibles and her destructiveness. I had worked with Tom, the director, on War & Peace, and one evening we were in a pub and he said, ‘I found this script, have a read.’ He said, ‘I only want to do it if you do.’ And I completely fell in love with this woman and her story.
How did you prepare to play a singer?
For a few months before we were shooting, I would come to London every second weekend and meet up with our music supervisor and some of the people in the film. The first song I sang was “To Daddy” by Emmylou Harris, which had already been written into the script. On those weekends when I went to rehearse, I’d sing for four or five hours and try to see where Rose-Lynn’s voice was coming from, and what she was trying to say by singing that she couldn’t say in real life.
Did you go catch any other country singers or try to immerse yourself in the scene?
We shot all of the music live, and the places the band played in Glasgow on film actually exist. So, in the months before we filmed, I’d go visit those bars and try to get away with speaking in a Glaswegian accent. There’s an amazing scene there with incredible musicians, so I tried to get up there as much as possible to see them.
Were there any country stars who helped influence the character?
Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt were big; they were people I reacted and related to. Actually, after we ended up filming in Nashville, I went to Santa Fe to see Bonnie Raitt live. It was like this musical journey that I went on with her, except she didn’t know.
Did you take the character’s interest in country music with you after you finished making the movie?
Oh, I love it. I can’t seem to stop listening. Once you open that treasure chest, there’s a whole world within it. For me, it’s the lyrics and the characters who live within the songs that leave me dumbfounded.
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