Lesley Manville embraced lighter role in ‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’

Actress Lesley Manville. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Actress Lesley Manville. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Published Jul 18, 2022

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Lesley Manville enjoyed the "lighter" aspect of her role in “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”.

The 66-year-old actress stars in the new comedy-drama as Ada Harris, a tough English cleaning lady who becomes obsessed with acquiring a Dior dress and living a glamorous life after her husband is declared dead by the British army, and felt it was the ideal project for her after playing tougher roles.

Manville told ‘Variety’: "It was a very nice contrasting character to play with some of the characters I've been playing who were, let's just say in a kind of blanket way, not as nice as Ada.

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“And I thought it'd be very good for me to be seen doing something that's a little lighter. And that puts me at the forefront of what is hopefully going to be a major film."

The Oscar-nominated star said: "All of those reasons, you kind of weigh up the creative potential of a part and what the package looks like. I'm not wishing to sound crude, but the package is an important part of it: the script, the director, who's going to be on board, who's going to be distributing it. All of those things are important.

"So it all kind of came together, and was a job that I really wanted to do."

The movie is based on Paul Gallico's novel “Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris”. Manville suggested that she would be interested in featuring in more adaptations if the movie was well received.

She said: "Yeah, I think they would like to do some more of the books. I mean, 'Mrs. Harris Goes to New York', 'Mrs. Harris becomes an MP'. But I think sensibly, they're gonna say, 'Well, let's see how the first one does'. And go from there, which is very logical in film language.

"They're not going to commit now to doing a film, if we don't have you know, good reviews and good box office from this one. I mean, that's just business, isn't it? But, of course, I'd be interested."