I’m one of the first people to congratulate Susan Chardy on her BIFA nomination for her role in On Becoming A Guinea Fowl by the time this interview makes it into the world, she’ll be a BIFA winner.
Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni, On Becoming A Guinea Fowl lies somewhere in the murky depths of a black comedy and a drama. In Zambia, Shula is driving home in the middle of the night when she stumbles upon a body in the street, her Uncle Fred. Things escalate from there but not in the way you’d imagine.
“It was important for me to re engage with my culture, and re engage with my family who are still in Zambia, full time,” Chardy states about filming the feature in Zambia and the weight of that.
Chardy was brought onto the project last minute, but hearing that she would be working with Zambian-Welsh director Nyoni, she knew she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Chardy believes that Nyoni’s work is so impactful because she doesn’t “feel the pressure of trying to soften the culture for film, the industry and for the Western world.”
Nyoni is most well known for her BAFTA awarding winning film, I Am Not A Witch, which was released in 2017. In this film, another Shula is labelled a witch by her community and grapples with the fallout of this accusation on her mental health and the relationships fostered with those around her.
In On Becoming A Guinea Fowl Shula is grappling with the weight of tradition versus her truth; a heavy weight that she can only bear for so long after the death of Uncle Fred sends the family spiralling.
On playing Shula, Chardy explains how she played out a role which wasn’t necessarily her entire lived experience but something she had felt through being a black woman in culture where oftentimes woman aren’t afforded to have loud voices.
“It was more about trying to let Shula live in this space that was restricting… I think it was important to have this thing stay with me, of someone not allowing you to speak.”
Rather than this play out physically in the film, Chardy explains it as, “It was not putting their hand over your mouth, because that's really too obvious. [It’s] somebody internally grabbing something inside of you and really threatening you. You know what happens if you do speak up about certain things.”
At the death of Uncle Fred, the family goes into a time a mourning. There’s a stark moment where Shula opens the door to Aunties on their knees crawling in despair at his death. Shula is not amused and neither is her cousin, Nsansa played by the sensational Elizabeth Chisela. On working with Chisela, Chardy is all praise.
“I loved working with her, she made me better. Some of the jokes you'll see in the film are hers, like she came up with some of the comedy parts of the film. Obviously, when you watch it as a whole, it's really dark sometimes, and you kind of don't know if you should be laughing. But just her delivery, you have no choice but to laugh.”
Nsansa is the light to Shula’s shade. She really does provide moments that make you feel guilty for laughing, after all, we’re peeling back the layers on a story which is delicate and unfurls like a snake in long grasses. Once it gets a hold of you, it leaves a mark.
The team shot for about two months and then Nyoni requested that they all head back out to Zambia for another week or two after wrapping to make a change to a pivotal moment which Chardy describes as “really clever.”
“I think it was brave just the way she pulled the pieces together and told this in such a stark, raw, and honest way. There isn't always a big reveal where somebody goes,”Oh, you know, this is what you're looking at, and, boom, here you go.” It was just these moving pieces that suddenly start to catch you off guard, and then you start to realise what's happening and it was so many stories kind of simultaneously coming together, you know?”
On dealing with the weight of Shula’s journey, Chardy had periods of downtime whilst in Zambia. She got to bring her young son with her, and they spent the weekends together seeing various animals in open top cars and exploring the country that Chardy refers to as her “soul’.
“Even though he won't remember it, I have so many beautiful videos and pictures of him just experiencing everything that I'll be able to share with him… He was really my breathing space and my outlet to just put [work] aside, be present and be there for him,” she remenices.
And for those who aren’t sure about a film which might feel bleak at times?
Chardy wants you to know, “You see that girl in the mask? You're gonna have a journey with her. But at the end, just be prepared for her to take that mask off and leave yourself open to what she's got to give you. Don’t worry about the title, but in the end, the title will be the thing that you love about the film as well.”
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is available in selected UK and Irish cinemas now. Book in the UK here.
Photo shoot credits:
Photographer: David Reiss
Styling: Miranda Almond
Hair: Deborah Lola
Make-up: Maria Asadi
Clothing Credits:
Black tweed and satin dress by SELF PORTRAIT, black patent sling backs by RUSSELL and BROMLEY, Earrings and Bracelet by Juliana Xerez Fine Jewellry
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