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EXCLUSIVE: Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris speak candidly on what Swan Song taught them about handling grief
During roundtable interviews at Swan Song's Virtual Press Day, Pinkvilla asked co-stars Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris their thoughts on "grief" being a predominant theme in the Benjamin Cleary directorial.
Imagine you're given a new lease of life, as a carbon copy clone, so that your loved ones won't ever have to grieve you. Would you accept it? That's basically the moral dilemma or complex crux surrounding Benjamin Cleary's feature film debut, Swan Song, which stars Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris as married couple, Cameron and Poppy Tucker. Pinkvilla attended Swan Song's Virtual Press Day and during the roundtable interviews, quizzed the leading pair on whether the film-making process altered their mindset on how one battles grief.
"That's a really good question," Mahershala points out before pondering, "I don't know if Cameron is necessarily an example of how to handle grief, per se. But, I do feel that in watching Cameron's journey, you get to see him witness part of himself come to life. You see his potential in Jack [Cameron's carbon clone] come to life and my favourite moment in the film is towards the end; Cameron is sitting in his own office and he's seeing what Jack has done with it, the art that's on the wall, he's checking the messages and he's, their relationship seems like it's very warm and good things are happening and he's looking like he's making career changes and starting to do his art. And, Cameron isn't necessarily disappointed or sad in that moment, he's in awe."
Ali, who was just nominated for a Golden Globe for Swan Song, further decoded, "He's like... I just remember sitting there as Cameron and looking around the room and just taking it in. And if anything, Cameron is in awe at his potential awakening, he's seeing the potential for his fulfilment as if, 'Oh! I didn't know I could be that.' And so, I think if anything, what the movie tells me is I have a Jack within me that is an unfulfilled portion of myself. A better self, my potential, that wants to be manifested in physical form. Right now, that's just a voice in me. That's just a voice saying, 'You don't need to do that,' 'That's going to take you in the wrong direction' or 'You need to get out of this job and move to this other one,' 'Maybe it's time to move cities' or 'You need to be better in your relationship.'"
"All these things that a better portion of yourself is trying to guide you to. We don't necessarily need a death sentence or a ticking clock that we see and that we're totally aware of, for us to go, 'Hey! Let me get motivated. Let me be my best self. Let me find fulfilment in my life.' And so, I wouldn't say that Cameron is necessarily the example of how you manage grief, but I do think his story and him and Jack's story is one where we can relate to and say, 'I have a Jack in me. Let me work to be my best self before my number is called because we're living in a time where we should be way more sensitive to the fact that life is precious and that we don't know if we're going to see the end of this day, let alone tomorrow, so...," the Oscar-winning actor concluded thoughtfully.
Let me work to be my best self before my number is called because we're living in a time where we should be way more sensitive to the fact that life is precious and that we don't know if we're going to see the end of this day, let alone tomorrow, so...
Mahershala Ali
On the other hand, Naomie confessed, "That's a really interesting question. Has it changed my... So, I'm very lucky and I really have not had much grief in my life at all. The only person that I've lost has been my grandfather and that was when I was very young and I don't even remember how I processed it because I was too young to really understand what processing grief really meant."
"And, yeah, Poppy does have a lot of grief and she processes it by shutting out Cameron, which is why she has a lot of guilt when we meet in the present, in the movie, because she has, for a year or two, shut out her son and her husband and just gone inward, basically, to be able to process the grief. And, yeah, I don't know if she taught me anything about how to process grief. I think the only way to process grief is through it, right? You have to feel it out and it's just like going into the eye of the storm. And I don't think there's a way over or under it, it's just through, which is intensely painful, but by trying to avoid that pain, you just prolong it," Harris continued.
"So, yeah, but I don't know if Poppy really taught me that. I just, I've always known that that's the way to deal with it. Yeah! Thank you for that question because I haven't been asked that before. [chuckles]," the Oscar-nominated actress concluded.
If given a life-altering choice like Cameron; to make a carbon copy of yourself so that you live on for your loved ones as Jack, would you go ahead? Do let Pinkvilla know your honest, personal thoughts on the thought-provoking question in the comments section below.
ALSO READ: Mark Ruffalo, Mahershala Ali & Timothée's Oscar 2020 selfie has MCU fans cast Chalamet as young Loki
Also starring Awkwafina, Glenn Close, Nyasha Hatendi and Adam Beach, Swan Song releases on Apple TV+ on December 17.
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