Up in smoke

>> Brenda Blethyn deals pot in Saving Grace

by MATTHEW HAYS

When conjuring up an image of twice-Oscar-nominated actress Brenda Blethyn, a pot dealer generally doesn't come up. Her star turns in both Secrets and Lies and Little Voice were clever, but not unexpected.

But Saving Grace, Blethyn's latest film, is trading on confounding audience expectations. Blethyn plays Grace, a woman who, when widowed, learns that she will lose her house and everything along with it, due to the rotten financial shape her husband left her in. To save her home and lifestyle, Blethyn stumbles upon a successful scam: grow tons of pot in your greenhouse and sell it for profit.

The old widow-who-needs-a-scam-to-save-the-homestead scenario may sound a bit cliché, but Blethyn argues that "a lot of older women are not treated equally. The triumph my character has over that is wonderful.

"The question is more, how do I keep this fresh? You be honest. You don't find yourself more interesting than the character. Everyone is ordinary. It's circumstance that changes things."

And despite the more comic and farcical tone of Saving Grace, Blethyn says her craft remained the same. "There's no difference at all, actually. You play the material truthfully and honestly. It's up to the audience to decide if it's funny or not. And basically, what some find funny others will find horrifying.

"This side of the ocean, people know me for my dramatic roles mainly. But in Britain I've done comic TV series, so it's really not that surprising for people to see me in more comic roles."

Blethyn confirms my suspicion: that, of all the directors she's worked with, she learned the most from Mike Leigh. "There's no script with him, no story. We create everything, right away. It really makes you use your brain. Mike is terribly rewarding to work with."

Finally, the question must be asked: for all of her highfalutin acting credentials, did she do the obvious thing and start smoking dope to relate better to her Grace character? "Oh no, I don't smoke. There was no smoking preparation at all for this role. And frankly, I don't approve of smoking. Doing the smoking scenes in the film was torture."

Saving Grace opens Friday, Sept. 1