"We Discover What the Film Is When We Watch It": Marianne Jean-Baptiste on Hard Truths

Mike Leigh's Hard Truths is a study in contracts. At the center of the tale are two sisters, Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and Chantelle (Michele Austin), who are as dissimilar as possible. While Chantelle, a hairdresser and single mother of two adult daughters, has a cheerful outlook on life, Pansy is brash, gruff and downright mean toward everyone she encounters--from strangers in the grocery store and the local furniture shop to her detached husband Curtley (David Webber) and reclusive son M...