Essie Davis has a kind of graceful formlessness to her. Like Cate Blanchett or Meryl Streep, there is almost a lack of ego in her, which allows her to change completely depending on the role; she does not inhabit characters, they inhabit her. From her many years starring as Miss Fisher and her critically acclaimed roles in shows such as the blow and Game of Thronesto her international breakthrough in the modern masterpiece The Babadook and the acclaim for her recent role in NitramDavis is so good that more people know her characters’ names than hers.
2022 was a great year for Davis. Her critically acclaimed, incredible film The Justice of Bunny King hit US theaters in the past month, and her starring role in the murmurdirected by her babadook filmmaker and modern horror genius Jennifer Kent, premieres today, October 28, on Netflix’s show Cabinet of Curiosities. She also just finished filming her role in the upcoming Netflix series One day, a highly anticipated adaptation of David Nicholls’ beloved book. Davis spoke to MovieWeb about her busy year.
Essie Davis on The Babadook, The Murmuring and Jennifer Kent
The last film in the horror anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities belongs to Jennifer Kent the murmur, in which Davis stars alongside Andrew Lincoln as a married couple of ornithologists going on a working vacation. While there, the creaky building they find themselves in causes the grief and trauma of Davis’ character Nancy, who has recently suffered the loss of her child. Yes, both parts are about motherhood, but while she also plays a grieving mother who struggles with disturbing appearances in Kent’s The Babadookit couldn’t be more different roles (and movies).
“Jen and I have known each other for a long time,” Davis said of her relationship with Kent. “She was a year ahead of me in drama school, and she was excellent. She was the best actor above us, no doubt about it. We always got along really well and just continued our friendship outside of drama school. .so then she went asking me to do The Babadook [after already writing a film for Davis which fell through]. So the murmur is actually the third time, and I think there’s a certain shorthand between us.”
Davis’s ability to create layered, intuitive and intelligent performances is arguably harnessed by Kent. “I trust her completely, even if it’s really out of my comfort zone at times. I can count on her to do a great piece of work. So I trust anything she asks of me. I’ll go there and do it, and They’ll find a way to get it out of me if I don’t give it,” laughed Davis, taking it all in. the murmur. In her performances in Kent, she is terrified enough to be a modern scream queen, but sincere, recognizable and poignant enough to be a queen in many other respects.
Cabinet of curiosities is emotionally centered by the murmur
the murmur may be the most emotional movie in Cabinet of Curiosities, and ends on a profound note, bringing all the ghostly and supernatural atmosphere of the hour back to Earth for a deeply human moment. Nancy is a mother who struggles with depression, but in a very different way from her babadook character. “I think they’re very, very, very different characters, but yeah, they’re both dealing with suppressing their grief, and Nancy has to suppress her grief because she’s a leading scientist in the 1950s. It’s already hard enough to be a female eminent scientist. She has to rise head and shoulders above all men to be considered even vaguely equal in a world very much dominated by men.”
the murmur is a poignant study of grief, especially from a female perspective. “The expectation of crying falls on the wife, and when Nancy expresses it in feelings, they are often questioned by her husband, even though they love each other immensely,” Davis said. “They have this unique interest in such a specific, beautiful little bird species, so they have something to focus all their attention on. They have a natural calm and patience that goes above and beyond much human experience; the bird watchers have the ability to to be still and patient and to wait and to watch and to be still, and to delve deeply, deeply into the details of another world.” It’s almost as if Davis is describing her own approach to character, a kind of cinematic ornithology.
Essie Davis on the importance of Bunny King’s justice
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Davis headlines the powerful new movie The Justice of Bunny King, which recently received an international release. In her four out of four review for Roger Ebert, Sheila O’Malley called it “a great directorial debut from Gaysorn Thavat,” saying that “Davis outdoes himself.” Davis plays the titular character as the film follows Bunny’s struggle through poverty and the frustrating bureaucracy of the Social Security system to throw her daughter a birthday party and eventually save her niece (a wonderful Thomasin McKenzie) out of trouble. It’s often a painful movie to watch, but Bunny, despite her hardships, has such determination and determination that she becomes something of a patron saint for the subjected.
“I think it’s a very important movie,” Davis said. “I’m so proud of this, I think this is a movie that everyone should see and all our governments should see. I loved it from the moment I started reading it, because Bunny King is such a beautiful, enigmatic woman, and she’s full of so much heart and so much tenacity She’s resilient and hopeful and cheerful and she just never stops trying I think it’s an incredibly important movie because you see the hoops that Bunny has to jump through over and over to prove that she is a worthy mother, to prove that she is able to take care of her children, that she is the best person to take care of her children, that she is valuable to everyone in any way.” Davis continued:
I feel hope for Bunny. This film should be something that opens the public’s eyes to those around them, and is a voice for those living in poverty or on the brink of homelessness. For those who have survived or escaped domestic violence, for those who have their children in care, for whom we as a society often just draw conclusions about people: “Homeless woman with children in foster care? Well, she must be a bad person .” What I love about this movie is that Bunny is clearly not a bad person […] it’s a hugely important movie for people to watch.
Davis stars in the upcoming Netflix series One Day
Except for the murmur and The Justice of Bunny Kingpeople anticipate Davis’ appearance in the upcoming Netflix adaptation of the beloved novel One day by David Nicholls, previously filmed with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. “The novel takes place on a single day, July 15, every year for 20 years,” said Davis, who recently wrapped up the filming, although the show is still in production. She went on:
It’s about two kinds of star-crossed lovers who meet on their graduation night. A girl from Northern England, who is not in the cool gang, meets this golden boy who looks great and gets it all on one plate. And it’s this wonderful, push-me-pull, hilarious, kind of joyous, terrible story of their love and attraction to each other, and the very point where they are in each other’s lives on that day every year. It is about someone who has everything, who only draws things to himself, and who strives for someone who has nothing and creates for himself.
“It’s really beautiful,” Davis said. “Ambika Mod” [who plays Emma] is hilarious and genius, and Leo Woodall [who plays Dexter] is beautifully deep. They are two great young actors who I thought were excellent. And the scripts are divine, each episode is just a year later in their lives. I play Dexter’s mother, the mother of the golden boy. So Leo was my son, and mom and son have a really cool relationship. They’re a great couple in their own right.” The Netflix series looks set to move beyond the 2011 Hathaway film to offer a more in-depth, expansive and realistic romantic story, and it’ll be beautiful to watch.
Davis on Miss Fisher and the Future
These three projects are a follow-up to Davis’ most recent, but perhaps not the last, playtime for the iconic Miss Fisher of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysterieswith the movie Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. Davis isn’t ruling out playing Fisher in the future, even though she’s been playing her occasionally for ten years.
“I love that character. She’s daring, mischievous, super talented and independent,” Davis said. “I think I’ll never say never” […] but I also have a certain level of expectation for her, and the way her story can be told at the highest level. But I don’t think what we want to achieve can be achieved with the budget [of Crypt of Tears]Hopefully, the public will one day get their $60 million Miss Fisher movie. In the meantime, the chameleonic Davis will take everything she’s into to the next level.
Produced by Exile Entertainment and Double Dare You, Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities last movie, the murmur, is now available on Netflix. That The Justice of Bunny King has ended its theater run internationally, it can be seen on digital platforms On Demand. One day will be released on Netflix sometime in 2023.