Cannes Film Festival: Naomi Ackie on ‘Pussy Island,’ Bong Joon Ho and Crying Over The Rock
Even stars get starstruck. For Chopard Trophée winner Naomi Ackie, it was when meeting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
To say meeting might be stretching it, as the “Rise of Skywalker” actress was too shy to speak to him when she encountered him at a Disney convention. “He put his arms out to me and I kind of coiled in on myself, shouted ‘You’re great,’ and ran away. And then I cried,” she says.
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Ackie was a big WWE wrestling fan growing up, and studied judo as a kid. That skill comes in handy, as she does her own stunts. Much of her acting comes from such physicality, whether it’s fight scenes or in her role as Whitney Houston in the “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” biopic.
“There’s something about movement that I just love. I love the specificity of it in the body, and what that tells people, so that part of the practice is good for me. Whether it’s dancing, or it’s fighting, or it’s pretending to be someone else, that kind of stuff always gets my brain ticking. It’s easier for me to understand the movement than the cerebral.”
But that love of stunts is not what led her to acting; instead it was her love of musicals. When not play fighting with her dad, she’d spend time engrossed in musicals such as “West Side Story,” “Grease,” and “The Sound of Music.” The music played a part, but it was the costumes that pulled her in.
“The first thing was the spinny dresses. The particular way that the skirts spun around and made a perfect circle — I was obsessed. With every skirt I had, I would try to sit perfectly. So it was about the fabric and colors that really attracted me. Then I found out it was a job, people could wear those clothes and pretend? So cool,” she says, with an ebullient enthusiasm.
Sitting on the rooftop of the Martinez in a bright yellow Valentino skirt, she adds that a good twirl is still part of her fashion routine: “And I did spin this skirt. I have been prancing around all day,” she jokes.
Ackie has already been in some blockbusters, but heading into her next decade with the Chopard Trophée feels like a new beginning, she says. “For a long time I was in theater, and then suddenly I was in indie films, and now it is ‘Mickey 17’ and ‘Pussy Island.’ It’s pushing into a different era,” she says.
“Mickey 17” is from Oscar and Palme d’Or-winning director Bong Joon Ho, and costars Robert Pattinson and Steven Yeun, while “Pussy Island” is Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut, with Christian Slater, Channing Tatum and Geena Davis.
“Pussy Island” was challenging to shoot, in part because of filming on location in Mexico and in part because of the tough subject matter that tackles the idea of consent. But Ackie says Kravitz handled it deftly. “She was able to lead us in such a compassionate way,” she says.
“It was important that we looked after each other because this is about consent, and this is about power. Everyone [on set] was lovely, but we are tapping into darkness. There was a care there, and there was a real aftercare to which sometimes films don’t have. She just did amazing work of making sure we all felt safe.”
Being cast in Bong’s film was almost an afterthought, as she was in the midst of filming the Houston biopic. They conversed over Zoom and talked about the script, her theater experience and where she grew up. When she was cast, it was a bit of a surprise.
“When I’m working on something I am quite focused, and I’ve got like peripheral vision on the importance of other things. When I got the offer, I was like, ‘What just happened?’ because I was in a cloud.”
The new era is also a fashion transformation, as Ackie settles into an acceptance of her own sense of self, which extends to her style.
“There’s this kind of interesting, philosophical womanhood thing that’s happening where I’m like, ‘This is my body. These are my thighs. These are my arms. How do I want to show that?’ And I don’t want too much stuff,” she says, opting for simplicity, clean shapes, and few accessories. “I want to be seen as me. I’m not trying to be anything else, because I’m enjoying that.”
The Chopard Trophée has a history of leading to bigger things — a few Oscars come to mind. For Ackie, it might be acting in The Rock’s next film. “I just want to play his daughter one day in one of his films. I want there to be an earthquake and a tornado at the same time, with aliens. I’ll be doing my own stunts and beating them up.”
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