Anne Marie Duff most recently played Julia Lennon in Sam Taylor Wood’s Nowhere Boy. When we asked her about her heroes, she was inspired to write down some memories from the intense few months she spent playing France’s national heroine.
Anne Marie Duff most recently played the artistic, flighty and slightly unhinged role of Julia Lennon in Sam Taylor Wood’s directorial debut, Nowhere Boy. But the critically acclaimed actress has long been at home on the stage too, and she won the part of a lifetime when she was chosen to play Joan of Arc in George Bernard Shaw’s play, Saint Joan at the National Theatre. When we asked Anne about her heroes, she was inspired to write down some memories from the intense few months she spent playing France’s national heroine, a part that Shaw described as ‘Hamlet for women.’
"Hello I'm Anne-Marie Duff and I'm going to be playing a saint."
I'm standing in rehearsal room one at the National Theatre, surrounded by the vast male cast on the first day of rehearsals. As is customary, there is always a sort of ‘alcoholics anonymous’ introduction before rehearsals, or a film script read-through, and this is no exception.
This part was a dream come true. Simple.
I had spent the previous months imagining and finding reference points for Joan - there were certain themes that kept cropping up:
Devotion: (naturally, although something visceral connected to the physical, not just as an idea)
Androgyny: (still very shocking to us)
Rebellion: I had always seen Joan as a revolutionary. Not some pretty, pious young woman. For this reason, “punk” kept coming into my mind. I think that also fed into the notion of androgyny.
Martyrdom: Connection to your country, your land in time of occupation. Both of these last elements seemed so contemporary and emotive in the current climate. We all drew comparisons with young Palestinians when it came to Joan.
To my amazement, the one question that everyone kept asking me was "What are you going to do with your hair?" During the months leading up to rehearsals Miss Spears had had her meltdown and the reaction to her shaved head was beyond hysterical. As a result, I think lots of people expected me to go down that path. My instincts were the opposite. I wanted it to be an act of commitment to the notion of being a soldier of god: not some act of quiet and introspective devotion. I knew that this girl was a country girl through and through, so I had this idea of making her head resemble an ear of corn. All the images of angels in classical art were adorned with white-hot hair so I tried to achieve something like that with a traditional boys haircut. The next external element to define was her voice. George Bernard Shaw writes Joan's dialogue in a very different way to the rest of the characters’. There's almost an epic simplicity to it. She feels like she comes from a different world.
The Olivier is the largest of the stages at the National. The pressure of its amphi-theatre size, plus the knowledge that Laurence Olivier's wife Joan Plowright had played Joan here in the sixties to great acclaim was quite terrifying. Throughout the previews I had to summon all the courage I could to rise above all of that nonsense and just tell the story. I walked around backstage imagining my environment... the feel of the damp soil beneath my bare feet.
One of the most powerful elements of the production was that director Marianne Elliot decided to include the burning of Joan on stage. It was utterly heartbreaking for us all to go through. Marianne asked me to be utterly terrified. Since we had just been through the trial scene in which Joan (as she did in life) goes through the ghastly process of having her faith questioned, destroyed, rediscovered and then sentenced to death, I was pretty crazy anyway. I was asked by some people if it made me miserable to the bones going through this experience at every performance, because characters do have this habit of seeping into your psyche. It was strange, but playing this thriving, passionate, committed, witty and proud young person I actually enjoyed having that sense of self and energy. I was also aware, and still am, that creatively this was one of the greatest jobs of my life. I'll never forget it. There aren't many of these thunderbolts of characters for us girls, and unlike Hamlet, you are not likely to find more than one Saint Joan performed in London a decade.
Justin Blyth is a multi-disciplinary designer, animator and art director. He has worked with various studios throughout Los Angeles in print, advertising, film and animation. He received a BFA from Art Center College of Design in 2004
