Room, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, has become the surprise breakout hit film which has notched up many nominations for awards this year, including 4 Oscar nominations. We look at how Brie Larson undertook on the role of playing Ma in this fascinating film about captivity, love and the bond between mother and son.
The film has been adapted from the best selling book by Emma Donoghue, her story tells the unusual circumstances a mother and son live in that could be seen as depressing and bleak, but somehow appear full of life and hope, due to the uplifting way the film has been played and directed.
Brie Larson’s character, Ma has been kept captive in a single room since she was 17, then finds herself bringing up her own child in that same room. In Room we see Jack at age 5 living in a place where Ma has created a whole world for him.
We look at how Brie Larson approached the important role of Ma, and her experience playing such an strong but soft and loving character.
“I don’t think Ma ever expected to get out of Room,” Larson says. “She knew that hope can be a trickster. But I think she always believed Jack would get out. When she made an escape plan for Jack, it was a selfless act. She had to believe Jack would make it, but I don’t think she ever considered that she might make it out, too, and have another chance at life and being a mother.”
Larson began her mental and physical preparation by diving headlong into the stark facts of Ma’s reality in Room. First, she hired a trainer and started dieting and weightlifting until she was ultra-lean with several pounds of new muscle, ringing in at just 12% body fat.
“That physical process really put me in a certain mindset,” she says. “I felt more aggressive, more like a fighter, and at the same time I felt hungry and exhausted. It gave me a sense of what Ma must have felt like in her body after years in captivity with just barely enough food.”
At the same time, she began leading a more reclusive life, limiting all social interaction, to further get into Ma’s emotional and spiritual state of shock. When she absolutely had to be outside, Larson slathered on high-SPF sunscreen to make sure her complexion took in no rays.
“I wanted to fully understand what it was like for Ma to be so, so long in Room,” Larson explains. “I think she’d have gone through waves; waves of panic, then waves of acceptance, but I think a lot of the time she was probably just bored by the routine and monotony. So to simulate that, I stayed at home for a month and only left to go to the gym. I had very little connection to the outside world, and I stayed out of the sun since Ma has not had sun on her skin in many years.”
The sense of being utterly, devastatingly alone helped Larson to understand how Ma finds the almost crazy courage to believe in Jack’s future. To learn more about the psychology of trauma, and its shattering effects on identity, Larson spent time working with Dr. John Briere, a professor of psychiatry at USC and an expert in adolescent trauma.
“What I learned from him is that in order to survive, when there’s too much going on in the world, the brain will shut off part of your awareness. So inside of Room Ma shuts off parts of herself to survive and also to be the best mother she can to Jack. But when she leaves Room, she realizes all these things she shut off are coming back on-line,” she says. “The irony is that once she’s physically safe, that’s when it all starts happening in her mind. I always felt that Ma only really starts to experience what happened in Room the second she steps outside it.”
Larson explains that her connection to the character and the entire story has a personal link. Growing up poor herself for a time, with a mother recovering from a divorce, Larson had once lived in her own tiny, dilapidated but slightly enchanted enclave, a bit like Jack.
“When we first moved to Los Angeles, my mom, me and my sister lived in a one-room studio apartment that was maybe twice the size of Room. We had very little money, we couldn’t even afford a Happy Meal at McDonald’s and we each had like three pieces of clothing and a couple of toys,” Larson describes. “Yet, there was something really simple and a little magical about that time. We still talk about it as one of the best times in our lives. For my mom, I know there was a tremendous amount of pain as she tried to figure out who she was and how to support two kids on her own. But I also remember it as a time when I really learned the power of the imagination.We didn’t have much, but my mom could create games out of anything, even little sugar packets. “
All that hard work and research has certainly paid off as Brie Larson is on every best actress list, including receiving her first Oscar nomination today, we hope she enjoys all the recognition and accolades for a great performance.
Watch the trailer here:
Room is out in UK cinemas January 2016.
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