{"id":11765,"date":"2026-02-13T11:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/11765\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T11:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:07:07","slug":"sophie-okonedo-found-gift-role-in-mouse-film-at-berlin-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/11765\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Okonedo Found “Gift Role\u201d In \u2018Mouse\u2019 Film At Berlin Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t
EXCLUSIVE: Sophie Okonedo<\/a>\u2019s accolades include an Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda, a Tony trophy for A Raisin in the Sun, several TV BAFTA nominations, and a slew of honors for her acclaimed stage roles in the West End and on Broadway. For all that, she still insists that it\u2019s a misconception to call her a \u201cleading lady,\u201d which \u201cis so not the case,\u201d she protests.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\u201cActually, I don\u2019t play loads of leading parts. I make a lot of smaller parts look bigger than they are and I\u2019ve been doing that for a long time,\u201d she declares. Plus, it\u2019s easier \u201cwhen you\u2019re given a gift like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe gift in question is\u00a0Mouse<\/a>, the latest film from\u00a0Ghostlight\u00a0filmmakers Kelly O\u2019Sullivan<\/a> and Alex Thompson<\/a>, which has its world premiere tonight at the Berlin<\/a> Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tOkonedo plays Helen Bell, a once-celebrated concert pianist who happily gives it all up to marry an oaf and then settle down with him in Little Rock, Arkansas, to raise their precociously talented high school daughter, Callie (Chloe Coleman), who yearns to study singing at Juilliard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCallie hangs out with her more inhibited best friend, Minnie Dunn, played spectacularly well by Katherine Mallen Kupferer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSophie Okonedo and Katherine Mallen Kupferer in \u2018Mouse.\u2019 Nate Hurtsellers \/Luke Dyra<\/p>\n

\n\tKupferer\u2019s real-life mother, the splendid Tara Mallen, plays her seemingly down-and-out mom in\u00a0Mouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThen in a flash, life happens, and worlds are upended. No spoilers here.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re somewhat hamstrung because both of us have been asked by Adam Kersh, one of the film\u2019s executive producers, not to give away the plot, which is fair enough as the film won\u2019t be publicly shown until later today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in the film, people are grieving and your heart aches when we watch how Helen copes with her grief. Okonedo says that being an incredibly sensitive person serves her well in such scenes. \u201cSo you only have to suggest something to me and I can sort of feel it, which is really good for acting, really bad for real life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe doesn\u2019t want to sound all \u201cmystical\u201d because that\u2019s not her style, but she becomes mildly irritated \u201dwhen actors are talking about how they spent three years doing whatever as a method sort of thing,\u201d She explains: \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018That is lovely, but I never get that luxury.\u2019 I\u2019m never cast years ahead to be able to do that or in a sort of budget that would allow you to do that much research, except from the theater.\u201d When she played\u00a0Medea\u00a0two years ago, and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra opposite Ralph Fiennes in\u00a0Antony and Cleopatra, she had over a year to prepare.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat gave me a lot of time to just read around it and get into it,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s not the case with every acting gig.\u00a0\u00a0In the case of Mouse, however, to capture emotional moments, she reached for a \u201cvery instinctive part of me, which is kind of not a cerebral part of me at all. It\u2019s like something just very instinctive and sort of guttural and sort of physical in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tOkonedo and co-stars in \u2018Antony & Cleopatra\u2019 at The National Theatre <\/p>\n

\n\tThat instinctive part of her is put to magnificent use in\u00a0Mouse,\u00a0and she shows it in ways both small and large, especially in scenes she shares with Kupferer, and later on in a searing tangle with Mallen.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs I began to discuss the sheer level of maturity that Helen displays at one point, Okonedo interrupts to observe that it\u2019s not about her acting, it\u2019s about what she\u2019s reacting to on the page.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGod, I don\u2019t know how Kelly writes these things,\u201d she says admiringly of\u00a0O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s screenplay, \u201cbecause I think she\u2019s about 40 now or something. She hasn\u2019t quite got to that age yet\u2026But it\u2019s so perceptive, that\u2019s not me improvising, that\u2019s what she wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKey strands of the film are about mothering with laser focus on the parents played by\u00a0Okonedo and\u00a0Mallen. \u201cWhat is it to be a mother? That is a huge part of the film\u2026What I liked about Helen is, well, she\u2019s quite abrasive. She\u2019s not all about baking pies,\u201d she suggests.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the filmmakers initially approached her, they posted Okonedo the\u00a0Mouse\u00a0script plus a link to their 2024 gem\u00a0Ghostlight\u00a0(which features Katherine Mallen Kupferer and her parents Tara Mallen and Keith Kupferer).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOkonedo didn\u2019t know of O\u2019Sullivan and Thomason at all, a consequence of living in the countryside, with the occasional trip into the big city to see plays. Otherwise, she admits, \u201cI\u2019m just in a bubble a lot of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter reading the script, she instantly wanted to do it. Then she watched\u00a0Ghostlight,\u00a0which sealed the deal \u201cbecause it\u2019s about the theater and about what storytelling can do and how it can transform your life, even if you don\u2019t have to be an actor, but in amateur dramatics or whatever.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tShe continues: \u201cIt was just such a wonderful movie. And also, I just loved all the actors they were using, which I got to work with two of them again, because they\u2019re really keen on theater actors, Alex and Kelly. So they just basically sent a message through my agent just offering me this and saying, \u2018We\u2019re big fans and will you watch our movie and will you consider doing this?\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd I just leapt at it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey still keep in touch and speak often. Okonedo\u2019s looking forward to seeing them again in Berlin with their two babies; the youngest appears in the film. \u201cTheir little boy is in the movie. That baby is their baby,\u201d she says, her eyes dancing with delight.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKelly O\u2019Sullivan and Alex Thompson on \u2018Mouse\u2019 set. Nate Hurtsellers and Luke Dyra<\/p>\n

\n\tMaking a low-budget, independent movie requires one and all to chip in and help. \u201cSo we were all babysitting and doing all sorts of things and staying at Airbnb, so it was very communal. And when I say low budget, not like low budget where they pretend it\u2019s low budget, it really f****** was low budget,\u201d she declares in a theatrical manner that leaves us both cracking up.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey rented local Airbnbs in Little Rock, where O\u2019Sullivan grew up, and walked to work.<\/p>\n

\n\tOkonedo has been on countless sets, but this one was kinda special because they were in the writer\u2019s hometown. \u201cShe knew it back to front. And so that was her whole upbringing. And the places where we shot were all the things that she remembers from growing up.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were very light and it was a tiny crew and they were just rolling all the time doing stuff,\u201d she says, pausing to come up with the right words to describe the experience of their being no set to speak of.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe opts for: \u201cIt was very unset.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThen adds: \u201dThere wasn\u2019t a kind of set. It wasn\u2019t like any sort of formula of filmmaking.\u201d However, it was her favourite type of filmmaking \u201cbecause it was just so messy and creative and stuff\u201d and then they would be \u201ctrying to mess up the scenes and then put them back together again and then mess them up again, and we did have a lot of input.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI ask her if there\u2019s more freedom in making films that way as opposed to the big industrial scale blockbusters?<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the whole, her preference is smaller scale, she says, \u201cespecially now at my age, I\u2019m just looking to do more stuff like this all the time. I just want to have that sort of freedom. I mean, you can\u2019t\u00a0always\u00a0have that sort of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKatherine Mallen Kupferer and Tara Mallen. Nate Hurtsellers and Luke Dyra<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, she has an admiration for the kind of stars that hold up franchise movies. \u201cI really have to congratulate actors that can still be so true and look so true in those great big blockbusters because I think it\u2019s quite hard to retain that sense of spontaneity. And I\u2019m not sure that I\u2019m that good at it. And when I see people who can do it, and also saying words that are just pretty meaningless and still make it look kind of real. I\u2019m like, that\u2019s impressive. So it\u2019s much easier when you\u2019ve got great scripts, much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMy mind keeps wandering back to how she was able to convey the unimaginable heartache her character has to face, and I gently ask her how on earth she prepared herself for that.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t really prepare,\u201d she says bluntly. \u201cI just understand where the person\u2019s starting from. I\u2019m always interested in the starting point of the film, how she got to be where she is now. And then I try not to think too much ahead of where the film takes you,\u201d she says, sighing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L\/R) Chloe Coleman and Katherine Mallen Kupferer in \u2018Mouse.\u2019 Nate Hurtsellers and Luke Dyra<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fiercely intelligent actor looks me straight in the eye, sighs again, and insists: \u201cI\u2019m really, really not intellectual. I\u2019m not. I can\u2019t even put it into words. I\u2019m just not \u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n

\n\tPeople have such a wrong impression of her, she says. \u201cOften when I meet people the first time, they\u2019ve got this impression that I\u2019m going to be very kind of intellectual and bookish, and I\u2019m just not that person at all, and I\u2019m not a very serious a person, but I played a lot of serious roles, and so people confuse it. And also, I think at one point in Wikipedia, it had that I went to Oxbridge, which I did not. And so I\u2019d often go there and people would think I\u2019d gone to Oxford and Cambridge,\u201d she adds, dissolving into fits of giggles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI left school at 15, so that was not the case,\u201c she adds.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\u201cI think people have just often put a lot onto me,\u201d especially, she adds, with all the great and the good kind of characters she has portrayed on stage and screen of late. \u201cI played much more heads of things and very heady sort of intellectual people. And also I like Shakespeare and people imagine that you have to have such a command of language and actually you have to know how to speak verse and that\u2019s something that can be learned, but you don\u2019t have to be an intellectual to speak Shakespeare at all,\u201d she maintains<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore our conversation, I dug up a transcription from an interview we did over two decades ago, when she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in\u00a0Hotel Rwanda\u00a0where she spoke of the agony of conveying raw emotion.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0\u2018Hotel Rwanda\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI mean, I absorb things,\u201d she responds quietly now. \u201cBut not in a kind of maybe linear fashion. That\u2019s why I avoid appearing as myself anywhere on those sorts of programs where you have to sort of be yourself,\u201d although\u00a0The Graham Norton Show\u00a0is the exception.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s reticent about discussing her acting, but I persist in asking because I know her words can inspire young aspiring actors.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelenting, Okonedo believes that the best way to prepare \u201cis to sort of empty yourself, really. I mean, that\u2019s what I do before I go on set. I just sort of empty myself of everything, and I don\u2019t work myself up into any state.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s not my way. I see people that do that, and that may really work for them, but that\u2019s not my way. It\u2019s more like I\u2019m just a receiver, go on and receive, and then something just sort of happens,\u201d she marvels.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s darned good with the silent treatment too. Okonedo\u2019s silences on screen are golden. There\u2019s a twenty-second moment in\u00a0Mouse, again because of spoilers, I\u2019m unable to tell you any background, but she gives a single look that tells us everything, and more, about what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is the art of silence, I ask her? \u201cI tell you where I can answer that, is that often the biggest thing I\u2019m often doing when I get a script is asking them to cut my lines. That\u2019s often what I\u2019m asking for. Normally, there are maybe two scenes that I just kept suggesting cuts, which I can take or leave\u2026Sometimes I feel like you can just think it and you don\u2019t really need to say everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA scene from \u2018Mouse\u2019. Nate Hurtsellers and Luke Dyra<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in December, Okonedo wrapped on\u00a0Clarissa, also starring David Oyelowo, India Amarteifio, Ayo Edebiri, Toheeb Jimoh, and Nikki Amaka-Bird.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a film based on Virginia Woolf\u2019s 1920s novel\u00a0Mrs. Dallaway, but in this instance, the picture directed by twin siblings Arie Esiri and Chukwu Esiri, is set in contemporary Lagos.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s exactly the same story,\u201d she says, where she plays Clarissa Dallaway, a Nigerian society woman who drives around the city preparing for a party and getting her house ready. As she goes about her day, the titular character reflects back on her life, wondering whether she\u2019d made the right choices.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a parallel story about a shell-shocked World War One veteran, here reinterpreted as a soldier who\u2019s come from the Northern Wars involving the Boko Haram, \u201cand he\u2019s in a sort of state from something he\u2019s witnessed there,\u201d Okonedo explains. The film was recently acquired by Neon.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso coming up is the J.J. Abrams blockbuster\u00a0The Great Beyond\u00a0with Glenn Powell, Emma Mackey, and Jenna Ortega.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs she allowed to tell us anything about her role and the film, I venture? \u201cProbably not,\u201d she chuckles. \u201cBut I am\u00a0very\u00a0tough. And I might be able to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCan\u2019t be fiercer than Ingrid Tearney, the spy-boss and nemesis of Kristin Scott Thomas\u2019s Diana Taverner, she played in Apple\u2019s sublime\u00a0Slow Horses.<\/p>\n

\n\tOkonedo was only booked for the season she did because the Tearney character doesn\u2019t really pop up much later on in Mick Herron\u2019s\u00a0Slough House\u00a0book series, featuring Jackson Lamb, brilliantly captured by Gary Oldman.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, the utterly ruthless Tearney does make a memorable appearance in Herron\u2019s stand-alone thriller novel\u00a0Nobody Walks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHer eyes light up when she mentions the title, and I know what she\u2019s thinking. \u201cIt\u2019s more about her. And I would love it if they just asked me to come back and do that,\u201d she reasons.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Slow Horses\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would come back in a snap for\u00a0Slow Horses. I had the best time doing it. It was a proper grown-up production,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I interviewed Dame Kristin last year, she had adoring things to say about Okonedo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were at the ballet the other week,\u201d Okonedo remarks nonchalantly.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey saw Akram Khan\u2019s\u00a0Giselle\u00a0at the London Coliseum.<\/p>\n

\n\tBitter rivals on screen, I say. \u201cYes, but in real life, perhaps we might go to the ballet together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStage is her passion. There are discussions, she says, about the possibility of her appearing in two separate productions over the next year or so. \u201cIf they come off, that will be fairly good,\u201d she teases.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast time Okonedo was in Berlin was with Annie Baker\u2019s debut feature\u00a0Janet Planet and they managed to slope off to see a play. For this visit, she intends to watch as many films as she can fit in.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe likes the early morning screenings best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Sophie Okonedo\u2019s accolades include an Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda, a Tony trophy for A Raisin in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[9141,112,3146,9142,190,9143,9144,9145],"class_list":["post-11765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-alex-thompson","tag-berlin","tag-berlin-film-festival","tag-breaking-baz","tag-germany","tag-kelly-ou2019sullivan","tag-mouse","tag-sophie-okonedo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}