For someone who loves watching movies and does so in much of their free time, there are a few actors whose movies I am often drawn to. At the same time, I’ve never really been a full on fan of any actor or actress. At least not to the extent that I have seen many of my friends be. Until NOW, that is.
My first real introduction to Sally Hawkins was the first time I watched Paddington where she played the mother. The movie itself is great, no question about it. Paddington is a great character and has an amazing story. He really is the star of the show, but one of the other characters that stuck out to me and that I was very fond of was the mother, Sally Hawkins’ character. My second time seeing one of her films was of course when I watched Paddington 2. She made the mother seem very warm and welcoming and that made her stick out to me more and more.
It wasn’t until recently however that I have started watching more of her filmography and really appreciating her as an actress. In the past month I have watched a good bit of her movies. Some of my favorites have been “The Shape of Water”, “Maudie”, and “Persuasion”.
The Shape of Water….I mean, wow. I had a general idea of what the movie was about but I didn’t realize how graphic it would be. Some of the scenes were a bit shocking but it was a great film overall. Eliza, played by Sally Hawkings, is a mute janitorial worker who works at a government run laboratory. While she is cleaning she finds the tank of this fish dude and they start interacting, getting closer, and start developing an interesting sort of relationship. The best way that I can describe it would be to say that it is the story of Romeo and Juliet in another universe but happy. Two lovers torn apart, they have a brush with death, and ultimately their love prevails (kind of). Even though Hawkins has no verbal dialogue in the movie, as she uses sign language to communicate, she was able to express all of her emotions perfectly!Â
After watching this movie I decided to look through her discography and after watching about seven or so films of hers, I was surprised by how diverse her filmography really is. One of the things I admire about her the most is that she never really plays the same role twice. She isn’t afraid to try something new, and it just so happens that she does well in every role that she is given.Â
Maudie is one of my favorites of hers. I will say this now, I didn’t love the relationship between the two main characters. There were a few scenes that were kind of upsetting, but I guess that’s what they were going for. Truly, I couldn’t help but feel for Hawkins’ character as If the character was a dear friend of mine. I just felt so involved with her character and her story and the fact that this movie and her character is based on a real person made this experience all the more impactful. Honestly, my emotions were all over the place while I watched it but I really like that so I highly recommend this one!
The movie that fully turned me into a fan was Persuasion (2007). I mean one can never really go wrong with Jane Austen and while I haven’t seen any other version of the movie to compare it to, I think Hawkins did a great job at portraying Anne. I really don’t think I could name another actor or actress whose films capture my attention as much as her movies do. If you haven’t heard of Sally Hawkins or aren’t too familiar, I highly recommend checking out some of the movies she has been in. I can say for certain that you are bound to find something you like!