Better stuff comes from the more subdued material that deals with Florence’s syphilis, contracted from an ill-advised early marriage and treated with the medications of the day, mercury and arsenic. His reactions are a large part of both the humor and the moral conundrum into which “Florence Foster Jenkins” twists itself.
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“It was so much fun”, she said.
With a cipher as its heroine, the script naturally turns to explore the people who helped create her illusion, led by a marvelous Hugh Grant as Jenkins’ endearing husband. A former concert pianist, Florence now lives for the vocal performances she gives privately for the members of her social club, who are mostly too old to appreciate that Florence is a mezzo who thinks she’s a soprano and further has no sense of phrasing, rhythm, diction, key, or pitch.
“Meryl is like a wave that you get caught up in, and she takes everyone with her and makes everything better”, he said. And in creating the film, Streep and costar Simon Helberg learned the benefits of throwing caution to the wind and living life in the moment. It was very, very unusual. “It made us all alive because it changed each time”. It’s easy to see why St. Clair and Cosme go to such lengths to shelter her.
Actor Simon Helberg (left) portrays late piano accompanist and composer Cosmé McMoon in the film Florence Foster Jenkins.
Now that Grant has returned to the screen in “Florence Foster Jenkins”, he suggested there may be more projects in the works. You’re coming up.’ And I said, ‘I’m not coming up!’ I’m like hunkered down, and I hit right on the top of it, and there was the ball always sitting there. I think she loved the art world. You have to gingerly come up close to those notes and occasionally pass through them. “I’d be kind of stunned if someone sat through this and didn’t enjoy themselves”, he says.
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“[Stephen] falls into the category of the silent director”, explains Grant, “and oddly enough they have been some of the most eminent I’ve been lucky enough to be cast by”. He heard on each take the little tiniest nuances of meaning, which I was playing around with, and I was nervous to be doing that, because you don’t improvise with Stephen Sondheim’s music. “[The film’s director] Stephen Frears was sitting around talking about who might play Bayfield, and Stephen just said, ‘I want to send it to Hugh, ‘ and I sort of thought, OK, and then I said, ‘Well, why do you want to send it to Hugh?’ and he said ‘Oh, because Hugh breaks your heart, doesn’t he?’ And I thought, ‘Yes, he does, he does break your heart!’ So that was that really”.
