The three-time Academy Award victor is now promoting her new movie Florence Foster Jenkins, in which she plays a not-so talented opera singer dying to sing at Carnegie Hall. Dubbed as “the world’s worst singer” because her voice really is that bad, she does not let anything stand in the way of her dream to perform at Carnegie Hall.
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Meanwhile, both Grant and Helberg match her in support, the former turning in what might be a career best in a subtly layered, warts-and-all performance, the latter (best known for his amusing work on television’s “The Big Bang Theory”) marvelous as her accompanist and an aspiring composer who, when she sings, must look on in hilariously bemused horror. “I don’t think they were experiencing her in any ironic way”. Some of the period details are glamorous, although many of them look phony.
Helberg: I’m not as well trained as I should be, but I played until I was about 16, and I played jazz, and I played in rock bands and all that but never classical or opera. So…
And it’s a joke that’s played perfectly in the film, starring Meryl Streep as the dowdy real-life figure. “Ultimately, what different does it make if she is just blissfully unaware?”
“But I don’t think he even knew it”.
“It was lovely because instead of you know, worrying about press regulation and change in the law and number of votes we can get in the House of the Lords, you’re worrying about, ‘what shade of makeup should I wear?’ And it did feel relaxing”, Grant said. Though the really fascinating aspect of the movie is the behind-the-scenes machinations that keep this kind soul from knowing her reality. But singing through a character is something I can do, and I liked finding what it was in Florence’s recordings because there are recordings of hers that remain very popular…so she’s there for all to hear.
With Hugh Grant as St. Clair Bayfield, her devoted yet unfaithful husband, and Simon Helberg as Cosme McMoon, an unwitting young pianist for hire, “Florence Foster Jenkins” is a terrific screwball comedy with just the right touch of tenderness from director Stephen Frears (“The Queen”). That is, until she played her first recital for the public at Carnegie Hall in 1944, where she was mercilessly mocked by critics.
“Florence Foster Jenkins” is based on the true story of a woman with little talent and big ambitions who improbably builds a singing career in the 1940s.
“When you see someone putting themselves out there, particularly when you see someone is failing and failing so passionately, it brings up this bittersweet connection to our mortality”, Helberg says.
“Not only was it amusing and moving, but it was also directed by him – he’s quite classy – and Meryl bloody Streep was going to be in it so I absolutely had to say yes”.
“I was coming to movies sort of sideways from the theater”. I expect that he may also be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
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“Afterward, when we went home, Florence was upset – and when she read the reviews, crushed”. His emotions are written all over his face and most were hysterical.
